Remarkable Youth: Venture Capital Record | Eagle Vision's Xiang Xiaomeng: Eagle Speed, Wise Creation of Value

From a few people in a startup team to a team that has begun to take shape, annual revenue has grown from tens of thousands in the first year of entrepreneurship to over ten million in the third year, from selling a single smart product to providing billions of smart services for government and enterprises... What story lies behind this technology startup company that has grown like an eagle?

　　Precise focus, making epidemic prevention smarter with products

After graduating from university, Xia Meng experienced different working environments and states in private companies, large corporate groups, and startups. Over the years, he continuously honed himself while also feeling the increasingly open entrepreneurial environment in Nanjing. "I witnessed many young people around me bravely stepping out to pursue their dreams, and I wanted to be one of them." The dream of entrepreneurship stirred within him, and after careful consideration, Xia Meng resolutely embarked on the entrepreneurial journey. Based on thorough market research and industry evaluation, he chose the artificial intelligence track, believing that empowering and enhancing the industry with AI technology would be a good direction. Therefore, in September 2018, he founded Nanjing Eagle Vision Star Big Data Technology Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Eagle Vision Star"), focusing on digital services for government and enterprises.

Xia Meng believes that the concentration in almost every industry is increasing, and the artificial intelligence industry is no exception, with leading companies becoming stronger. In this context, startups need to focus and create blockbuster products.

The team led by Xia Meng, eager to create blockbuster products, discovered their value more than a year later. At the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, they saw many hospitals with 24-hour shifts verifying patients' health codes and measuring temperatures, with staff exhausted. More importantly, if someone maliciously used a counterfeit health code, it would be difficult to accurately identify it manually, and once a problem occurred, tracing it back would be very challenging.

"At that time, we thought we could develop a comprehensive intelligent product to help hospitals solve these problems," Xia Meng recalled. "So, we first chose Gulou Hospital to help them create an intelligent access solution."

However, there were three technical difficulties that needed to be overcome at that time: non-contact temperature measurement, identity verification, and health code verification. During the pandemic, with responsibilities on their shoulders, the company's R&D team worked overtime during the Spring Festival and developed the "Eagle Vision Star Real-name Health Code Safety Smart Access Control Platform" product in just one week, using intelligent facial recognition devices and automatic detection barriers to achieve "three checks and one measurement" (i.e., verification checks for face, ID card, health code, and real-time non-contact temperature measurement).

At that time, health codes had not yet been connected to relevant databases, which posed high requirements for the machine recognition technology in the visual recognition field.

"At that time, many companies were unwilling to take on the demand from Gulou Hospital, but we felt we could do it. Perhaps it was because we were young and fearless, thinking this task was quite interesting!" Xia Meng reminisced.

Smart access control products applied in the Eastern Theater General Hospital

　　Explosive growth, smart epidemic prevention shows its power

Epidemic prevention waits for no one, we strive for every moment! By precisely focusing on the medical security track during the pandemic, the product significantly improved access efficiency and security capabilities while liberating manpower. It quickly landed in leading hospitals in Jiangsu Province and rapidly expanded nationwide, currently covering over 1,700 hospitals.

In July 2021, a sudden outbreak occurred in Nanjing, and Eagle Vision Star quickly developed the "Quarantine Guardian" product, providing nearly 30,000 quarantine devices for the Nanjing municipal government, various districts and counties, and quarantine hotels. Based on the original product, it was further improved and expanded into a "smart solution for epidemic prevention closed-loop monitoring," achieving multiple functions including timed door opening and closing, automatic alarms, real-time positioning, batch management, and blacklist warnings, truly realizing a full closed-loop intelligent monitoring solution for quarantined individuals, greatly reducing the difficulty of supervision for quarantined individuals, quarantine communities, and quarantine hotels, enhancing centralized control capabilities, and ensuring the health and safety of surrounding residents. In February of this year, when a sudden outbreak occurred in Suzhou, the "Quarantine Guardian" product was sent in bulk to Suzhou, once again demonstrating its power and receiving unanimous praise from local epidemic prevention departments.

　　Calm and focused, smart empowerment showcases value in the industry

"The first keyword of our company's corporate culture is 'value.' I often tell my colleagues that when doing something, you must first think clearly about whether it has value for the country and society; secondly, whether it has value for your family and personal level; and thirdly, whether it has value for the company level," Xia Meng said.

Using technology to assist in epidemic prevention, Eagle Vision Star has initially realized its value and has rapidly grown, but the pandemic will eventually pass. Can Eagle Vision Star's rapid growth continue in the post-pandemic era?

"Products and R&D related to epidemic prevention have not been our focus since last year; our current focus is on smart healthcare," Xia Meng introduced. In addition to smart healthcare, Eagle Vision Star has also begun to make strides in more fields such as smart transportation and smart finance. For example, the smart service area is designed with the core concept of "data mining and smart services," featuring functions such as free Wi-Fi coverage, intelligent traffic statistics, smart inspections, smart toilets, smart trash cans, hazardous materials vehicle supervision, and comprehensive video surveillance coverage. Additionally, in enhancing the video security monitoring level of bank service halls, improving video security monitoring efficiency, and reducing video monitoring costs, Eagle Vision Star provides systematic comprehensive solutions for banks based on a professional perspective of "customized intelligent analysis, real-time tracking and early warning, and integrated management."

With rapid business development, the Eagle Vision Star team is also continuously expanding, growing from a few people in the startup team to a team that has begun to take shape, with about 40% of technical R&D personnel holding bachelor's degrees or higher. Not long ago, Eagle Vision Star passed the national-level "High-tech Enterprise" certification, and Xia Meng himself also received multiple honors such as "Zijin Mountain High-level Talent," "Nanjing City Entrepreneurship Potential New Star," and the "National Silver Award" in the 7th Internet+ College Student Entrepreneurship Competition.

Currently, Eagle Vision Star focuses on providing full-stack, integrated smart solutions including algorithms, software, and hardware products for fields such as healthcare, government affairs, and finance, having served over 2,000 enterprises and institutions across more than ten provinces nationwide.

　　Venture capital support, confidently walking the entrepreneurial path

Xia Meng's Eagle Vision Star is undoubtedly a dark horse, and its connection with the Nanjing Innovation Investment Group began in 2020. That year, the 8th "Win in Nanjing" Youth College Student Entrepreneurship Competition was held vigorously, and the project "Eagle Vision Video Target Structuring and Positioning System" submitted by Xia Meng's team won the first prize. After winning the award, the Nanjing Innovation Investment Group actively connected with excellent project sources, and Xia Meng thus received 500,000 yuan in angel investment and support from the Nanjing Innovation Investment Group and the Nanjing Human Resources and Social Security Bureau.

"The Nanjing Innovation Investment Group's entrepreneurial investment team cares about our company's development. We actively communicate with the investment team about the direction of our business development, and they also provide us with some references and suggestions. They are work partners, but more like friends; encouragement and support are very important to us," Xia Meng said. "In addition, they also actively provide us with support in terms of government subsidies, industrial channels, and financial resource connections. Currently, we are also in continuous communication with the Nanjing Innovation Investment Group and are working hard for a new round of financing."

The addition of angel funds and support from market capital has given Eagle Vision Star more confidence in market competition.

Xia Meng stated: "In the future, in terms of digital services for government and enterprises, we face several very well-known, elephant-level competitors. Compared to them, we are still very small, and we will respect them, but we are not afraid at all when it comes to specific products."

Currently, the R&D center of Eagle Vision Star is located in Shenzhen, and Mr. Qian Yuehong, a distinguished professor of the Changjiang Scholars Program, has been invited to serve as the chief scientist of Eagle Vision Star Technology, focusing on research in artificial intelligence technology and deep learning to strengthen the team's core algorithm capabilities in artificial intelligence.

Eagle Vision Star, which continuously strengthens R&D innovation and focuses on creating popular products for specific scenarios, is moving towards a greater goal under the leadership of Xia Meng.