China VC Weekly: HARMAY’s New Round and Sequoia’s New Fund
In last week’s VC news, Chinese new retail cosmetics powerhouse HARMAY raised a considerable investment round, Sequoia Capital China launched a new infrastructure fund and more.
E-Commerce SaaS Platform Shoplazza Completes Series C1 Financing Worth $150 Million
Shoplazza, a global e-commerce SaaS platform, announced the closing of its $150 million Series C1 financing. The investment was led by Softbank Vision Fund 2, with participation from new investors Chimera, Stepstone and existing investors Sky9, Sequoia China, Qianhai FoF and Elegrace.
With brand headquarters in Toronto, Canada and an R&D center in Shenzhen, China, Shoplazza is a technology company focused on providing DTC e-commerce SaaS for global merchants to create and operate their independent websites.
About Shoplazza
Founded in 2017, Shoplazza provides integrated DTC online store SaaS solutions for customers worldwide. The SaaS platform empowers global merchants to build their own DTC online stores with minimal coding, covering various shopping scenarios and enabling merchants to grow their DTC e-commerce business independently and globally.
AI Company Huiye Technology Secures Pre-A Financing Exclusively Led by Shunwei Capital
Huiye Technology, an AI-driven technology service provider, has completed a Pre-A round of financing led by Shunwei Capital. Previously, the company had received an angel round of financing led by Cyanhill Capital.
The funds raised in this round will be used to improve technology, expand the company’s team and explore different commercialization models.
Qu Siyuan, Founder of Huiye Technology, said: “AI-driven virtual characters will become mainstream in the future, while real life motion capture will not be completely replaced within the next few years.” These two technologies will work in different situations. The former technology will be applied in logical and regular scenarios such as virtual DJs, virtual brands and fitness instructors. The latter will be wielded when there are artistic creative needs, such as specific performances under the guidance of scripts.
About Huiye Technology
Huiye Technology has created a set of “deep neural network frameworks,” based on which virtual characters can learn both simple and complex human movement patterns. Virtual characters will dance automatically according to the melody input into the system without the need to capture the movement of real people in advance.
Medtech Startup SiBionics Rakes In 500 Million Yuan in Series C++ Financing
The total amount raised by the firm in the three tranches of its Series C round stands at over 800 million yuan ($126 million), according to the company’s WeChat post.
The latest round was jointly led by CPE and China Life Investment Management’s sub-fund China Life Innovation Fund. Qianhai FOF, C&D, JD Investment, Jingming Capital and return backer Lucion joined the round.
About SiBionics
The seven-year-old company has built a portfolio spanning retinal prosthesis, continuous glucose monitoring, diabetic retinopathy screening and gastric cancer screening.
Surgical Robot Firm Yuanhua Tech Completes Series B Financing
Yuanhua Intelligent Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. (Yuanhua Tech) completed a round B of financing worth several hundred million yuan. The leading investor is Costone Capital, while existing shareholders Shenzhen Capital Group Co., Ltd. and Sequoia China joined in the financing. Other co-investors include several famed investment institutions such as Cash Capital and Wanhui Capital.
The funds are to be used for the overall commercial application of orthopedic surgical robots, to accelerate the clinical progress of digestive tract products and surgical robots through natural lumens, and to promote the final test and commercial application of the self-developed cooperative mechanical arm.
About Yuanhua Tech
Yuanhua Tech was established in December 2018. Positioned as an innovative high-tech enterprise, it focuses on specialized surgical robots across a range of medical departments. In March 2021, it completed round-A financing of 200 million yuan ($31.53 million), with Sequoia China and CMB International as leading investors, and its former shareholder Shenzhen Capital Group Co., Ltd. and Hotland Medical Asset Management as co-investors.
Cosmetics Retailer HARMAY Completes C and D Rounds of Financing for $200M
HARMAY, a Chinese new retail brand specializing in cosmetics, announced its completion of a C round and D round of financing totaling $200 million. In the C round, the lead investor was General Atlantic, and co-investors were Eastern Bell Capital, Hillhouse Capital, Ocean Link, N5Capital and BA Capital. In the D round, the lead investor was QY Capital, and co-investors were Eastern Bell Capital, General Atlantic, N5Capital and Ocean Link.
Chinese industry intelligence website Tianyancha.com suggests that HARMAY has now completed four rounds of financing, attracting investment from many prominent institutions.
About HARMAY
HARMAY started from online business and in 2017 opened its first offline store on Shanghai’s Anfu Road, a location popular with shoppers and pedestrians. In 2019, the success of its Sanlitun store in Beijing made it a real hit in the cosmetics industry, gaining the favor of capital markets.
Sequoia Capital China Sets Up New Infrastructure Fund
Sequoia Capital China completed fundraising for its new infrastructure equity investment fund, which featured the participation and support of many investment institutions, including Brookfield.
In recent years, new infrastructure investment is providing a solid backing for China’s fast-growing new economy and high-end manufacturing industry. The new infrastructure fund will focus on helping construction in the three major areas – digital economy, new energy and life sciences, promoting their deep integration with the substantial economy.
Its investment directions mainly cover new energy infrastructure, high-standard logistics, cold storage, data centers, new economic industrial parks, high-end manufacturing plants, biomedical industrial parks and other areas.
About Sequoia Capital China
Sequoia Capital China is a venture capital firm based in Beijing, China, seeking to invest in various sectors including agriculture, distribution, B2B, education, retail, energy, financial services, healthcare and technology sectors. It primarily invests in Chinese companies, and operates as a subsidiary of Sequoia Capital.
SEE ALSO: China VC Weekly: Plant-Based Meat and Bioelectronic Skin
Sports Company SnowyOwl Tech Secures Second Round of Financing in Six Months
SnowyOwl Tech, a sports technology company, has completed another two rounds of financing – angel investment and angel+ investment – with a cumulative amount worth tens of millions of yuan.
The angel investment round was led by K2VC (Xianfeng Evergreen) and followed by Sequoia China Seed Fund. The angel+ round was led by Sequoia China Seed Fund, followed by Xiaohongshu and APlus Partners Limited.
About SnowyOwl Tech
Founded in March, 2021, the firm focuses primarily on snowboards and is committed to creating a brand covering all kinds of outdoor lifestyles with “sports technology” as its core, aiming to help more people enjoy outdoor sports.
3R Company Zhen Wei Xiao Mei Yuan Completes B+ Round Led by Baidu Ventures
Zhenwei Xiaomeiyuan, a new Chinese 3R (reduce, reuse and recycle) dishes brand, has recently completed a B+ round of financing, with Baidu Ventures as its leading investor and Dingxiang Capital and 01VC as co-investors.
In October last year, Zhenwei Xiaomeiyuan secured a deal worth millions in B-round financing. It currently holds over 100 million yuan from a B round and B+ round of financing.
About Zhenwei Xiaomeiyuan
Zhenwei Xiaomeiyuan was founded in 2019. It works on the premise of cost-effectiveness and aims to provide “simpler cooking” for users. With the company’s slogan, “3R dish brand fit for Chinese taste,” the company aims to appeal to the widest body of consumers in the Mainland.
Tanma SCRM Receives Investment of $10M From Welight Capital
Tanma SCRM, an enterprise WeChat service provider, announced on Tuesday an investment totaling $10 million from Welight Capital L.P.
The company has previously completed a B+ round of financing with Eastern Bell Capital serving as lead investor in November 2021, a B round of financing with SoftBank Ventures Asia as lead investor and Shunwei Capital as co-investor in July 2021, and an A round of financing with Blue Lake Capital, Legend Capital and K2 Angel Partners as co-investors in May 2021.
About Tanma SCRM
Founded in 2020 as an integrated SaaS platform for marketing and services, Tanma SCRM focuses on B2C, B2B and other enterprises, covering education and training, finance and insurance, medical beauty, home improvement, manufacturing, enterprise services and more.
Virtual Entertainment Platform Burning Galaxy Obtains $10 Million in Series A Financing
Burning Galaxy, a virtual interactive entertainment platform, recently announced its completion of an A round of financing worth $10 million, led exclusively by Matrix Partners. After completing this round, the firm plans to start service in North America in June 2022.
Huadong Wang, a partner of Matrix Partners, said: “We have seen the outbreak of the theme of ‘users are creators’ in the global content industry. In the future, cross-platform and user-created games are bound to bring better game experiences. Burning Galaxy has achieved a lot of innovations in the creation of open world, UGC co-creation and more.”
About Burning Galaxy
Burning Galaxy was established in 2018. The “Project-AE” currently being developed by the company is an interactive entertainment platform integrating digital characters, a virtual world and user generated content (UGC). On this platform, users can use their digital characters to communicate and participate in various business and entertainment activities in the virtual world, including owning their own companies or real estate and playing games. Through UGC tools, users can create virtual scenes such as multi-person interactive games.
