Anker took action and invested in another big seller!

Not just selling goods, cross-border sellers are playing "cross-border"!

In the field of cross-border e-commerce, many sellers may no longer be limited to selling goods alone, but are developing multiple channels. There are also many cases where sellers are also engaged in logistics, training, etc.

Some cross-border big sellers have even extended their tentacles into the investment field.

Anker took action and invested in a big seller!

Founded in July 2022, Xingmai Innovation Beatbot is a new player in the swimming pool robot field.

In March 2023, Xingmai Innovation completed an angel round of financing of approximately RMB 200 million. Recently, Xingmai Innovation once again announced the successful completion of its A round of financing. After two rounds of financing, the company’s cumulative financing total exceeded RMB 500 million, with a valuation of nearly RMB 2 billion.

This round of financing will be mainly used for product development, talent recruitment and market expansion. StarMed Innovation plans to expand its market to Europe, Australia, South America and the Middle East in a parallel online and offline manner.

Yienjun learned that this round of financing was jointly led by Cathay Capital, Monolith, and Anker Innovations, and followed by Hillhouse Capital, Shunwei Capital, Source Code Capital, Yunmu Capital, Wuzhong Financial Holdings, and Professor Gao Bingqiang.

Among the list of leading investors, Anker Innovations must be familiar to everyone. As a well-known cross-border 3C seller, Anker's products have been very popular overseas. Anker has dabbled in investment fields and has taken a fancy to and invested in Starmai Innovations. What is so special about this company?

It is understood that technological innovation is the core driving force of Beatbot. The Beatbot brand is in the leading position in the industry in core technologies such as brushless water pumps, AUV space motion, sonar laser SLAM, and groundbreaking industry innovations. At present, it has more than 131 patents (authorized and pending), including 51 invention patents.

Beatbot has its own independent website and a store on Amazon. Its products include high-end products with a price of over $1,000, as well as relatively "affordable" products with a price of around $400. Currently, many products on Amazon have good sales, including a swimming pool cleaner with a price of about $400, with monthly sales exceeding 800 orders. Overall, consumers gave it a high score of 4.8.

In the first half of 2024, Beatbot became the best-selling brand of high-end robotic pool cleaners.

Yi En Jun learned that at the beginning of this year, Xingmai Innovation released the world's first 5-in-1 high-end pool cleaning robot. In less than one month of pre-sale, the overall pre-sale sales have exceeded 1,000 units! This number is approximately equal to the total sales of Amazon's high-end pool robots in January, capturing 50% of the demand in the US online high-end market. In just half a year, it achieved hundreds of millions of sales and obtained 85% of the market share in the price range above US$1,400.

Yang Meng, founder and CEO of Anker Innovations , the main investor, said : "Garden cleaning robots are a category with broad market opportunities. The Xingmai team has a keen insight into the unmet market demand and has invested a lot of energy in achieving technological breakthroughs and product innovation."

Anker has invested in many companies! It is the second largest shareholder of Zhiou

In fact, this is not the first time Anker has participated in an investment. Public information shows that Anker is also a shareholder of cross-border sellers such as Zhiou Technology and Lanshen Technology, and its investment categories mainly cover home and outdoor products.

Lanshen Technology : Since its establishment, it has obtained three rounds of financing. Among them, in the B round of financing obtained in May 2021, Anker Innovations and IDG Capital were the main investors.

Lanshen Technology is a cross-border e-commerce company that mainly sells musical instruments, outdoor sports, luggage, etc. Its main sales channels are third-party platforms such as Amazon, eBay, Walmart and AliExpress, as well as its own websites .

The Donner brand promoted by BlueShen Technology is well-known on the Amazon platform. As early as 2014, a ukulele product ranked No. 1 on the Amazon Best Seller list. In 2020, Donner ranked among the top 3 Amazon musical instrument brands in the world, with annual revenue reaching 1.5 billion yuan.

Zhiou Technology: Successfully listed on the A-share market in June 2023. Zhiou has experienced at least four rounds of financing, among which Anker cannot be ignored. In June 2018, Anker publicly stated that it would make further investments in Zhiou and subscribed for a capital contribution of 45.48 million yuan.

Now Anker is the second largest shareholder of Zhiou, holding 8.24% of the shares, second only to Zhiou’s founder Song Chuan.

Zhiou is a major cross-border home furnishing brand, with revenue of 3.721 billion yuan and net profit of 172 million yuan in the first half of this year.

According to incomplete statistics, Anker also holds 1.2573% of the shares of Zhiyan, a major home furnishing company , and 4.81% of the shares of Poseidon, a major outdoor products company.

Judging from Anker 's investment layout, although its focus is mainly on the sales field, it also dabbles in semiconductors and new energy fields. By investing in upstream suppliers or manufacturers , it can gain greater autonomy in the operation process.

The "investment" trend is blowing in the cross-border circle !

Investment is not exclusive to Anker . Many cross-border companies have already entered the investment field. For example, 3C big seller JMET invested 8.8 million yuan in the intelligent robot company SIOTO. Zhiou Technology and Saiwei are also eyeing this track.

In November 2023, Zhiou Technology and Saiwei Times issued an investment announcement, stating that they will jointly invest with professional investment institutions to establish the Hainan Zhaofu Trade New Business Equity Investment Fund (Limited Partnership) (hereinafter referred to as: Hainan Zhaofu Fund).

Recently, Hainan Zhaofu Fund has added 6 limited partners, including Jesse, Yidayun, and Feishu Shennuo, and now has a total of 12 partners. Among them, Jesse is a well-known home furnishing seller in the cross-border circle, while Yidayun and Feishu Shennuo focus on the cross-border e-commerce service field. The cross-border sellers and service providers will work together to invest mainly in early-stage cross-border e-commerce companies, while taking into account mature projects. There are four main investment directions:

First, cross-border e-commerce companies in the fields of consumer electronics, clothing and apparel, furniture and home furnishings, outdoor sports, home appliances, and personal care;

Second, e-commerce companies with intelligent and digital products and potentially popular consumer categories or tracks that have the potential to go overseas and globalize;

The third is service providers that can provide technical support for cross-border logistics, finance, marketing, payment, etc.;

Fourth, technology research and development companies such as artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, and cloud computing that can effectively empower cross-border brands.

Damai has begun to dabble in the investment field. On the one hand, it not only provides an additional profit channel, but also allows it to tap into high-quality projects upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, improve the profitability and sustainable development capabilities of its main business segments, and enhance its core competitiveness. On the other hand, it can also help cross-border "potential stock" companies grow and develop faster. From this perspective, this is undoubtedly a win-win situation.

However, this also shows to a certain extent that cross-border e-commerce has long passed the era of wild growth of "grassroots competition", and is accelerating its progress towards capitalization as the entry threshold is gradually raised.

Anker