Hotnest raises $6M Series A to expand into European and Chinese markets and scale its AI marketing and sales automation platform for SMEs

Hotnest, a China-based AI marketing and consulting automation platform for small and mid-size enterprises (SMEs), announced it has additional $ million Series A to expand its technology team, further develop its AI data analytics solution to expand further into consulting automation and start entering markets outside of China. The round was led by China Merchants Venture Capital and Oriza Capital and followed by existing investor Ants Venture Capital, and others.

Founded in 2014 by Qing Mu and Fabian von Heimburg, the Shanghai, China-based startup offers AI based marketing and consulting automation solutions to brands and companies. Through its platform, companies can monitor, improve and automatize their marketing and sales processes in China and abroad. Aggregating and analyzing billions of different data points in real time from social, e-commerce, search and brand internal data,

Hotnest enables brands to scale their marketing from product launch to growth in a data and result driven way. Clients have executed over 1000 projects on the Hotnest platform. The company currently holds over six registered patents including its NLP software and marketing analytics. Hotnest customers and cooperation partners include small and medium-sized businesses that want to grow in the Chinese market as well as large corporations such as LVMH Group, SAP, WPP Group and Jiubai Group. The company currently has a team of around 40 based in China and Germany.

“Historically we have been very focused on the Chinese market,” said Fabian von Heimburg, co- founder and Managing Director of Hotnest. “As the inflow of western companies into China continues and Chinese brands and companies are increasingly going abroad, one big opportunity for our platform is to automatize and standardize market entry and sales for SME companies in an efficient way. It’s tremendous untapped opportunity to help the next wave of international brands and companies enter the Chinese market. Having such strong local investors, that believe in our AI technology and increasingly international approach is a great sign of confidence.”

“Hotnest has built a team of experienced AI professionals and young entrepreneurs from both Germany and China,” stated Wang Meng, Vice President at China Merchants Venture. “The combination of deep technological know- how and its international approach will allow Hotnest to scale in China and beyond.”

Mi Fei, Partner at Oriza, said: “Marketing and consulting become increasingly consolidated. Hotnest, by using AI and technology, has found a way to help SME’s scale anywhere in the world. Their technology and team are uniquely suited to solve the marketing and scaling challenge that most SME’s face.”

Hotnest and its founders were voted on the Forbes 30 under 30 Lists for both Asia and China, were awarded one of the top international startups in China by Entrepreneur China as well as selected as one of the top AI startup platforms by the city of Shanghai in 2018.