Dear UpHonest Friends & Family,

As 2021 is coming to an end, we would like to take this opportunity to thank you for being a part of our community, and share with you what we have been up to in this past year filled with challenges, excitements, and gains.

Since 2015, we have invested in 350 companies who believe have the potential to become future builders, among them:

• 20 portcos have reached unicorn status (+10 in 2021)
• 70 portcos valued at over $100MM (+14 in 2021)
• 100+ portcos valued at over $50MM (+25 in 2021)
• 20+ exits via IPO and M&A (+2 IPO/ SPAC, +3 M&A in 2021)
• 74 portcos received the next rounds of financing in 2021
• 8 portcos completed 2+ up rounds in 2021

Great Wins from Portcos

While 74 portcos managed to raise new up rounds this year, 8 portcos managed to complete 2+ rounds of financing. Among them, GrubMarket ($1.2B), Rescale and Turing ($1.1B) reached unicorn status during 2021.

• Boom (Fund I), the supersonic airliner received a strategic investment from American Express Ventures in March, followed by a $45MM investment from Prime Movers Lab. United Airlines also committed to purchase 15 planes from Boom, with the option to purchase 35 more in the future.

• Grubmarket (Fund I), the San Francisco-based food tech company raised $200MM in a Series E round of financing valued at over $1.2B. The company is now at a $1B ARR, having grown revenues 300% over the previous year.

• MioTech (Fund I), the leading AI-based sustainability data and technology provider, wraps up 2021 with 3 rounds of financing led by investors including HSBC, J.P Morgan, GIC, and Guotai Junan International.

• Outer (Fund II), the leading DTC outdoor furniture brand received $50MM in its Series B round of financing led by Capital Today, 8 months after completing its Series A round of financing led by Sequoia Capital China.

• PPIO (Fund II), the decentralized cloud service platform developer and service provider, picked up $15.6MM in its latest Series A1 round of financing, just half a year away from receiving $10MM in a Pre-A round in May this year.

• Rescale (Fund I), the high-performance computing cloud platform accelerating engineering breakthroughs, raised $105MM in an expanded Series C that included Jeff Bezos, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Richard Branson, Paul Graham, and Peter Thiel. The proceeds bring the company’s total capital raised to $155MM.

• Turing (Fund II), the international hiring platform placing remote developers with an AI-powered vetting process, raised $87MM in a Series D round of financing that values the startup at $1.1B. Since its general launch about a year ago, Turing’s annualized revenue rose from $17K to $10MM, with Fast Company naming the company one of 10 most innovative companies in the workplace category in 2021, making it to the Forbes’ List of America’s Best Startup Employers for 2021, and being awarded #1 in the highly competitive B2B category for The Information's 50 Most Promising Startups list in 2021.

• Coco100 (Beta), the low sugar and sugar-free coconut beverage maker, closed 2 rounds of financing in a roll (April and May) from investors including Zhen Fund and Plum Ventures.

Moreover, several portcos that we newly invested in 2021 have already received their next rounds of financing.

• Milly Rock (Fund II), the contemporary fashion holding company and brand incubator founded in Los Angeles in 2021, raised $10MM in a Series A round of financing led by BAI Capital.

• Moonshot Brands (Fund II), the rapidly growing platform that buys, launches, and scales DTC and marketplace e-commerce brands raised $160MM in funding in June, and plans to set up a team of 10 by next year in China while expanding its portfolio of third-party sellers; Moonshot currently stands with a 12-month GMV@~40MM, and is in the midst of raising its Series A round of financing.

2 new IPO exits via SPAC, both of which we entered during the seed stage:

• Vicarious Surgical (Fund I), the next-generation medical robotics company, went public in a $1.1B SPAC deal (NYSE: RBOT). The proceeds from the SPAC merger is expected to fund the further development and planned commercialization of the single-incision Vicarious system, which received FDA breakthrough device designation in 2019. We entered during the seed stage back in 2015, and are proud to have been on this journey with Adam Sachs and the entire team since the very beginning.

• Hims & Hers (Fund II), the DTC one-stop telehealth company, went public in a $1.6B SPAC deal (NYSE:HIMS). Our first check in was in seed stage back in 2017, and while competitors had seen huge spikes due to the pandemic, the company’s revenue increased 67% YoY, from 2019’s $83MM to an estimated $138MM in 2020.

ESG, Sustainability and Diversity

Since Day 1, constructing a sustainably diverse portfolio has been a key driver for us. In fact, 59.39% of all of our portfolios are founded by females or entrepreneurs from immigrant groups. We are always keeping diversity into our ecosystem and building diversity into the primary investing process itself.

We have all witnessed a clear shift in the direction of corporate social responsibilities for companies all around the world, just as we have been constantly embracing sustainable practices. Our team has come up with an ESG framework, where we analyze startups using a set of criteria (each of the criteria is also rated from 1 to 5) - either generic, common to all companies regardless of their business sector, or sector-specific. The higher the score is, the investment is considered more sustainable and responsible.

This could also be reflected in our investment strategies, as we are actively involved in the AgTech, BioTech and FoodTech scene, among many other carbon neutral initiatives. We live up to this belief by backing indoor urban farming company Square Roots, sustainable nitrogen fertilizer maker Kula Bio, and alternative palm oil producer C16 Biosciences, just to name a few.

Some great wins from our portfolio companies on this dimension in 2021:

• The EVERY Company (Fund II), formerly known as Clara Foods recently closed an oversubscribed $175MM Series C Round as it drives scale-up of its B2B animal-free protein platform.

• Hey Maet (Beta), the leading plant-based meat company in China, raised $2MM in its Pre-A round of financing led by Welight Capital and Junsan Capital.

• Kula Bio (Fund II), the Boston-based company developing more sustainable nitrogen fertilizers for crops raised $10MM in a seed round led by Collaborative Fund in May.

• Lime (Fund I), the shared electric micro-mobility giant, raised an oversubscribed $523MM to invest in its decarbonization efforts, with the plan to bring the company public next year.

• MioTech (Fund I), the leading AI-based sustainability data and technology provider, wraps up 2021 with 3 rounds of financing led by investors including HSBC, J.P Morgan, GIC, and Guotai Junan International.

• Rebellyous Foods (Fund II), the plant-based food tech startup founded by a former Boeing engineer, announced that they are bringing plant-based chicken nuggets, patties and tenders to 200 Safeways across the Pacific Northwest and Alaska.

• SIMULATE (Fund II), the company behind Nuggs closed a $50MM Series B round led by Alexis Ohanian’s 776 in June, bringing the alternative-meat company's total funding raised to almost $60MM and $260MM in valuation.

New ESG portcos that we invested in this year:

• Greenwork (Beta), a company that is helping grow the workforce for clean energy and new infrastructure. Starting by building LinkedIn for blue-collar workers, the company helps government-funded training programs find jobs for the ten million people they train per year.

• KOKOLU (Fund III), a sustainable lifestyle brand and the maker of a sleek velvet sneaker made out of 100% recycled and natural materials. The company is working closely with the SINOPEC New Material R&D Center, while committed to achieving its carbon neutrality goal in the entire supply chain by 2023.

• Yali Bio (Fund II), a food tech company that makes synthetic, plant-based fat products. The company raised millions of dollars in a pre-seed round a couple of months ago, which will be mainly used for R&D of early products.

• Velotric (Fund III), the urban e-bike producer that is on a mission to become a leading e-bike brand. Developed by the ex-Lime hardware founding team in China, Velotric makes sleek, ergonomic, and high-performance e-bikes for its customers.

Awards & Recognitions

• Wei Guo, our founder, was awarded the “36 under 36 Amazing Investor” by 36Kr.

• Ellen Ma, our MD in the U.S. was awarded the “2021 U.S. Innovation Outstanding Awards” by Hurun, and “Forbes 30 under 30” for North America in 2022 under the Venture Capital category.

• UpHonest Capital was rewarded as “2021 China’s TOP 100 Venture Capital Voted by Entrepreneurs” and “2021 China’s TOP 10 Investment Firms in Overseas Market” by 36Kr. We were competing alongside 359 VCs, and this reward encourages us to keep putting founders and portfolio support our first priority.

As we step into 2022, we will continuously strive to unlock more innovations and empower more founders in the cross-border network, as we have always been since day 1.

Thank you for your support on this journey investing in future builders with us, and we hope you are equally excited as us to see what the future holds, as we wish you a very prosperous year ahead.

Kindly Regards,

UpHonest Team