SaaS startup Black Lake (黑湖科技) that aims to reconfigure manufacturing with IoT, mobile and data solutions has announced that it has completed its RMB 10 million Series A financing. The round was led by GGV Capital and included the company’s angel investors Zhen Fund and China Growth Capital. The company was founded in early 2016 and completed its $ 1 million angel round of financing in June of the same year.
Black Lake is a part of China’s push to modernize its manufacturing and bring it to the 4th Industrial Revolution. The Shanghai-based company uses cloud data coordination with monitoring and analysis software to make use the data made by factories which would otherwise be wasted. The data helps manufacturers better understand how to optimize equipment use and the production process.
CEO of Black Lake Zhou Yuxiang quit his job in finance in 2015 to start his company.
“With China’s overall macro economic slowdown and rising labor costs, the traditional manufacturing enterprises are facing two major problems: weak income growth and declining profit margins,” said Zhou for 36kr (in Chinese). “Many of the clients I’ve been looking for have been increasingly hoping to reverse their difficult position through information technology.”
Black Lake’s team hails from companies such as IBM, ABB, Foxconn, Ele.me, Ctrip, Morgan Stanley and other firms.