MaHui Moment | CassTime, MaHui Member, Raises RMB 200 Million in Series D2 and D3 Rounds

According to 36Kr, CassTime, an automotive aftermarket industry internet company, recently completed two funding rounds — its D2 and D3 — raising a total of 200 million RMB. The investors include Wuhu XinYin Ziyun New Energy Vehicle Industry Investment Fund, Shenzhen High-Tech Investment Group, and Xinghang State Investment, among others. Source Code Capital was an investor in CassTime's Series C round.

Additionally, in May this year, the Anhui provincial government included CassTime in its strategic development plan for the new energy vehicle and intelligent connected vehicle industries. CassTime formally signed a cooperation agreement with the Jiangbei New District of Wuhu for a "Digital Intelligent Connected Vehicle Parts Industrial Internet Ecosystem Project," which will help Wuhu enhance intelligent connected industry clustering and collaboration, providing crucial support for Anhui's goal of building a world-class trillion-RMB automotive industry cluster.

Founded in 2015, CassTime is a technology company serving the automotive aftermarket, dedicated to building digital infrastructure for the industry and establishing service standards and a credit system. Its businesses include the one-stop auto parts trading platform "CassTime," the digital auto parts group purchasing platform "CassTime Group Purchase," the smart shop management system "No. 1 Workshop," and supply chain finance.

At its founding, CassTime entered the market through the vehicle-wide parts segment. Compared with maintenance parts and high-frequency wear-and-tear parts, vehicle-wide parts offer greater overall market size and complexity, making them better suited to aggregation through internet thinking to improve efficiency across the entire industry chain.

CassTime started by connecting parts suppliers and repair shops through CassTime (B2b), and last year began focusing on transactions from OEMs, brands, and factories to large B-side customers through its CassTime Group Purchase (F2B) group purchasing platform. With both its B2b and F2B transaction loops now complete, CassTime has built a digital foundation spanning the full industry chain both horizontally and vertically.

On the "horizontal" dimension, CassTime has established a digital pathway connecting producers, parts suppliers, repair shops, and vehicles — essentially a nationwide digital highway. On the "vertical" dimension, it has continuously expanded its product categories, from OEM parts to wear-and-tear parts to maintenance parts, while gradually adding more vehicle types including mid-range cars, domestic cars, and new energy vehicles.

This digital foundation also carries core functions including big data, AI, and financial risk control. Currently, the platform hosts over 7,000 quality suppliers, with operations extending to 376 cities nationwide and monthly vehicle service volume exceeding 3 million.

On the end-user side, CassTime covers more than 250,000 leading repair shops out of roughly 560,000 independent repair shops nationwide — meaning it serves nearly half of all repair shops in China.

CassTime CEO Yongxing Jiang told 36Kr that since its founding, the company has invested substantial time and resources in building digital infrastructure for the industry. Its scalable, high-efficiency transaction model has attracted massive user volume, firmly securing its position as the traffic gateway for repair shops, while accumulating rich, precise transaction data. The company's commercial value is gradually becoming apparent. Its CassTime B2b business is already profitable.

The digital pathway CassTime has built creates core barriers and value, upon which it can continuously layer products and services to achieve low-cost expansion into new businesses. In terms of vehicle types, CassTime has gradually expanded from luxury vehicles to mid- and lower-end models, with new energy vehicle business also beginning to gain traction.

"Currently, China's new energy vehicle fleet has reached 16 million units, and after-sales repair demand will only grow. Take the air conditioning compressor in the minor three-electric system, for example — because new energy vehicles have thermal management needs, it runs about six times longer than in gasoline cars, so the probability of failure is much higher. Such issues have already started emerging in new energy ride-hailing vehicles with longer mileage, and private cars will see more after-sales problems as they age," Jiang told 36Kr.

According to data from Ping An Insurance and other third parties as well as CassTime's own platform, changes in new energy vehicle owners' driving habits — faster speeds and higher mileage — have led to accident rates and insurance claim rates significantly exceeding those of gasoline vehicles. Combined with higher repair costs for new energy vehicles, the repair output value for this segment will continue to climb rapidly.

Jiang elaborated: "CassTime has cumulatively served new energy vehicles over 2 million times, supporting 193 new energy vehicle brands, with more than 5,000 independent new energy after-sales service outlets using CassTime's smart shop management SaaS 'No. 1 Workshop' and parts supply platform. As new energy vehicle sales continue to grow rapidly, new after-sales models are gradually taking shape, and CassTime can provide significant value to new energy OEMs in building digital service networks."

Compared with the front end of the automotive industry, the aftermarket currently receives relatively less attention. However, as vehicle ownership continues to rise and new energy vehicle penetration accelerates, the aftermarket will form a new growth pole in the automotive industry chain.

In recent years, as national policies promoting digital economy development and digital transformation have deepened, Jiang stated that CassTime remains committed to long-termism, using digitalization to thread through the entire automotive aftermarket industry chain — doing the difficult but right things to make the fragmented, chaotic aftermarket more transparent, the industry healthier, and vehicle owners' lives better.

By Yongchang Han Source: 36Kr (ID: wow36kr)