Five consumer companies receive new funding; Doubao phones embroiled in controversy over WeChat inaccessibility; Mixue Bingcheng starts selling breakfast | Insights into Venture Capital and Entrepreneurship

Compiled by Lan Jie

Busy Money

Gold brand "Baolan" completes over 100 million yuan Series A financing

36Kr learned that "Baolan", a high - end gold jewelry brand focusing on filigree inlay and ancient gold craftsmanship, recently completed over 100 million yuan in Series A financing. This round was led by Challenger Venture Capital, with Kering Group and Shunwei Capital participating as follow - on investors. The funds will be mainly used in four core strategic directions, including brand value enhancement, omnichannel layout, supply chain resilience upgrade, and core talent empowerment.

"Baolan" was established in 1988. For nearly four decades, it has adopted the ancient Chinese royal gold - making technique, especially focusing on the continuation and innovation of "filigree inlay", an intangible cultural heritage.

Immediate delivery company "Jiangsu Yunshansong" recently completes 30 million yuan financing

Recently, Jiangsu Yunshansong Network Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Jiangsu Yunshansong"), an intelligent delivery company, announced the completion of 30 million yuan in Series A financing. This round of financing was led by a well - known domestic venture capital institution. The funds will focus on three directions: the upgrade of the intelligent dispatching system, the expansion of the national service network, and the construction of the transportation capacity ecosystem.

Currently, Jiangsu Yunshansong can achieve full - category coverage, providing convenient services such as emergency delivery and daily life delivery for individuals, and customizing digital delivery solutions for enterprises.

AI video - generation product Pollo AI completes $14 million in financing, led by Gaocheng Capital

According to "LatePost", Pollo AI recently completed $14 million in financing, led by Gaocheng Capital, with ZhenFund as a follow - on investor. This is also Pollo AI's first round of financing. Pollo AI positions itself as a video content creation platform. Founder Zhu Chenbiao said that currently, Pollo AI has over 20 million registered users, over 6 million monthly active users, over 200,000 daily active users, and annualized revenue of over $20 million. In May this year, Pollo AI achieved break - even.

Initially, Pollo AI only provided the API interface of the internal - test version of the Keling video - generation model. Now, Pollo AI has evolved into a POE platform that integrates almost all public models, providing users with services such as image, video, and virtual - image generation.

UniX AI recently announces the completion of two rounds of financing totaling 300 million yuan

UniX AI recently announced the completion of two rounds of financing, namely Series Angel++++ and Series Angel+++++, totaling 300 million yuan. Institutions such as Sichuan Business Fund, Wuzhong Financial Holding, Yihua Capital, Qingyu Fund, and Tahoe Venture Capital, as well as several listed companies and industrial parties participated in the investment. The old shareholder Saina Capital increased its investment.

This is the company's fifth round of financing completed within half a year, indicating that UniX's "algorithm - hardware - scenario" trinity strategy in the field of embodied intelligence has been recognized by the market.

Embodied robot company "Daimeng Robot" recently completes over 100 million yuan in financing

36Kr learned that "Daimeng Robot" recently completed over 100 million yuan in strategic - round financing, invested by China Mobile Chain - leader Fund. This is also the company's second round of financing completed within three months. This round of financing will accelerate the company's layout in frontier technology breakthroughs, new product R & D and mass production, VTLA model construction, team expansion, and global market development.

Company Intelligence

Doubao mobile phones experience issues logging into WeChat. The official response: The ability of the mobile assistant to operate WeChat has been removed

On December 1st, the nubia M153, which was jointly developed by ByteDance and Nubia under ZTE and is equipped with the Doubao mobile assistant, was officially launched and sold in a small - scale release. The starting price was 3,499 yuan, and the first batch of about 30,000 units were quickly sold out. The related products on the second - hand platform had a premium of over 3,000 yuan.

Shortly afterwards, on the evening of December 2nd, many netizens reported that when using the Doubao mobile assistant on the nubia M153 to operate WeChat, WeChat would unexpectedly log out or even fail to log in. In response, ByteDance officially stated that the company later removed the ability of the mobile assistant to operate WeChat. Currently, the WeChat accounts that were blocked on the nubia M153 are being unblocked one by one.

As a result, even in a small - scale release, ByteDance still failed to enter the WeChat scenario with its AI mobile assistant. The history of the "ByteDance - Tencent battle" is repeating itself in the AI era.

In addition, some technology companies said, "It was found through actual testing that the Doubao mobile assistant on nubia phones has the INJECT_EVENTS permission, which is a high - risk permission for the operating system in the Android permission definition." ByteDance later issued a statement saying that the Doubao mobile assistant needs users to actively authorize it to call this permission for operating the phone. The use of this permission is also clearly disclosed in the permission list.

To some extent, privacy issues are a threshold that must be crossed to achieve an AI Agent. However, despite the obstacles, this is still the future that Internet giants, including ByteDance, are seeking for their own AI.

Tencent President Liu Chiping also said at this year's Q3 earnings conference that WeChat will launch a self - developed AI agent, allowing users to use AI to complete various tasks within the WeChat ecosystem.

The Taiwan authorities announce a one - year ban on Xiaohongshu on the grounds of "failing information security monitoring" and being involved in "fraud cases"

According to Xinhua News Agency, the internal affairs department of the DPP authorities claimed on December 4th that on the grounds of so - called "failing information security monitoring" and being involved in "fraud cases", they would implement "Internet domain - name system resolution suspension and access restriction" measures on Xiaohongshu from that day on, with a tentative implementation period of one year.

On December 5th, according to Jimu News, there were still a large number of Taiwanese netizens online on the Xiaohongshu platform. The Xiaohongshu APP could still be used normally in Taiwan, but the web version had been blocked.

This kind of incident is not the first in Taiwan.

In July this year, relevant Taiwanese departments issued an announcement saying that five mainland apps, including Xiaohongshu, Weibo, Douyin, WeChat, and Baidu Netdisk, had "high information - security risks". The Taiwan authorities warned the public not to download and use these apps and required relevant public officials to delete them all.

In response, Chen Binhua, the spokesperson of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said on July 16th that these mainland apps are very popular among Taiwanese people, especially the youth, because they enable Taiwanese people to obtain information more efficiently, enjoy life services more conveniently, and have more fun in social sharing. The so - called "information - security" excuse of the DPP authorities actually exposes their inner "unease".

Linqingxuan updates its prospectus. Its revenue in the first half of the year increased by 98.3% year - on - year

36Kr learned that Shanghai Linqingxuan Cosmetics Group Co., Ltd. updated its listing application submitted to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The joint sponsors are CITIC Securities and Huatai International.

On May 29th this year, the company also submitted a prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange under the name of "Shanghai Linqingxuan Biotechnology Co., Ltd."

Now, the company's name has been officially changed to "Shanghai Linqingxuan Cosmetics Group Co., Ltd."

In the first half of 2025, Linqingxuan achieved a revenue of 1.052 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 98.3%, and a net profit of 182 million yuan, a year - on - year increase of 109.86%.

Behind the increasing revenue is the high marketing cost. In the past three years, the company's marketing expenses have been on the rise, reaching 365 million yuan in 2024, accounting for 30.17% of the total revenue in the same period. However, the aggressive marketing strategy once put the brand in the controversy of false advertising.

Linqingxuan, which aims to take the high - end route, cannot rely solely on marketing.

Mixue Bingcheng starts selling breakfast

Where there is a demand for low prices and convenience, there is Mixue Bingcheng.

Recently, some netizens reported that they received a breakfast questionnaire sent by Mixue Bingcheng's corporate account in their WeChat Moments. The breakfast options included soy milk, millet congee, sandwiches, and also options like tofu pudding and steamed buns.

According to Jimu News, a person close to Mixue Bingcheng said that currently the "breakfast plan" is only being tested in some cities such as Dalian, Xi'an, Nanning, and Hangzhou. The launched products include four dairy products such as breakfast coconut milk, and there is no plan for large - scale promotion for now.

Even earlier, Mixue Bingcheng also launched a "coffee + bakery" breakfast in some stores, with the set meal priced at 10 yuan. In recent years, more and more catering brands have entered the breakfast market, including but not limited to Starbucks, McDonald's, and KFC.

Needless to say, Mixue Bingcheng has already entered the coffee and beer markets one after another. It is reasonable for it to enter the breakfast market now.

Future Idea

Cha Baidao's winter new product, Soybean Milk Black Qilin, was launched on December 4th, with the first - day sales exceeding 200,000 cups

This product is an innovative upgrade based on the brand's classic Soybean Milk Jade Qilin. It combines traditional stone - ground black sesame paste and five - black ingredients (black rice, black beans, black sesame, black wolfberry, and mulberry), focusing on the concept of winter health preservation. It also evokes the childhood memories of some consumers and has sparked discussions on food - delivery platforms and social media.

As the temperature drops, new hot - drink products from various tea brands are emerging one after another.

Naixue's Tea announces Gao Yuanyuan as its brand spokesperson on its tenth anniversary

On December 2nd, Naixue's Tea reached an important milestone on its tenth anniversary. It announced Gao Yuanyuan as its brand spokesperson and launched the industry's first low - GI fruit and vegetable tea, the "Skinny Little Green Bottle".

Before this, Naixue previously launched the "Green101 Ranking Contest", selecting 8 popular healthy drinks to compete against each other and inviting consumers to vote for their favorite drinks.

The brand said that this product is the first innovative product in the tea - drinking industry to use the "perfect sugar substitute" D - allulose. It has successfully obtained the low - GI certification (with a GI value of only 37), which can maintain a refreshing taste while achieving low - calorie and light - burden consumption.

Data - Driven Consumption

The box office of the 2025 Chinese New Year film season exceeds 2.5 billion yuan

36Kr learned that according to data from online platforms, as of 10:02 on December 6th, the total box office of the 2025 Chinese New Year film season (from November 28th to December 31st) exceeded 2.5 billion yuan. "Zootopia 2" leads the box - office list of the Chinese New Year film season.

The revenue of China's e - sports industry is 29.331 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 6.40%

According to the official WeChat account of the Game Work Committee of the China Audio - Video and Digital Publishing Association, on December 4th, Tang Jiajun, the secretary - general of the China Game Work Committee, said that in 2025, the revenue of China's e - sports industry was 29.331 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 6.40%, achieving steady growth. The largest share of this year's revenue still comes from live - streaming revenue, accounting for 80.81%. Followed by event revenue, club revenue, and other revenues. In 2025, the number of e - sports users in China exceeded 495 million, showing a significant increase compared to last year, with a growth rate of 1.06%.

The global smartphone production volume in the third quarter of 2025 reached 328 million units, a year - on - year increase of 7%

According to the latest survey by TrendForce, the second half of the year is the traditional peak season for the mobile - phone market. Coupled with the successive releases of new models by brands, the global smartphone production volume in the third quarter of 2025 increased by 9% quarter - on - quarter and 7% year - on - year, reaching 328 million units. The seasonal production momentum has significantly increased. The institution predicts that the annual smartphone production volume in 2025 will increase by 1.6% year - on - year, and it is not ruled out that the full - year forecast will be revised downwards again due to the impact of memory chips.