China VC Weekly: Fintech, Biotech, Automation
In last week’s VC news: Tencent-backed fintech firm Shenzhen Tengyin raises roughly $15 million in a Series A+ round, Beijing-based biotech company EdiGene bags $62 million, while automation powerhouse Liaye, founded by former Baidu employees, raises $50 million.
Tencent-backed fintech firm raises a Series A+ round
Chinese startup providing marketing solutions to financial institutions Shenzhen Tengyin Information Consulting has raised more than 100 million yuan ($15.3 million) in a Series A+ round of funding, led by Tencent Holdings and Gaorong Capital.
According to the company statement, proceeds from the round will be spent on enhancing its product lineups, acquiring personnel, improving R&D skills and quickly releasing value-added products and related services.
Shenzhen Tengyin was selected as the top partner for Tencent‘s WeChat Work in 2020, becoming the only financial service company to receive the award. The company has also partnered with a number of state-owned banks and more than 60% of big joint-stock commercial banks. The company provides services to more than 120 financial institutions in China and overseas, including CMB, China Citic Bank, Minsheng Bank and China Everbright Bank, according to Nikkei Asia.
About Shenzhen Tengyin
Founded in 2019, Shenzhen Tengyin provides digital infrastructure for the retail banking sector. The company’s founding members include financial experts and fintech experts from Tencent. Tengyin calls itself a software-as-a-service (SaaS) tech company.
Biotech company EdiGene rakes in around $62 million in Series B+
Chinese biotech startup EdiGene, which uses genome-editing technology to create genetic disease and cancer therapies, has raised 400 million yuan ($62 million) in its Series B+ funding round led by Loyal Valley Capital.
The company’s second financing round in seven months was also joined by a number of existing and new investors including IDG Capital, Sequoia Capital China, Lilly Asia Venture, BioTrack Capital and Sherpa Healthcare Partners, EdiGene announced in a statement on Wednesday.
According to the company, proceeds from the round will be used to advance EdiGene’s pipeline candidates into clinics and scale up business operations, according to the statement.
About EdiGene
Established in 2015 in Beijing, EdiGene is building four proprietary platforms including a genome-editing platform for hematopoietic stem cells and a genome-editing screening platform for discovering new targeted therapies.
Automation startup Laiye bags $50 million in Series C+
Laiye, Chinese AI company developing software to mimic mundane workplace tasks like keyboard strokes and mouse clicks, announced it has raised $50 million in its Series C+ round. The funding round came roughly a year after the Beijing-based startup founded by Baidu veterans raked in the first tranche of its Series C round.
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The six-year old Laiye has raised over $130 million to date according to publicly available information.
Leading investors in the Series C+ round included Ping An Global Voyager Fund, an early-stage strategic investment fund of Chinese financial conglomerate Ping An, and Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Industry Equity Investment Fund, a government-backed fund. Other participants included Lightspeed China Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sequoia China Capital and Wu Capital.
About Laiye
Founded in 2015 by former Baidu employees, Laiye Technology works in the fields of robotic process automation (RPA), process mining, natural language processing (NLP), intelligent dialog interaction, computer vision, etc.
