China VC Weekly: 3D Printing, Cloud Gaming and Mandarin Learning

In last week’s VC news, China’s largest 3D printing service provider Wenext raises $55 million in a Series B round, cloud-gaming platform Well-link completes $62.78 million in its own Series B round, EV company WM Motor closes yet another hefty financing round, and more.

3D Printing Firm Wenext Rakes in $55 Million in Series B Round

Wenext, a Chinese 3D printing solutions provider, officially announced its completion of a Series B financing round totaling $55 million, jointly led by Cathay Capital Private Equity and Temasek, followed by Haochen Capital, NIO Capital, CAS Investment Management and Creo Capital.

In addition, this financing is considered the largest financing in the field of intelligent manufacturing of non-standard parts so far this year. It will be mainly used for innovative business investments, market expansion and technology R&D of the company.

About Wenext

Wenext was established in 2015 and is the largest 3D printing service platform in China at present. After six years of development, the company has grown into a one stop service provider, spanning 3D printing, CNC machining and injection molding. The company currently has 200,000 customers and its annual production of spare parts exceeds 30 million pieces.

Cloud-gaming Platform Well-link Completes $62.78 Million in Series B Financing

Well-link, a Chinese cloud gaming service provider, announced that it had completed a Series B round of financing equaling 400 million yuan ($62.78 million). This round of financing was led by Future Capital, followed by CDH VGC, along with the firm’s previous shareholders including Xiaomi, MiHoYo and Shunwei Capital.

According to Well-link, this round of financing will be mainly used for the design and mass production of exclusive servers for the development of virtual world products and the design and construction of digital human platforms using cloud-based rendering. The money will also be used for the R&D of “Ark Architecture.” The bulk of the funds raised will go towards planned investments in servers.

About Well-link

As a leading provider of solutions for video cloud computing in China, Well-link has an innovative cloud computing architecture developed by the company itself, and many other key technologies such as real-time audio and video coding and decoding. On this basis, the company has built a set of high-quality standardized cloud gaming platform as a service (PaaS) models to provide one-stop solutions for enterprises such as game operators and developers, as well as communication operators.

EV-maker WM Motor Closes $152 Million Series D2 Round

Prominent Chinese smart electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer WM Motor announced that it had received $152 million in its Series D2 round of financing. Agile Property, a Chinese land developer, led the investment round with a $140 million stake. Brocade River Merchants Capital participated in this round of financing as the financial adviser.

On October 5 this year, WM Motor received more than $300 million though its Series D1 financing, with PCCW and Shun Tak Holdings as the lead investors with the investment institution affiliated with GF Xinde Investment Management as a participating investor.

WM Motor Automobile said that, so far, the total financing amount of this round had reached $457 million. The company expects that several more well-known investors will join its fundraising rounds in the future, and the total amount in this round is expected to exceed $500 million.

In addition, WM Motor signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Agile Property. The companies will cooperate in branding, sales and service networks, charging facilities development, supply chains and after-sales service.

About WM Motor

WM Motor was established in 2015, focusing on the mainstream market in which new vehicles range from 150,000 to 250,000 yuan (approximately $23,250 to $38,750). The EV maker operates two fully self-owned and highly automated factories in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province and Huanggang, Hubei Province. The loss-making company has been hampered by setbacks, including a stalled STAR Market listing and a vehicle recall over battery-related fire hazards.

IT Industry-focused Employee Evaluation Platform LeetCode Bags $10 Million in Series A Round

LeetCode, a social platform specializing on preparing technical interviews for companies in the IT industry, announced on Wednesday that it had completed an A round of financing worth nearly $10 million, which was exclusively financed by Lightspeed China Partners. This is the first time that LeetCode disclosed financing information after entering China in 2018 and operating independently.

According to LeetCode, the new funds will be mainly used for upgrading the core products of the platform and the construction of a commercial ecosystem. The company will continue to exert its strength in the two directions of “recruitment platform construction” and “industry standard building,” and will also gradually explore other markets outside China and the United States.

About LeetCode

LeetCode was established in the Silicon Valley in 2011 and is one of the earliest online employee evaluation platforms in the world. Since the platform’s conception, its influence in Silicon Valley and even around the world has been expanding.

SEE ALSO: China VC Weekly: Agricultural Robots and Lightspeed’s Largest Fundraising in History

Singaporean Mandarin Learning Platform LingoAce Raises Total of $160 Million in 2021

Singapore-based global education technology company and leading Mandarin Chinese language learning platform LingoAce announced it has raised $160 million in new funding this year. The company closed a $105 million Series C funding round that was led by Sequoia Capital India, with participation from Owl Ventures, Xiaomi-affiliated Shunwei Capital and SWC Global. The latest round comes less than a year after a previously undisclosed $55 million Series B round led by Tiger Global and Owl Ventures. Including the new injection, LingoAce has so far raised $180 million in total funding.

In addition to the new round of financing, LingoAce announced the hiring of long-time education technology industry veteran Marshall Roslyn as the company’s CFO and Chief Strategy Officer. Marshall joined LingoAce earlier this summer after spending nearly a decade building and helping to lead the Education Technology & Services Investment Banking practice at Goldman Sachs, originally in San Francisco and most recently in Hong Kong as the firm’s sector head in Asia. As part of the funding rounds, Abheek Anand, Managing Director at Sequoia India and Ian Chiu, Managing Director at Owl Ventures, will join the board of LingoAce. Dennis Yang, former CEO of Udemy, has joined as a member of the company’s advisory board as well.

About LingoAce

LingoAce is transforming the way children learn Mandarin Chinese, the world’s second most spoken language, by creating a fun, engaging educational experience for students with tools that make it easy for parents to plan, schedule and monitor their children’s learning.