AlphaX Partners ("the Company"), a Beijing-based venture capital (VC) investment company, is celebrating the first initial price offering (IPO) of a firm it invested in -- just two years since its founding. TuanChe Limited, a leading omni-channel automotive marketplace, has announced the pricing of its IPO of 2,600,000 American depositary shares (ADSs) at US$7.80 per ADS, on the Nasdaq Capital Market.

Founded in 2016, AlphaX Partners has been actively investing in promising ventures and expects to harvest more successful IPO projects. AlphaX Partners believes that the best way for the fund to control the risk of a project is to provide quality post-investment service with the sincerest attitude. Partners at the fund thoroughly study the industry of any company that they plan to invest in and make decisions based on carefully-researched reports.

Yaping Yao, a founding partner at AlphaX Partners, said, "We're excited by the validation that TuanChe's IPO provides for our investment strategy. From the moment we decided to invest in TuanChe, we foresaw that there would be great difficulties. The business was not considered promising by market observers. But listing is not the end; we hope that through the public and transparent records of TuanChe's business performance, people in the industry can see the value of such businesses."

AlphaX Partners's approach is one of involvement in the companies that it invests in and is not supposed to end after a company's IPO.

Before investing in TuanChe, Yao made efforts to talk to over 30 sales managers of 4S shops and visited hundreds of its clients to collect first-hand information. Through this field work, Yao was able to get a sense of TuanChe's operational situation, boosting his confidence in the investment of the firm.

After investing in TuanChe, and during its four subsequent financing rounds, Yao took on a role akin to a "business partner." He provided personal loans to the firm when it experienced difficulties and helped them find bank loans. He also encouraged the firm to experiment with different strategies and guided the company to a new business direction by connecting the team members with relevant stakeholders and recommending suitable CFO candidates.

When TuanChe launched its pre-IPO, Yao introduced important investors and investment banks to the team. He even participated in their listing road show. On average, partners at AlphaX Partners invest in three to five projects every year, and they will spend at least half of their time and energy on post-investment service of each project, ensuring a higher success rate of their investments. Such deep participation paves way for a high return.

Through timely communication, AlphaX Partners has helped the entrepreneurial teams under its wing, including TuanChe, to achieve their goals and stand at leading positions in their corresponding sectors in a multi-dimensional and multi-faceted manner.