Find out what moves China tech with us. We round up what you need to know about the local venture scene every Thursday at 8:00 a.m. (GMT +8), covering major investment stories, MNC partnerships, noteworthy startups, industries with the most investments for the week, and more.
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MNCs in China
Procter & Gamble
P&G launched its Greater China Intelligent Technology Innovation Center on July 30. This is the third such center for the company, and it is also P&G’s first Asian R&D institution specializing in smart manufacturing and supply chain technology innovation.
At the launch event, P&G demonstrated the company’s recent innovations, including digital twins applied to supply chain management, quality inspection powered by computer vision, AGV robots, and recyclable packaging for e-commerce products.
For example, after the pandemic began, P&G created virtual representations of supply chains using digital twins technology to manage inventory, procurement, and logistics in real-time. The system allowed P&G to optimize resource allocation for its eight factories, dozens of cooperative processing facilities, and thousands of material suppliers in China.
Startups on our watchlist
DP Technology (深势科技)
Established in 2019, DP Technology is a computational simulation platform for scientific researchers and developers. Leveraging molecular simulation algorithms backed by artificial intelligence, DP Technology creates industrial designs for the fields of life science, energy, and materials.
When discovering new drugs or developing new materials, researchers need to analyze the composition and structure of microscopic particles, which requires large-scale calculations to ensure accuracy. DP Technology uses machine learning to facilitate molecular simulation to solve industrial design challenges in a fraction of the time of traditional methods, reducing the research time.
DP Technology secured more than USD 10 million in a recent Series A investment led by GL Ventures, marking DP Technology’s third financing round within a year. The company’s valuation has reached hundreds of millions of dollars.
KrASIA news picks
KrASIA’s two-part feature on China’s tech giants’ new proxy war in the food and beverage industry.
Tencent and ByteDance’s recent spate of investments in the local F&B industry marks the continued exploration of alternative revenue streams in a new frontier—China’s consumption market. Both players have made diverse investments, covering bubble tea, hotpot, and coffee brands. How does this move fit into their current business models? Will these investments pay off? Read more in part 1 and part 2 of this series.