The Capital Game of Dreame: 200 Business Units, Dozens of Government Funds, and a Probability Game

In March this year, an AI smart sofa brand called "Smarter" announced the completion of nearly 100 million yuan in financing.

Smarter sofas feature "AI technology" and have an average selling price of around 10,000 yuan. Compared with other brands in the furniture market, Smarter had relatively low market recognition before. The salesperson in the store told customers that this was the same sofa as the one shown on the Spring Festival Gala of the Year of the Horse, saying, "We are also part of the Dreame family."

It is difficult to find any mention of Dreame in the official promotional language of this company. However, according to Jiemian News, another identity of Smarter is the smart sofa business unit (BU) under Dreame, which is also one of its more than 200 BUs.

Over the past year or so, Dreame has successively launched dozens of funds through the model of jointly establishing industrial guidance funds with local governments. These funds play a crucial role among brands like Smarter and the more than 200 BUs behind them.

In the first half of this year, the fundraising team of Dreame was frequently seen across the country. A person in the primary market told a Jiemian News reporter that he had heard news of this team seeking government financing in various provinces such as Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong, Hubei, Gansu, and Xinjiang.

The more than 200 BUs and the fundraising teams running around the country support Dreame's huge empire and the boundless ambition of its founder, Yu Hao. It also makes the image of this commercial company controversial in the public eye.

Recently, a series of doubts about Dreame's model have emerged on the Internet, and this fast - running model has been put on hold. After the public opinion storm, some local governments urgently stopped their cooperation with Dreame.

"We have indeed been affected recently, and the financing rhythm of many BUs has been disrupted," Wan Jia, an insider of Dreame, told Jiemian News.

But no one believes that this game will end because of this.

The Source and Flow of Money

On December 29, 2025, "Smarter" opened its first store in Yibin, Sichuan. In less than half a year, Smarter's store network has expanded to several cities such as Hangzhou, Hefei, and Changchun.

According to the Tianyancha APP, the operating entity of Smarter is Hangzhou Shushite Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Hangzhou Shushite"), which is jointly invested by Hangzhou Smarter Smart Home Co., Ltd. and Sichuan Zhida Chuanchuang Venture Capital Partnership (hereinafter referred to as "Sichuan Zhida") and was established in 2025. After multiple levels of equity penetration, the actual controller of Hangzhou Smarter is Bai Meifang - she is the only natural person shareholder other than Yu Hao in Dreame Technology (Suzhou) Co., Ltd., holding 2.2865% of the shares.

Yu Hao, the founder of Dreame, and Bai Meifang, the core nominee, have jointly built a huge universe with nearly a thousand affiliated enterprises.

Charting: Zhou Mo

Through the legal structure of independent BUs, preventing the risk from spreading to the main body of Dreame when a single project fails is a rule for the expansion of the Dreame universe.

Smarter is just one aspect of the Dreame universe. As a BU established less than a year ago, a large amount of capital investment is required for research and development, the market, and channels. Therefore, financing has become the top goal of each BU.

The ability to raise funds also determines to some extent the survival period of a new BU in Dreame.

Smarter has raised funds. Where does the money come from? Sichuan Zhida plays a key role.

According to the Tianyancha APP, there are three partners behind Sichuan Zhida. Dazhou Dongxin Urban Management Service Co., Ltd. contributes 80%, Suzhou Zhuiyue Bailing Technology Development Partnership (Limited Partnership) contributes 19%, and Xiamen Chuanchuang Enterprise Management Partnership (Limited Partnership) contributes 1%. The former is wholly - owned by the Finance and Financial Bureau of the Eastern Economic Development Zone of Dazhou, Sichuan, while the latter two are managed funds under the Sky Workshop Venture Capital Fund.

The predecessor of Sky Workshop was Chuanchuang Venture Capital. It is an industrial investment platform initiated by Dreame Technology and also the largest lever for the Dreame ecosystem to leverage external resources.

Jointly establishing funds with local governments and using the same project to drive industrial layouts in different cities is not uncommon in the Dreame ecosystem. Even the same local government may contact six or seven groups of people from Dreame one after another, and they come from different incubators within Dreame.

According to incomplete statistics by Jiemian News, "Sky Workshop Venture Capital" under Dreame manages more than 24 funds with a registered capital of over 25 billion yuan. Among them, there are a total of 31 government LPs (Limited Partners), accounting for about 60% of the subscribed capital.

Initially, the investment ratio negotiated between Sky Workshop and the government was 5:5, with both parties contributing half. However, after the ratio was set at 2:8 in some places, this mechanism changed. Dreame began to require local governments to increase their investment ratio to 80%. An insider of Dreame told Jiemian News, "Once one or two deals are made, the boss will think that this model can be replicated and will require all to follow this ratio."

Except for Nanjing, Xiamen, Suzhou, and Shaoxing where the projects were launched earlier, since the second half of 2025, the vast majority of investment partnerships under Sky Workshop have been established with 80% investment from local state - owned platforms. This includes Jiaxing, Taizhou, Lishui, and Ningbo in Zhejiang, Chengdu, Yibin, and Dazhou in Sichuan, Wuhan and Qianjiang in Hubei, as well as Jiaozuo in Henan and Zaozhuang in Shandong.

Charting: Zhou Mo

While opening a store in Yibin, Hangzhou Shushite also set up subsidiaries in two other cities: Dazhou Smarter Smart Home Co., Ltd. and Qianjiang Smarter Smart Home Co., Ltd. These three cities also have investment relationships with the investment funds under Dreame.

After raising these funds, the money flows through the above - mentioned institutions to some projects among the more than 200 BUs claimed by Dreame, covering many fields such as robotics, smart home, new energy, transportation, artificial intelligence, and consumption.

Meeting Each Other's Needs

The relationship between Dreame and local governments is more like a kind of "meeting each other's needs" that is well - understood by both sides. Local governments need projects, while Dreame needs to disperse the "risks".

In Wan Jia's view, Dreame's model will continue because local governments have the need for industrial implementation, and Dreame precisely meets their requirements. Especially for some small places, in a chaotic market, Dreame may still be the "relatively reliable option".

Tianyancha data shows that as of May 2026, there are 971 off - balance - sheet enterprises directly associated with Yu Hao, the founder of Dreame, and Bai Meifang. Among them, 87.5% were established from 2025 to the first five months of 2026. In 2025 alone, 577 new companies were established, and the pace did not slow down in 2026, with 273 more added in the first five months. On average, a new company was registered every two days in the past year and a half.

Charting: Zhou Mo

In other words, most of these projects are in the very early stage, and their business models and revenue - generating capabilities need to be verified.

Wan Jia admitted that the underlying logic of Dreame's cooperation with local governments is to disperse risks. "Dreame disperses part of the entrepreneurial risks that it should bear to local governments and other social capitals by taking the lead in establishing funds."

An important reason why some local governments are willing to adopt this model is that they are also facing the dilemma of having no good projects to invest in.

Dreame has an established brand, traffic, channels, and supply chain, and it has even "appeared on the Spring Festival Gala". Compared with other unknown projects, investing in Dreame - affiliated projects has become the "optimal solution".

Lei Ming, the co - president of Dreame Technology, also said in response to relevant doubts that it is a very efficient way for the government to attract investment by investing and introduce suitable industries to the local area, which can also better help the city develop. Even if state - owned assets do not invest in projects incubated by the Dreame ecosystem, they will still attract other external projects.

In the reasons for convincing the government to invest, "output value" is an important factor. Some invested projects will locate their businesses in the place where the investing government is located. For example, the intelligent mattress project "Sleep Force Matrix" invested by the joint - venture enterprise between Dazhou, Sichuan and Dreame has registered and established Sichuan Sleep Force Matrix Technology Co., Ltd.

Another situation is that the invested projects set up subsidiaries in various places, and the places where these subsidiaries are located usually participate in the investment in Sky Workshop, just like the AI smart sofa Smarter mentioned above.

Wan Jia told Jiemian News that different local governments value different dimensions, such as output value, tax revenue, and employment. In this case, Dreame will split and implement its business to meet the different needs of the government.

He also pointed out that in this model, local governments do not have control over the specific flow of funds and will not conduct in - depth due diligence on each project invested by the guidance fund. But Wan Jia believes that to some extent, this is a "transparent" approach between Dreame and the government.

"In fact, this is also a kind of protection for local governments. If they directly participate in each specific project, it will be very troublesome if there is a loss in any of the invested projects," a person who has participated in the guidance fund told Jiemian News. "In the current model, as long as Dreame can ensure that the fund as a whole is value - added and preserved, or can meet some specific terms of the local government, there will be no problem."

Lei Ming also mentioned that the company's establishment of funds with local governments is not to forcefully relocate industries to complete the back - investment task. Instead, it conducts a comprehensive assessment of factors such as the matching degree of the industrial chain, talent supply, and costs before implementation. "We don't take the local money and forcefully move the industry there," and "we won't do such a thing that puts the cart before the horse."

The Top Goal and the Probability Game

In Dreame, for a new BU to grow, it depends on two key factors: money and people.

Gao Ge once served as the head of a BU in Dreame. He told Jiemian News that when he first joined Dreame, there were only him and an HR in the BU. The most important task for the BU to start was to recruit people. The hard target for his BU was to expand the number of employees to 200 as soon as possible, "regardless of whether there is really a need for 200 people."

Raising funds is another important task. At the beginning of the establishment of a new BU, it can receive direct capital injection from the company, explore the possibilities of the supply chain to incubate the first - generation products, and the group is willing to give a certain space for trial and error.

In his view, quickly recruiting people is essentially also for the purpose of financing because the scale of the personnel is one of the indicators that investors look at. "You will find that this company seems to be building a model rather than making products."

Yu Hao has elaborated on Dreame's left - hand and right - hand model on many occasions: the left hand is responsible for making money and bringing stable cash flow, while the right hand uses innovation to tell a bigger story. Only when both hands operate simultaneously can there be room for capital imagination.

The business expansion of "Smarter" also follows this logic: as early as the first investment promotion meeting held in November 2025, Smarter vigorously promoted its product concept of "integrating adaptive algorithms, ergonomics, and medical - grade sensing technology into traditional seating" and announced that more than a hundred agents signed contracts on the same day, with orders worth tens of millions of yuan obtained on a single day. These figures also became its chips for "raising funds".

Smarter store display. Picture source: Smarter

Since last year, Dreame's tolerance for BU losses has gradually decreased. In essence, the company has realized that many businesses with heavy investment have achieved little results. "The money you get is equivalent to a loan from the company. If you cannot generate revenue figures as expected quickly, the BU head may face replacement."

And the BUs that have raised funds have the opportunity to be "grouped into BGs (Business Groups)" and incubate more sub - BUs internally. Gao Ge said that this will be more attractive to local governments because theoretically, with more businesses, there will be more projects that may succeed.

When financing becomes the top indicator for each BU, local governments have become the key targets for Dreame. Gao Ge mentioned that the BU heads need to continuously promote financing and go to various places to present their projects. And when new BUs go out for financing, they start negotiating from a valuation of 500 million yuan.

"The figure of 500 million yuan was set by the boss. Everyone thinks it is unrealistic, but Dreame emphasizes high - goal orientation. The boss's logic is that if the model with a valuation of 500 million yuan cannot be made, it is very likely that the one with a valuation of 200 million yuan cannot be made either."

But he also mentioned that local governments have conducted due diligence on their projects and checked the real financial statements. The relationship between them is closer to a "transparent" one, not a blind investment. Perhaps there were indeed some incomplete situations in the early stage, but now the requirements are quite strict. "At least you need to have tens of millions of yuan in revenue to have a better chance of negotiation."

A Dreame BG head once told Jiemian News that Dreame's system design is a great temptation for entrepreneurs.

"What is the success rate of starting a business now? You have to start from scratch. But