Chinese Enterprises Globalization Weekly | Ant International completes approximately USD 1.2 billion Series A financing, Zhixiang Future secures RMB 1.5 billion Series C financing

Top Headlines

Registration for the dedicated matchmaking session of the Dubai Business Forum is ongoing, helping domestic enterprises lock in resources for expanding into Dubai

The 5th "Dubai Business Forum" will be held in Shenzhen on October 14, 2026, the list of high-standard delegations has been released — Dubai government agencies, core consortia and investment institutions will all be present. In addition to the main forum, the forum has set up a special matchmaking agenda of the "Empower Growth Series", through one-on-one all-weather business matchmaking and market access practical consultation room, to fully assist domestic enterprises in securing resources for expanding into Dubai, connecting with high-quality partners, and deeply cultivating the Middle East market. Up to now, more than 500 leading enterprises from popular industries such as digital technology, intelligent manufacturing, cross-border logistics, new energy and retail consumption have successfully registered for the conference. Seats are limited. Enterprises with matchmaking demands please scan the QR code below orclick "Here" to register early and open an exclusive matchmaking channel.

Company Updates

Cainiao's European G2G service is further upgraded: fastest 4-day delivery in Eastern Europe, pick-up available from 50 orders in Germany

On July 20, Cainiao announced the completion of the upgrade of its European G2G (country-to-country) cross-border logistics service: the Eastern Europe delivery network is fully connected, the delivery efficiency is increased by 1 natural day, and bulk warehouse pick-up is simultaneously launched for the Germany route. Relying on its local European distribution network, Cainiao has now achieved delivery within 4-6 natural days from all over Europe to various countries in Eastern Europe, covering major markets such as Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Romania and Bulgaria. A new bulk warehouse pick-up mode has been added for the Germany route. For orders shipped from all over Europe to Germany, pick-up can be arranged once the order volume reaches 50, no full container or large batch shipment is required. (Cainiao Official)

Best Cross-border officially launches layout of the South American market

On July 19, Best Cross-border announced the launch of its layout in the South American market. This layout starts with the "China-Brazil cross-border corridor" opened in May this year, and will later expand to Mexico, Argentina, Chile and other countries. At present, Best Cross-border has established 21,000 outlets across the country, 58 cross-border collection windows, and two major consolidation warehouses in Guangzhou and Yiwu relying on Best Express in China; on the overseas side, it has built an overseas warehouse distribution network relying on the group's overseas warehouses, local express and express delivery networks in Southeast Asia. (Ennews)

BYD becomes official partner of Paris Saint-Germain, launching three-year global strategic cooperation

News on July 17: BYD has reached a global strategic cooperation relationship with Paris Saint-Germain Football Club (PSG), and this cooperation will last until June 2029. The agreement covers international publicity activities, immersive experiences, event linkage, exclusive content creation for men's and women's teams, and multi-market promotion activities, and the vehicles of both parties will also be included in the club's daily operation fleet. At present, BYD's business has covered more than 120 countries and regions around the world, and it continues to improve its industrial and commercial layout in Europe. (BYD Auto Official)

Ford and Geely establish a joint venture in Spain to supply products to Europe

On July 23, Ford and Geely Auto announced their cooperation in Europe, which will produce a new generation of multi-energy models at the Spanish plant, covering fuel, hybrid and pure electric and other power forms. Geely Auto will put two new energy models into production at the Valencia plant, and the first model will be rolled off the production line in 2028. In the first half of 2026, Geely Auto's overseas sales reached 474,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 158%. (Ford Motor Official)

Horizon Robotics reaches cooperation with Volkswagen Group

On July 22, Horizon Robotics and Volkswagen Group officially announced that through CARIZON, the joint venture between CARIAD and Horizon Robotics, Volkswagen Group will further deepen its technical cooperation with Horizon Robotics in the field of AI foundation large model. Horizon Robotics' AI foundation large model will cooperate with the system-on-chip C7H under development by CARIZON and the GAIA world model data platform to promote the implementation of L3 and L4 level autonomous driving of Volkswagen Group. According to the plan, Volkswagen Group's L3 level autonomous driving capability will start delivery as early as the second half of 2027. (36Kr)

Freetech obtains designated project qualification from international brand, "Fuxing" solution wins overseas order

On July 22, Freetech's "Fuxing" front-view integrated camera solution obtained the mass production project designation from a well-known international brand. This solution supports flexible configuration from 2V5R to 1VnR, meets the mandatory standards for L2 assisted driving and AEB regulations, adapts to commercial scenarios such as light trucks and heavy trucks, and will be mass-produced in 2027. At present, Freetech's ADAS solutions have entered multiple markets such as Europe and Southeast Asia. (Freetech Official)

CATL signs agreement with Solarpro to build the first large-scale sodium-ion energy storage project in Central and Eastern Europe

News on July 21: CATL signed a 2GWh Tianheng sodium-ion energy storage cooperation agreement with Eastern European renewable energy enterprise Solarpro. The two parties plan to deploy the first large-scale sodium-ion energy storage project in Central and Eastern Europe within 2026. The cooperation adopts CATL's Tianheng sodium-ion energy storage system, which has a cycle life of 15,000 times, a capacity retention rate of 92% at -20℃, and is suitable for severe cold environments. This system is compatible with the size of lithium batteries and supports seamless switching. Previously, the two parties have implemented 150MWh liquid-cooled energy storage and 602MWh zero-attenuation lithium battery projects in Bulgaria, helping to increase the local energy storage capacity by 10%. (Yicai Global)

Wheel Intelligent officially reaches cooperation with Siemens

News on July 20: Wheel Intelligent and Siemens officially reached cooperation during WAIC. Relying on Wheel Intelligent's three-in-one full-stack self-developed simulation platform SimFoundry, the two parties will promote the long-term accumulated physical models, engineering parameters and process knowledge in industrial software into simulation capabilities that robots can continuously call, further connect training, evaluation and real deployment, and provide full-stack physical AI infrastructure support for robots to enter complex industrial scenarios. (36Kr)

TenPay Global reaches cooperation with Freedom Bank of Kazakhstan

News on July 21: TenPay Global, a cross-border payment platform under Tencent, has reached cooperation with Freedom Bank of Kazakhstan. The two parties will promote the interconnection of cross-border QR code payments, and expand cooperation in cross-border remittance, cross-border commerce and other fields. At present, WeChat Pay's "Overseas Use for Domestic Services" service has supported more than 40 overseas wallets in 13 countries and regions. (Securities Daily Online)

BeiGene adds 300 million US dollars in investment to expand its US production layout

On July 23, BeiGene announced that it will add an additional investment of 300 million US dollars to expand its flagship production base and clinical R&D center located in the Princeton West Innovation Park in Hopewell, New Jersey, USA, add small molecule drug production capacity, and improve the company's global production and supply system. (Jiemian News)

Investment & Financing

Ant International completes about 1.2 billion US dollars Series A financing to promote global business expansion

On July 21, Ant International announced that it has completed Series A financing. Ant Group, as well as some existing shareholders including Alibaba and many internationally renowned investment institutions participated in this round of financing. The financing amount of this round is about 1.2 billion US dollars, which will be used to expand global business, accelerate investment in cutting-edge technologies such as AI, and expand inclusive fintech services such as cross-border payment and global accounts. At present, Ant International's business covers major markets in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Latin America, connecting more than 150 million global merchants and more than 2 billion consumer accounts. (The Paper)

HiDream.ai completes 1.5 billion yuan Series C financing, its AI products have served more than 100 countries and regions

On July 23, HiDream.ai, a large model technology innovation company, announced the completion of 1.5 billion yuan of Series C financing. This round of financing is jointly led by Sichuan Revitalization Science and Technology Innovation Fund under the National Social Security Fund, ICBC Capital, Hongyi Asset Management and Dunhong Capital, followed by many institutions such as Xiamen Guomao Capital and SFC New Vision Fund. Old shareholders including Hefei Industrial Investment, Oriental Fortune Capital and Golden Pine Investment continued to increase their investment. At present, its AI products have cumulatively served more than 40,000 enterprise customers in more than 100 countries and regions around the world. Another OPC content creation tool for professional creators, vivago, has 50 million registered users worldwide, with 6 million to 8 million monthly active users, more than 80% of whom are overseas. (36Kr)

River Robotics completes hundreds of millions of yuan Series C financing, bringing intelligent special robots to global industrial sites

On July 21, River Robotics announced the completion of hundreds of millions of yuan of Series C financing, led by Qiangang Capital under the Zhejiang state-owned assets, jointly invested by Zhongji Holdings, Guangtou Capital, Guohai Securities, Juntong Capital and other institutions, and old shareholder Fosun Rui Zheng continued to increase its investment. River Robotics focuses on the R&D of high-altitude intelligent special robots, including a number of high-altitude robot products such as ship derusting, chemical anti-corrosion, spherical tank grinding, and thermal power inspection. At present, the company has served domestic and foreign customers such as COSCO Heavy Industry, CSSC, Vopak of the Netherlands, and Saudi Aramco, and has cumulatively obtained hundreds of millions of yuan in overseas orders. (36Kr)

Policy & Market

Global chip equipment sales are expected to grow by 23.2% in 2026, reaching 229.5 billion US dollars by 2028

News on July 21: Driven by increased investment in AI infrastructure, the global semiconductor manufacturing equipment market is expected to reach a record high in 2028. According to the report released by SEMI, the global semiconductor equipment sales are expected to grow by 23.2% in 2026 to reach 165.9 billion US dollars, and will hit a record high of 229.5 billion US dollars by 2028. (Sina Finance)

In June, Chinese brands accounted for 34% of the European PHEV market share, hitting a record high

News on July 24: Data released by market research firm Dataforce shows that in June, the market share of Chinese brands in the European new plug-in hybrid (PHEV) vehicle market exceeded one third, hitting a record high. Chinese automakers including BYD and Chery accounted for 34% of the delivery volume of PHEV models in Europe that month. Data for the same period shows that Chinese brands accounted for 11% of the overall new car market in Europe, and 15% of the pure electric passenger vehicle market in Europe. (Bloomberg)

Indian enterprises accelerate the adoption of Chinese large models, the cost is only one tenth of that of American models

News on July 21: Driven by cost pressure, Indian startups and technology enterprises are accelerating the adoption of large language models (LLMs) developed by Chinese companies such as DeepSeek, Alibaba and Moonshot AI. The input cost is as low as 0.19 US dollars per million tokens, while the input cost of similar products from US company OpenAI is as high as 5-12 US dollars, and the output cost is 30-54 US dollars. The cost of Chinese models is only one tenth or even lower than that of American models. At present, service providers such as Microsoft have provided access to these open source weight models in India. (Ennews)

English Services

Service | KrASIA launches new English media services for Chinese enterprises expanding globally

In the current complex pattern of the global economy, English reports are not only an important means to convey value propositions to overseas customers and consumers, but also the cognitive precipitation of enterprises in the world. KrASIA (kr-asia.com), an English media, is committed to introducing Chinese business and culture to the world. About 60% of the readers of the English website are business people in core Southeast Asian countries. Through excellent search engine optimization, professional English content, reliable social media matrix, as well as external inclusion platforms such as Bloomberg Terminal and Dow Jones Factiva, the world's top information and data platforms, KrASIA helps Chinese companies enhance their global brands. If your company has relevant demands for English communication, or hopes to cooperate with KrASIA to provide global expansion services, welcome to scan the QR code below or click "Here" to fill in the form, obtain the price list of KrASIA media services and the contact information of the staff.

Japanese Services

Service | 36Kr Japan combines "Chinese Efficiency" with "Japanese Expression"

Japan is a relatively prudent commercial society for foreign brands. As a strategic partner of Nikkei, the authoritative media group, 36Kr Japan (https://36kr.jp) provides another path for Chinese enterprises to enter the Japanese market: relying on a vertical media platform that has been recognized by the local Japanese market and always adheres to localized operation, through the content matrix of mainstream Japanese channels such as Yahoo! News, SmartNews and a local business community network of more than 8000 people, translate the technical language and business logic of Chinese enterprises into expressions that the