China VC Weekly: Chips, Biotech, Cleaning Robots and Car Rental
Laser chip maker Everbright Photonics completes a 150-million-yuan Series C round
Semiconductor laser chip manufacturer Everbright Photonics recently announced the completion of series C round financing led by Huatai Securities and joined by SDIC Technology Achievement Transfer Venture Investment Fund, and Nanjing Daofeng Investment in which the company raised over a 150 million yuan ($21.22 million).
Previously, Everbright Photonics completed four more rounds of financing, raising over 300 million yuan in total. The rounds include the 2012 angel round from Changchun UP Optotech Co. Ltd; the 2016 series A led by East-lake Venture Capital; the 2018 dominated by SDIC Venture Capital, the venture capital fund of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Suzhou Chengxin Venture Capital through which it raised 150 million yuan.
About Everbright Photonics
Founded in 2012, Everbright Photonics specializes in R&D, production and sales of high-power semiconductor laser chips, high-efficiency VCSEL chips, high-speed optical communication chips, and related optoelectronic devices and application systems.
SEE ALSO: China VC Weekly: Biggest Series A in Chip Industry, Big Data, Robots and AI
Cleaning robot developer Narwal raises a Series C round from China’s top VCs and ByteDance
Chinese intelligent cleaning robot maker Narwal recently announced the completion of a series C funding round led by Sequoia Capital China, with participation from Source Code Capital, Hillhouse Capital, and ByteDance. The round comes mere months after the company completed its series B round in April. The company plans to continue to increase R&D investment in various fields.
The company claims to have achieved mass production of several hundred units, with its peak production capacity supposedly reaching tens of thousands of units per month.
According to publicly available information, in early 2017 Narwal received an angel round from Qingshuiwan Fund, and added to it at the end of the year with a 10 million yuan Pre-A round led by FutureCap and Qingshuiwan Fund. In April 2019, it completed a series A round of tens of millions of yuan. In April 2020, the company raised another 100 million yuan in a series B round of financing led by Source Code Capital and ByteDance.
About Narwal
Founded in 2016, Narwal develops home service robots. Narwal’s business spans multiple areas including innovative structural design, intelligent perception, path planning, and big data applications. It has made breakthroughs in multiple directions and has applied for more than 100 patents.
Biotechnology firm Sophonix bags 100 million yuan in a Series B round
Chinese biotechnology company Sophonix completed a 100 million yuan ($14.14 million) series B round led by Zero2IPO Asset Management with participation from Delian Capital, Anlong Fund, GoldTech Capital and existing investor ETP Fund.
Sophonix plans to use the proceeds of the round to accelerate product development and to upgrade the existing products as well as to further improve its marketing system, and strengthen the localization layout. The company will also enhance their warehousing logistics, after-sales service and marketing, and continue to expand the categories they currently cover. Finally, the company will further explore expansion opportunities in su oversmarkets.
About Sophonix
Established in July 2017, Sophonix focuses on the development, production and sales of in vitro diagnostic instruments and reagents, providing accurate point-of-care testing (POCT) solutions. The company currently offers two product lines for pathological diagnosis and immunodiagnosis, while another line is being developed for molecular diagnosis. Sophonix has established research and development centers in California and Beijing.
Personalized car rental platform JF Chuxing a $10 million pre-A round from KIP Capital, Porsche Ventures and NIO Capital
Personalized car rental service platform JF Chuxing announced the completion of a pre-A round of financing of nearly $10 million jointly led by KIP Capital, Porsche Ventures and NIO Capital. The financing will mainly be used for cross-regional marketing, cultivation of an auto-culture community, production of original automobile themed content, and strengthening of the supply chain.
JF Chuxing told 36Kr that their offline business is currently limited to Shanghai, but the company’s app boasts users from all over the country. At present, the firms GMV exceeds 10 million in a single month, multi-channel network followers exceed 10 million, and the platform can dispatch more than 10,000 vehicles. Car brands that can be leased on the platform include Volkswagen, Mini, Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini, etc., with rental prices ranging from hundreds to tens of thousands of yuan per day.
Lin Yong, Director of KIP Capital Investment, noted that as car ownership increases, China’s car culture is also maturing, and young people’s demand for cars is no longer only based on functionality concerns. Younger users currently also value individualism and entertainment.
Li Lintian, the founder and CEO of the company, said that the traditional personal car rental industry has pain points such as low efficiency, complicated processing requirements, and poor service. JF Chuxing can solve these problems through its self-developed SaaS platform and vehicle risk control system.
About JF Chuxing
JF Chuxing was established in Shanghai in October 2018. It provides personalized car rental experience services and is currently building a car MCN content matrix, such as short videos, etc.
