Mingzhe: Build a new digital infrastructure for trust in the automotive aftermarket and seek seed-round financing

Recently, an automotive aftermarket startup project named "Mingzhe" has come into the industry's view. The project proposes to systematically address the long - standing "trust deficit" issue in the maintenance and repair field through digital means, and attempts to build the "new trust infrastructure" for the industry. Currently, the project has completed the verification of the business model and the design of the product prototype. Changchun has been selected as the first city for verification, and the seed - round financing has been officially launched to promote the product launch and the cold start of the market.

The Trillion - Yuan Market and the Ignorable "Trust Deficit"

The scale of China's automotive aftermarket has exceeded 1.7 trillion yuan and continues to grow. However, the industry has long been trapped in the "lemon market" dilemma: for car owners, problems such as opaque maintenance processes, unclear sources of spare parts, and ambiguous prices are widespread. "Fear of being cheated" has become the core consumption barrier. On the other hand, a large number of small and medium - sized repair shops that operate honestly and have excellent technical skills are caught in homogeneous price competition due to the lack of brand endorsement and effective digital display channels, making it difficult to establish a differential advantage.

Common solutions in the industry in the past, such as information matching platforms or price comparison tools, mostly focus on surface - level information docking and do not fundamentally solve the root contradiction of the "unverifiable behavior" of services. Most of these platforms rely on the transaction commission model, which may objectively form a game relationship with merchants. In some cases, it may even indirectly prompt some merchants to sacrifice service quality to maintain profits, ultimately affecting the consumption experience.

Building the "Trust Flywheel": From Process Transparency to Credit Accumulation

In response to the above pain points, Mingzhe proposes the "Trust Flywheel" model. Its core is to abandon the traditional commission - based logic and shift to building a value alliance with high - quality service providers. It also uses digital tools to record, present, and accumulate trust - related behaviors.

The flywheel starts with the "Car Repair Diary" UGC community. Through a lightweight product design, the platform guides car owners to independently record the entire process of vehicle maintenance and repair in the form of pictures, texts, or videos. This visualizes the previously opaque service links, providing a basis for consumption decisions and generating the most basic trust data for the platform.

These records are then integrated into the "Merchant Integrity File" system. Each merchant that joins the platform will have a dynamic and multi - dimensional digital credit file. It not only integrates basic qualification information but also automatically associates all relevant "car repair diaries", car owner reviews, and service histories. In this way, the technical capabilities and service reputations of merchants are transformed into traceable and verifiable data assets, achieving "brand empowerment" in the digital age.

On this basis, the "Trust Flywheel" starts to operate: more real diaries attract car owners seeking transparency; the value of car owners' choices and the platform's credit display attracts merchants who value long - term reputations to actively join and cooperate in providing transparent services; the cooperation of merchants further generates high - quality content, forming a positive cycle. The platform's barrier gradually shifts from traffic to an increasingly rich trust data ecosystem and community consensus.

In terms of product strategy, Mingzhe shows a clear focus: its minimum viable product will be strictly limited to the two core functions of the "Car Repair Diary" and the "Merchant Integrity File". It will not involve extended modules such as online payment and complex reservation for the time being to ensure that resources are concentrated on verifying the market acceptance of "trust building" itself.

Penetrating into the Industrial Heartland for Model Verification

In terms of the market launch strategy, Mingzhe did not choose first - tier cities with higher Internet venture - capital enthusiasm but turned to Changchun, an important base for China's automotive industry. This choice is based on multiple considerations: Changchun has a profound automotive industry foundation and rich upstream and downstream resources; the market competition is relatively mild, which is conducive to the team's focus on refining the product and operation model; and the cost structure is more reasonable, which can extend the verification period and improve capital efficiency. The team believes that verifying the model in a region with a solid industrial ecosystem will yield more persuasive and replicable results.

In terms of business model design, Mingzhe clearly states that its revenue comes from the incremental value created for merchants. Initially, it mainly generates revenue through SaaS subscription services that provide digital file display and customer management tools. In the future, with the accumulation of platform trust data, it may expand to areas such as precision marketing and credit data services. For example, it may provide evaluation services to industrial chain segments such as insurance and used cars. This model aims to align the long - term interests of the platform and merchants.

It is reported that the Mingzhe project has completed a systematic plan including brand positioning, business model design, product prototype, and single - city operation strategy. The core team has both experience in the automotive aftermarket and a background in Internet product operation, and has initiated early cooperation discussions in the Changchun area.

To promote product implementation and the first - city verification, Mingzhe has officially launched a seed - round financing with a target scale of 1 million RMB. The funds will be mainly used for company establishment, MVP product development and launch, and the construction of the first "Transparent Car Repair Demonstration Area" in Changchun. The core goal is to complete the key closed - loop from content production, user accumulation to merchant payment.