36Kr Exclusive | "Dongli Retirement Club" Completes Hundreds of Millions Yuan Series B Financing, Creating an "Online + Offline" Social Lifestyle for 3 Million Active Seniors

36Kr has exclusively learned that "Shanghai Dongli Retirement Club" recently completed a 100-million-yuan-level Series B financing round, led by Hengxu Capital with Detong Capital participating as a follow-on investor. The funds from this round will be used to expand diversified senior services scenarios, strengthen cooperation with upstream supply chains, and promote the upgrade of AI technology and the data center platform.

Shanghai Dongli Retirement Club (hereinafter referred to as "Dongli") is a social and entertainment service platform targeting retirees, focusing on providing comprehensive services such as travel, gatherings, products, and hobbies for the active senior population aged 50 - 80.

As of now, Dongli has served over 3 million users in total, covering the Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai regions, with a repurchase rate of over 60%. In the whole year of 2025, its travel business revenue exceeded 800 million yuan, and its senior e-commerce business is expected to exceed 300 - 400 million yuan this year.

From TV Producer to Senior Entrepreneur

Dongli's founder, Lü Chenye, has a background working at SMG and studied in Japan. The opportunity for Lü Chenye to found Dongli came from an inspection trip to Japan - he was deeply touched by seeing the listed company Halmek serving the senior population through the model of "radio programs + offline salons + content magazines".

"We borrowed Halmek's model at that time, replacing the radio with TV and the magazine with a WeChat official account, while retaining the form of offline salons," Lü Chenye told 36Kr.

At that time, the consumption of the domestic retiree population was mainly through TV shopping, and the travel market was filled with low - cost shopping tours. Dongli started with travel products, removing shopping and self - paid links, redesigning routes, and improving the standards of catering and accommodation.

This "content - first" model quickly established user trust. During the broadcast of Dongli's program "We're Retired" on Shanghai Urban Channel, the ratings were about 1%, covering 400,000 people per day. The audience accumulated by the program gradually turned into users of the mini - program and were further settled in the private domain. "There is a saying in the TV circle that 'those who win the aunts win the world'. In fact, my content audience has never changed," Lü Chenye summarized.

Now, Dongli's content matrix covers platforms such as WeChat Video Accounts, Douyin, and Xiaohongshu, with hundreds of accounts in the matrix; the registered users of its mini - program exceed 3 million, and the monthly number of posts in the community exceeds 10,000.

Looking back on the entrepreneurial journey, a scene that impressed Lü Chenye deeply was an old lady with white hair taking the subway to attend a class on a rainy day and then typing on the keyboard with one finger while wearing reading glasses after class. "She spent a very important period of her life on the services you provided. You'll feel that you really should treat them better."

From Long - distance Travel to High - frequency Gatherings, Building a Product Pyramid

Before 2020, Dongli mainly focused on outbound and long - distance domestic tours. The sudden pandemic hindered long - distance travel, so the team began to explore short - term, high - frequency business such as nearby dinners and gatherings. Unexpectedly, they found that the social needs of retirees for high - frequency, high - quality, and scenario - based activities far exceeded expectations.

Now, Dongli has formed a clear product pyramid: the base consists of high - frequency local gatherings, followed by medium - and long - distance domestic tours, outbound tours, and private groups in ascending order. Lü Chenye explained, "Retirees may have one or two gatherings per week. High - frequency consumption drives low - frequency consumption, and the comprehensive repurchase rate will increase."

Dongli's travel users

This evolution of the product structure was not pre - planned but driven by market demand. "We didn't initially pay attention to the revenue potential of the gathering business, but after actual operation, we found that it grew very fast," Lü Chenye admitted. Taking the dinner package products as an example, the sales volume of the International Hotel package was nearly 20,000 copies, and the Quanjude package had exceeded 40,000 orders, proving the strong demand of senior citizens for high - quality local social activities.

The offline "One - day Fun Club" is a natural extension of this logic. Currently, Dongli has opened 4 One - day Fun Club stores in Shanghai, each with an area of over 3,000 square meters. The themes include "Nostalgia of the Years", "Time Photo Studio", "Global Theme Pavilion", and "Window to the World". The average per - capita consumption of users is over 100 yuan, allowing them to enjoy two full meals and all - day services such as chess, KTV, and dance floors. The stores are located near subways and densely populated residential areas, with immersive photo - taking spots inside to meet the social needs of users to post on their WeChat Moments.

Dongli's offline business "One - day Fun Club"

In terms of profitability, the first store "One - day Gathering" (Gongkang store) recovered its costs in 18 months. Lü Chenye emphasized that the pricing of over 100 yuan per person including two meals is a low - customer - unit - price model. The key to profitability lies in continuous traffic input and a relatively high repurchase frequency. "We didn't build the One - day Fun Club first and then the Retirement Club. It's the other way around. Without continuous traffic and brand reputation accumulation, it's difficult for a single store to survive. In Shanghai and even across the country, perhaps only our One - day Fun Club can achieve short - term profitability."

Different from traditional catering, the One - day Fun Club adopts a set - meal system, changing the menu every three months. It controls costs through centralized procurement and reduces energy consumption and waste in the kitchen. At the same time, taking advantage of the flexible time of retirees, it fills the off - peak hours of businesses such as shopping malls, cinemas, and bakeries, forming a mutually beneficial cross - business cooperation.

After the Shanghai model was proven successful, Lü Chenye is still extremely cautious about expanding to other regions. "The One - day Fun Club is difficult to simply replicate in other places, unless it's in cities like Chongqing and Chengdu with strong consumption vitality and a high proportion of the elderly population."

In the next two years, Dongli will focus on two major directions: e - commerce (focusing on video accounts and the private domain) and themed tours (the "Different" series).

Among them, the themed tour plan aims to develop 500 - 600 routes, mainly in small groups of 8 - 10 people, to meet emerging needs such as separate - meal systems and in - depth experiences. "If we can do a good job in themed tours, with products as the core, no matter how the platform changes, we'll achieve good results," Dongli's co - founder Li Ping introduced. "The recently launched 'Different Huangshan' series of the company, with a customer unit price of over 4,000 yuan, redefines the Huangshan tour for the middle - aged and elderly with a 'full - course separate - meal system + local special cuisine' dining innovation, an itinerary design of 'exploring niche and in - depth cultural experiences', and high - quality accommodation of 'a different stay'. Once the route was launched, the schedules for the next three months were sold out, with sales exceeding 1,000 orders."

From a senior content producer to an explorer in the senior economy, Lü Chenye hopes that Dongli will become "a lifestyle platform for active retirees". And this business about the "sunset" is just at the dawn.

Investors' Views:

As the leading investor in this round, Hengxu Capital is highly optimistic about the senior economy track that combines social and commercial values. Hengxu Capital believes that Dongli has sharp industry insights, professional content genes, and refined operation capabilities, and has the potential to become a leader in China's senior economy. Founded in 2019, Hengxu Capital focuses on investment opportunities in hard - tech, health consumption, etc., which meet the requirements of national transformation and new - quality productivity. Its cumulative management scale has exceeded 40 billion yuan. Leading the investment in Dongli this time is another important layout in the health - consumption field for it.

The follow - on investor, Detong Capital, has been deeply involved in core fields such as advanced manufacturing, healthcare, and AI for more than a decade. Recently, it initiated and established a 1 - billion - yuan cultural technology fund, jointly funded by Anhui Cultural and Tourism Investment and Control, Wuhu High - tech Industry Development Fund, Hangzhou Cultural Investment, etc., aiming to promote the in - depth integration of AI and the real economy and lead the frontier of science and technology and cultural investment. After the first closing of the fund, it quickly entered the senior economy and invested in the Dongli project. Detong Capital believes that Dongli has defined a new generation of age - friendly products and services in "travel - entertainment - social - consumption" and built a moat of "trust". Detong will use its advantageous resources to help it accelerate the upgrading and development of the senior industry.