Vice-Premier Wang Yang Cheers On Farm Friend at Innovation & Entrepreneurship Week
On the afternoon of September 18, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice-Premier of the State Council Wang Yang arrived at the Beijing venue of the 2017 Innovation & Entrepreneurship Week event, where he listened in on updates on the event from all around the country as well as on the Beijing event in particular.
Vice-Premier Wang Yang making a pit stop at the Farm Friend booth
Vice-Premier made a stop at a booth run by Farm Friend, a Microsoft Incubator-recommended enterprise. The Vice-Premier showed keen interest in the entrepreneurship history of Farm Friend founder Yu Yang, who was previously a soldier-turned-cadre. He asked questions about the state of Farm Friend’s business and funding, and also went into the question of the ownership of drones used on the Farm Friend platform. When Yu responded that the drones had been purchased from the “Flying Defense Team”, the Vice-Premier observed astutely that this was a classic case of the sharing economy.
Farm Friend CEO Yu Yang delivered a detailed report to Vice-Premier Wang and the rest of his party. Not only does the company provide farmers with agricultural services using drones, it also provides accurate forecasts of pest infestations by harnessing the Big Data collected in the course of its service provision. In May, a stripe rust epidemic struck the wheat fields of Shandong, an epidemic that had been forecast by the Farm Friend platform. Farm Friend had also kept in close contact with the Shandong Plant Protection Station and organized epidemic prevention activities with its drones in places like Jining and Heze. These actions minimized the losses caused to farmers and ensured that they would not be left with nothing after a year’s work. At the same time, the platform also released statistics on the degree of resistance shown to fertilizers and pesticides by various crops in different areas based on planting and chemical-use data for various areas it had on hand. These statistics can serve as a guide to farmers in the scientific use of agricultural chemicals and thus prevent environmental pollution caused by the overuse of such chemicals right at the source. These statistics are also highly meaningful to agricultural chemical enterprises as they seek to create more targeted formulas for their customers.
Vice-Premier Wang listened carefully to the report, and rated highly Farm Friend’s efforts to make use of modern technology for agricultural production and its contributions in providing practical support to youngsters returning to set up new businesses in the countryside and in the transformation from the traditional capital-heavy model to an agricultural-services model. The Vice-Premier also sounded a word of encouragement to the Farm Friend team, exhorting them to make good use of the ability to schedule large numbers of drones, the ability to consolidate the supply chain, and information capabilities accrued through the platform they have built. Vice-Premier Wang said excitedly to Yu Yang: “The General Secretary is always asking, who will be working the fields in the future? Now, Farm Friend has an answer for him. You can stand up and say, ‘I will do it! ‘“
Together with Vice-Premier Wang in his party, which numbered around a dozen, were other figures such as the Deputy Director of National Development and Reform Commission Lin Nianxiu, the Vice Minister of Agriculture Qu Dongyu, Deputy Mayor of Beijing Yin Hejun, and leaders from the Haidian District Government.
Farm Friend, which has been established for more than a year, has received three rounds of funding to date. In March 2016, the company completed its angel round with Shunwei Capital. Then, in July 2016, Farm Friend received Pre-A funding in a round led by GGV and with investments also from Shunwei Capital and ZhenFund. In April 2017, Farm Friend received Series-A funding in a round led by Gobi Partners and with funding also from Shunwei Capital, Yunqi Partners, and ZhenFund. The company has raised nearly 100 RMB million in funds to date.
