Six Companies Upgrade Strategies, Meituan's Xiaoxian Fresh Expands Into Offline Grocery Retail | Source Code Capital Monthly · May
【Source Code Capital Chronicle】A record of our team's small but meaningful steps forward, celebrating growth, and looking toward an even brighter future.
To
Our
Readers
Four years since Source Code Capital's founding, the many member companies of the Source Code family have gradually grown into a thriving forest. Ma Hui has also become a platform for Source Code's LPs, partners, and entrepreneurs to exchange ideas. Ma Hui Journal records the incremental progress of our partners, shares the joy of growth, and looks forward to an even brighter future.
M
a
y
Ma
Hui
Journal
Briefing
「Funding」
Chuxin completes nearly RMB 100 million Series A round — "The Xiaomi of commercial kitchens"
Meituan fully acquires Pingxing Technology — New catering goes online-offline integrated
「Upgrades」
Xiaoxiang Fresh officially opens — Meituan moves into offline fresh retail
Meituan joins DeepDrive Alliance — Unmanned delivery expected to launch this year
Toutiao upgrades "Lingquan" service — Accuracy improves by 9 percentage points
Ziroom No. 2 asset-backed special plan lists on Shanghai Stock Exchange
Qudian Q1 report shows 105.6% year-over-year growth
Dabai Auto rises to first tier of car new retail market
Yijiupi strategically merges with Huojinhuo, leading B2B snack distributor
Pagoda becomes frontrunner in fruit new retail industry
「Quotes」
Zuo Hui: Three major opportunities in the future rental market: rental trading platforms, rental operating institutions, and property holders.
Li Xiang: The new automakers that survive will perform exceptionally well.
Zheng Wencheng: The characteristics of the education industry make it results-oriented and emotionally binding.
「Honors」
Meituan, Toutiao, Lianjia, Xinchao Media
Named to "China Unicorn Enterprise Value Ranking"
CHJ Automotive named to "2018 Most Influential Automotive & Mobility Project" and "Jingbang Automotive & Mobility Industry Value Project TOP50"
Pagoda named to "2017 China Chain Store Top 100" and "New Seedling Annual High-Growth Enterprise"
Xinchao Media wins "China Out-of-Home Media Top Ten New Media" award
1
Milestone
Chuxin completes nearly RMB 100 million Series A round
"The Xiaomi of commercial kitchens"
Smart commercial kitchen platform Chuxin completed a nearly RMB 100 million Series A round earlier this year, with Source Code Capital and ZhenFund as investors. The proceeds will be used primarily for product R&D and building out service infrastructure.
Founded in early 2017, Chuxin enters the commercial kitchen market by providing chain restaurant brands with smart dishwashers, IoT tools, and other hardware and software equipment. Founder Changyi Liu says Chuxin's development direction resembles Xiaomi's: using a single high-value product to enter the market and acquire sufficient user volume, then expanding to provide more types of commercial kitchen equipment through investment, self-building, or franchising — for example, attracting third-party refrigerator brands to join the platform.
Unlike the commercial kitchen refrigerator rental market, which has long been a red ocean, smart dishwashers remain in the early market stage. According to statistics, of 7 million offline catering establishments, only 200,000 use similar machines, with annual market growth exceeding 30%. Chuxin's smart dishwasher rental model generates sufficient cash flow to support sales and operations teams. Currently, each store contributes approximately RMB 20,000 in annual revenue to Chuxin, with contract values per store around RMB 70,000–100,000. Chuxin has already deployed to 2,000 offline stores, concentrated in Beijing and Shanghai, with operations in Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Nanjing, and Tianjin also rolling out. The smart dishwasher product is sufficiently standardized — a single model meets 90% of store needs.
2
Meituan fully acquires Pingxing Technology
Achieving online-offline integration for new catering
On May 16, Meituan and Pingxing Technology announced that Meituan had completed its full acquisition of Pingxing. Meituan stated that by providing internet support and services to catering merchants, this represents important progress in achieving online-offline integration for new catering and advancing its "second half of the internet" strategy.
Meituan noted that Pingxing Technology is a representative enterprise in the catering SaaS service industry. From strategic investment in 2016 to today's full acquisition, the two parties have continuously deepened integration at every level, comprehensively enhancing product capabilities and sales service infrastructure. Both share full strategic alignment on how to use big data to improve industry operating efficiency and reduce merchant costs. Following the acquisition, Pingxing Technology will continue to operate independently, with team division of labor remaining unchanged, and the rights of Pingxing's partners and merchant customers continuing to be protected. Pingxing will further benefit from Meituan's platform technology, organizational capabilities, and marketing support.
What's New
1
Xiaoxiang Fresh officially opens
Meituan moves into offline fresh retail
On May 25, Meituan's newly upgraded fresh supermarket Xiaoxiang Fresh officially opened at Beijing's Fangzhuang Times Life Plaza. With "The Faster, The Fresher" as its brand slogan, Xiaoxiang Fresh is positioned as an online-offline integrated fresh supermarket combining fresh food, dining, e-commerce, and instant delivery.
For instant delivery: Through app orders, Meituan Waimai's professional delivery team covers a 3-kilometer radius around the store, with Meituan riders delivering as fast as 30 minutes. For traffic: As a world-leading internet + lifestyle services platform, Meituan has precise local traffic for dining, entertainment, shopping, and more — traffic that can effectively drive offline footfall and create online-offline interaction effects. Moreover, Xiaoxiang Fresh can coordinate with Meituan's various business segments including dining, takeout, bike-sharing, movies, ride-hailing, and leisure entertainment, helping enable omnichannel cross-marketing that brings vitality to shopping malls. For big data: Drawing on Meituan and Dianping's years of accumulated dining big data and expertise from focused research on "eating," Xiaoxiang Fresh can also achieve precise product selection, intelligent restocking, and precise member marketing. For example, the development of "Chef Xiang Quick Dishes" benefits from big data analytics.
2
Meituan joins DeepDrive Alliance
Unmanned delivery expected to launch this year
Meituan recently announced its official membership in UC Berkeley's DeepDrive deep learning autonomous driving industry alliance (BDD). Through deep cooperation between technical and academic teams, both parties will promote high-quality data sharing in autonomous driving, and through industry-academia interaction, accelerate technological innovation, theoretical innovation, and the application process for autonomous driving in unmanned delivery scenarios and data.
To date, Meituan's self-developed unmanned delivery vehicles have achieved autonomous driving, and through intelligent dispatching via a cloud-based central system, can achieve uninterrupted cross-regional delivery across different scenarios. Meituan unmanned delivery will achieve operational launch this year, with district-scale operations in 2019.
3
Toutiao upgrades "Lingquan" service
Accuracy improves by 9 percentage points
Toutiao's "Lingquan Anti-Vulgarity Assistant" has completed a service upgrade, adding anti-pornography short text models and anti-abuse models, improving accuracy from 73% to 82%, a 9 percentage point increase. To date, over 600,000 users have used the "Lingquan" mini-program to participate in combating vulgarity and purifying the online environment.
This is the first large-scale update since "Lingquan" launched in April. "Lingquan" requires only a text passage or article link to detect content health index and return assessment results, including whether algorithmic recommendation can be obtained and whether human judgment needs to be introduced. For user-inputted content, "Lingquan" first extracts, segments, and performs semantic recognition, then according to algorithmic rules, outputs corresponding scores, ratings, and conclusions.
4
Ziroom No. 2 asset-backed special plan lists on Shanghai Stock Exchange
At 10 a.m. on May 8, the Ziroom No. 2 shelf ABS project held its listing ceremony at the Shanghai Stock Exchange's fifth-floor trading hall. This listed Ziroom No. 2 special plan, with CITIC Securities serving as plan manager and underwriter, included major intermediary institutions such as FOTIC, China Chengxin Credit Rating Group, Dentons Law Firm, and Ernst & Young. Ziroom No. 2's senior A tranche was 78% of the total, rated AAA; senior B tranche was 7%, rated AA+, fully reflecting the excellent asset quality of Ziroom's rent installment product.
Ziroom Group CEO Lin Xiong stated: "On January 16 this year, Ziroom's Series A raised RMB 4 billion, making it the enterprise with the largest single funding round in the long-term apartment industry. Today, Ziroom has formally obtained RMB 2 billion in shelf ABS issuance quota, becoming the first institution in the rental market approved for shelf issuance with rent installments as underlying assets. All of this further proves that what Ziroom is doing is something truly valuable that improves Chinese people's quality of living."
5
Qudian Q1 report shows 105.6% year-over-year growth
Dabai Auto rises to first tier of car new retail market
On May 21, 2018 Beijing time, China leading fintech company Qudian Group (NYSE: QD) released its Q1 2018 financial report. The report shows Qudian Group's total Q1 2018 revenue was RMB 1.717 billion (USD 274 million), up 105.6% year-over-year; net profit was RMB 316 million (USD 50.35 million).
As of March 31, 2018, Qudian Group's registered users increased from 62.42 million at year-end 2017 to 65.30 million, with credit-approved users rising from 26.20 million to 27.50 million. Qudian's Q1 report shows observable M1+ delinquency rate remained below 1.7%. Meanwhile, Qudian's loan balance grew in Q1. The report shows total loan balance as of March 31, 2018 was RMB 12.9 billion, higher than RMB 11.2 billion in Q4 2017.
The report discloses that Qudian Group's car new retail business — Dabai Auto — recorded RMB 546 million (USD 87.05 million) in sales-type finance lease income for the quarter, with cumulative vehicle deliveries of 6,608. This means Dabai Auto, in just its second quarter since project launch, has already risen to the first tier of the car new retail market, showing strong growth momentum.
6
Yijiupi strategically merges with Huojinhuo, leading B2B snack distributor
Platform strategy advances further
Yijiupi and leading B2B snack distributor Huojinhuo Company officially announced a strategic merger. Following the merger, Beijing Yijiupi E-Commerce Co., Ltd. will hold 100% equity in Chengdu Huojinhuo Network Technology Co., Ltd. This is understood to be Yijiupi's first external acquisition since founding.
Yijiupi founder Chaocheng Wang stated: "The Huojinhuo team is excellent and highly professional in food B2B. Their joining will inject the best food DNA into Yijiupi, helping Yijiupi more quickly achieve leading position in China's food distribution on top of its existing leadership in alcohol and beverages. Acquiring Huojinhuo is an important step in Yijiupi's steady advancement of its platform strategy."
Following this merger, Yijiupi will comprehensively enrich its food SKU offerings across all regions nationwide, with management remaining under Huojinhuo's original team, achieving full-category coverage for convenience store terminals. Yijiupi will also substantially increase investment in warehousing and distribution, further improving customer experience, ultimately building Yijiupi into a comprehensive platform satisfying nationwide one-stop procurement for terminals.
7
Analysys annual report shows
Pagoda becomes frontrunner in fruit new retail industry
Domestic renowned data consulting firm Analysys released its "Analysys: 2018 China Fresh E-commerce Industry Annual Comprehensive Analysis" report. The report notes that in 2017, fresh e-commerce was reignited by the "new retail" tailwind. With trillion-market opportunities in fresh e-commerce, amid a market environment of tightening investment and concentration toward leading brands, "leveraging own advantages and seeking different development paths" became the industry reality, with major enterprises actively exploring penetration of online and offline markets.
The report specifically highlights Pagoda, a chain fruit convenience store that started offline, as accelerating construction of online-offline integrated new retail community stores and leading fruit new retail. From Analysys's overall industry analysis and its focused examination of Pagoda, we can see that with product development at the planting end, warehousing and distribution at the circulation end, and direct-operated and franchised models at the channel end — all far exceeding the overall fruit retail industry level — as well as its degree of exploration in online-offline integration and unmanned retail, Pagoda has become the absolute frontrunner in the fruit new retail field.
Quotes
Zuo Hui (Chairman, Lianjia Group)
We have a judgment that there are three major opportunities in the future rental market: The first is rental trading platforms, but this opportunity is very special. Today there are no particularly large long-term rental trading platforms worldwide — basically they're all in short-term rental. Our short-term residential market is still relatively small today. The second opportunity is on the B2B side — rental operating institutions. The third is property holders, which is a very large opportunity for developers. In five years, if China's rental market reaches RMB 3 trillion in scale, I estimate 10%, or RMB 300 billion, will come from B2B held properties.
Li Xiang (Founder & CEO, CHJ Automotive)
I think by then consumers won't sympathize with us just because we're new automakers — their demands on us will be even stricter than on traditional automakers. They'll definitely look at us with magnifying glasses, even microscopes, so this process is quite something to be proud of. But I believe the new automakers that definitely make it through will perform very well, just like in phones — those who'd never made phones before becoming top players in the industry.
Zheng Wencheng (Founder & CEO, Hai Feng Education)
The concept of education + AI uses AI to empower what was originally a traditional industry. Education has existed for thousands of years, and when AI emerged, some forms and methods of education changed. But we should recognize: First, AI cannot replace teachers — AI empowers teachers; second, teaching is not equal to answering questions, or rather, being able to solve problems doesn't mean one can teach students well. The characteristics of the education industry make it results-oriented and emotionally binding. Results-oriented: students enroll in classes to improve their grades and learning ability. Emotional binding: that is, intimacy or warmth, in which teachers play an important role — for example, helping students develop interest in learning, habit formation, motivation, and so on.
Honor & Awards
1
Meituan, Toutiao
Lianjia, Xinchao Media
Named to "China Unicorn Enterprise Value Ranking"
The "2018 Global Unicorn Enterprise Summit Forum," hosted by People's Daily Online and the Chengdu municipal government, was held on May 19. At the summit, People's Daily Venture Capital, People's Daily Online Public Opinion Data Center, and Sichuan Tianfu New District Chengdu Management Committee jointly released the "China Unicorn Enterprise Value Ranking." This ranking invited renowned experts from leading investment institutions and financial media, combined with public opinion analysis systems, to comprehensively evaluate shortlisted enterprises across dimensions including market valuation, investment value, technology potential, policy environment, and public reputation. Market valuation accounted for 40% weighting, investment value/technology potential/policy environment factors accounted for 50%, and public reputation accounted for 10%. After comprehensive aggregation and ranking by score, 60 unicorn enterprises were ultimately selected. Meituan, Toutiao, Lianjia, Xinchao Media, and other enterprises were named to the list.
2
CHJ Automotive named to
"2018 Jingbang Most Influential Automotive & Mobility Project"
"Automotive & Mobility Industry Value Project Ranking TOP50"
The "2018 Jingbang · Automotive & Mobility Industry Value Ranking" is the first automotive and mobility ranking jointly initiated by Jingdata and 36Kr. Selected from 10,000+ automotive and mobility projects, 1,000+ investment institutions, and 500+ communities, the ranking uses real-time visible dynamic voting data combined with heat weighting ratios to create the most comprehensive and authentic industry value ranking in the automotive and mobility field. CHJ Automotive was named to both "2018 Jingbang · Most Influential Automotive & Mobility Project" and "2018 Jingbang · Automotive & Mobility Industry Value Project Ranking TOP50."
3
Pagoda named to
"2017 China Chain Store Top 100"
"New Seedling Annual High-Growth Enterprise"
Recently, the China Chain Store & Franchise Association (CCFA) released its "2017 China Chain Store Top 100" ranking. Pagoda ranked 70th on the China Chain Store Top 100 with RMB 6.78 billion in sales, once again becoming the only listed enterprise in the fruit retail chain industry. The ranking also shows Pagoda as second-highest in sales growth among Top 100 chain enterprises, with 2017 sales of RMB 6.7 billion representing 64.7% growth, and 2,645 total stores in 2017 representing 54.6% growth.
The "6th China Venture Capital Summit Forum," hosted by Securities Times, was held on May 18 in Shenzhen. The closely watched China VC "Golden Eagle Award" and China Startup "New Seedling Ranking" results were also officially announced at the forum. This selection is dedicated to finding outstanding leaders in the venture capital industry and identifying new forces in China's new economy. In addition to comprehensive and individual awards for investors, investment professionals, VC institutions, and PE institutions, it specially selected annual emerging enterprises and annual high-growth enterprises. Pagoda's receipt of this new annual high-growth enterprise award shows the venture capital industry's high recognition of Pagoda's achievements in recent years in enterprise growth, funding, and investment/M&A.
4
Xinchao Media wins
"China Out-of-Home Media Top Ten New Media" award
May 17–19, the 15th China Out-of-Home Convention was held in Xiamen. The "China Out-of-Home Communication Convention" is the top annual event in China's out-of-home advertising industry. This year's convention took "New Retail · Rising Out-of-Home" as its theme. Xinchao Media Group, as one of China's two major elevator media companies, has consistently focused on the elevator media field. Xinchao elevator TV, with its characteristics of frontal viewing, forced attention, and audio-visual integration in enclosed spaces, has developed rapidly in recent years, currently covering nearly 400,000 elevators across 50 cities, and was awarded the "China Out-of-Home Media Top Ten New Media" award by the convention.
View More Ma Hui Journal
Ma Hui Journal · January | 6 Companies Complete Funding, 2 Named to Latest Global Unicorn Ranking
Ma HuiJournal · August | Funding, Upgrades & Honors
Source Code Capital
Creating Lasting, Real Value
WeChat ID:
sourcecodecapital
More professional content
Follow our official WeChat