GGV, Soul Capital lead Series B for China's Yunmanman

The Nanjing-headquartered company launched its first independent app in February following a three-year incubation period. Core team members are from Alibaba Group, JD.com, and Trip.com.

The platform covers 100,000 routes across 300 cities in China, linking 600,000 cargo owners and 270,000 registered refrigerated vehicles - or 70% of the country's total stock of refrigerated vehicles. In the first five months of 2023, more than 21m tons of goods were transported, according to a Soul Capital statement.

The platform leverages big data and strong algorithm capabilities to match cargo owners and drivers. On average, it takes 13 minutes to complete a matching, but the fastest ones happen within seconds.

China's cold chain infrastructure remains underdeveloped compared to some neighbouring countries. In Japan, for example, over 90% of fruit, vegetables, and seafood are transported through cold chain logistics, rising to 100% for meat and poultry products. China's cold chain penetration for vegetables, meat, and seafood is 35%, 57%, and 69%, respectively.

Given the scope for expansion, China's cold chain industry will see compound annual growth of 17.5% between 2022 and 2026, reaching CNY 1trn in value, according to the China Federation of Logistics & Purchasing (CFLP).

Soul Capital was launched in 2022 by Herry Han, formerly a founding partner at Lightspeed China Partners. At Lightspeed, Han participated in Manbang's Series A in 2014 and re-upped seven times, culminating in the company's US IPO in 2021.

Other cold chain logistics investments in China include Ruiyun Cold Chain, which closed a USD 28m round last year.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Technology
• Early-stage
• China
• Logistics
• GGV Capital
• Xiang He Capital
• Transportation
• Soul Capital