Yeahka Increases Investments in Payment Service Industry and Empowers Business Services through Continued Development in SaaS Technology

HONG KONG, July 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- YEAHKA LIMITED ("Yeahka" or the "Company", stock code: 9923.HK), a leading technology platform in China, was listed on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited in June 2020. The shares of the Company initially offered under the Hong Kong Public Offering and International Offering were significantly over-subscribed and very significantly over-subscribed respectively. After the listing, a number of brokers, including CLSA, China Renaissance, and Oriental Patron, initiated buy ratings on Yeahka, reflecting the capital market's confidence in the Company's business model and future prospects.

As payment technologies mature, demand from merchants for digital and smart solutions continues to increase, with the aim to acquire customers and improve overall customer experience through the use of innovative technologies. As the leading payment-based technology platform in China, Yeahka has rapidly expanded its customer base in recent years, and has accumulated vast volumes of data through countless payment transactions, enabling the Company to leverage its growing expertise in big data analysis and the use of AI technology to further fulfill the needs of merchants and consumers for digital and smart solutions.

In March 2019, Yeahka and its shareholder Recruit Holdings Co., Ltd ("Recruit Holdings"), a renowned Japanese internet company, jointly established RYK Capital Partners Limited ("RYK Capital Partners"), an industrial investment platform. Yeahka will continue to explore investment opportunities across the business services and technology fields via RYK Capital Partners, aiming to create synergies with Yeahka's strategies.

Investment platform continues to expand in the industry

More recently, Yeahka has expanded its payment and SaaS business through its investment platform by continuing to strengthen its value chain from payments to business services to create value for merchants and consumers.

In May 2020, Yeahka, through RYK Capital Partners, increased investment in Fushi Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd.'s payment and service platform "Haoshengyi". Haoshengyi connects a variety of payment methods, assisting merchants to consolidate cash register and integrated billing functions, as well as to offer them store management and customer services. Haoshengyi has been expanding rapidly by effectively capitalizing on market opportunities that stem from the evolving digital economy, where micro and small merchants are in dire need of intelligent business solutions. Expanding gradually from cities, Haoshengyi is now available in 17 cities including Shanghai, Shenzhen, Wuhan, and Chengdu. Haoshengyi serves numerous micro and small businesses across various sectors, including from catering, retail, fashion, lifestyle, entertainment to social services, on-campus services, postal services, automobiles, telecommunications and hospitals. Yeahka's investment in Haoshengyi has further strengthened its own sales channels and business operations, enabling Yeahka to offer in-depth payment and business services empowered by technology for more merchants and consumers. 

In June 2020, Yeahka, through RYK Capital Partners, made a strategic investment in Shenzhen Zhibaiwei Technology Development Co., Ltd. ("Zhibaiwei"), a leading SaaS software developer in China. Yeahka will further collaborate closely with Zhibaiwei on value-added services such as payment solutions, SaaS software, and marketing services. Zhibaiwei is a development and operations service provider that focuses on retail, ERP for the catering industry, SaaS, mobile internet and O2O technology platform. Zhibaiwei provides customers with a comprehensive range of solutions that include management consulting, mobile payments, equipment procurement, system integration and technical services. As of the end of 2019, Zhibaiwei cumulatively served nearly 300,000 merchants across China.

Technology-enabled smart services catering to merchants' needs in all scenarios

By leveraging transaction data generated from the Company's payment services and powered by AI-enabled image recognition, intelligent credit analysis and scoring technologies, Yeahka offers a variety of technology-enabled business services, including merchant SaaS products and marketing services, allowing merchants to improve operational efficiency and effectively reach target markets. At the same time, Yeahka creates value by enabling companies to improve their end-to-end ecosystems and promoting transactions between merchants and consumers.

As a pioneer in providing technology-enabled business services to merchants, Yeahka successfully launched Smart Shopkeeper in 2015, an intelligent ordering machine. By using Smart Shopkeeper, customers can use Yeahka's restaurant management app to view menus and place orders, which helps restaurants alleviate the pressure on their staff during the peak hours and improve their operational efficiency. The Smart Shopkeeper has been the bestselling and the second-bestselling cash register on Tmall and Pinduoduo, respectively.

In March 2020, Yeahka launched Juhuisaosao, the Company's proprietary smart payment speaker application, which supports a wide variety of payment methods. The app enables voice reminders to merchants when new payments arrive, thus minimizing the likelihood of missed or lost orders during business rush hours. Juhuisaosao also enables merchants to gain additional insights into their business performance through analysis of transaction data gathered within the app.

In the same month, Yeahka launched Yuehuiquan, a coupon aggregation platform which enables merchants to build their customer base for private marketing, through the creation, distribution, receipt and sharing of coupons to acquire customers. It helps merchants to maintain customer relationships, while providing customers a platform to acquire coupons, achieving a win-win situation for all parties.

Continuous investment in tech innovations to build a new smart payment ecosystem

Throughout the development of Yeahka in recent years, with the aim of creating a smart payment ecosystem, Yeahka has been investing to upgrade its technology through strategic investments in RYK Capital Partners and developing products for SaaS and sales services across its own platforms. Looking ahead, Yeahka will further increase its strategic investments in upstream and downstream business sectors, as well as in basic technologies and core product upgrades. Yeahka will also explore comprehensive scenario-specific functionalities for mobile payments and smart marketing services by leveraging technological innovations in AI and cloud computing. This will improve the Company's ability to offer premium customized services, while creating tangible value for merchants and consumers. By leveraging its strong technological innovation and risk management capabilities, the Company will continue to develop and build a sustainable and trusted technology platform.

About YEAHKA LIMITED (9923.HK)

YEAHKA LIMITED ("Yeahka" or the "Company") is a leading payment-based technology platform in China providing payment and business services to merchants and consumers. As of December 31, 2019, Yeahka was one of the only 16 payment service providers that were granted both the national bank card acquiring license and mobile phone payment license. The Company has one of the largest third-party payment service customer bases in China, and it is growing rapidly. According to Oliver Wyman, Inc., Yeahka is the second largest non-bank independent QR code payment service provider in China, with approximately 14.0% market share in terms of transaction count in 2019. Leveraging the customer base and data assets acquired from payment services, the Company has extended its product and service offerings to technology-enabled business services, which have enabled the Company to complete an end-to-end ecosystem which facilitates transactions between merchants and consumers and creates value for merchants and consumers.