GuShiio.com 
Zhou Jian, founder and CEO of Lanma Technology
Under the craze, a star AI company headquartered in Shanghai suddenly fell.
On February 24, GuShiio.comAGI exclusively learned that Shanghai Lanma Technology Co., Ltd.(hereinafter referred to as Lanma Technology), a domestic enterprise-level AI Agent (agent) company, recently conducted dozens of employees.The labor contract has been directly terminated, and wages and social security have been suspended for more than three months (since October last year).At the same time, the Lanma Technology public account has been suspended since October 28 last year.
Many Lanma Technology employees said on social platforms that since October last year, the company has successively suspended employees ‘wages, social security, and provident funds. Around January 6 this year, about 50 employees were directly laid off by the company and given notice of cancellation. According to a “Notice of Termination of Labor Contract”: Due to major changes in the company’s objective situation, you negotiated to leave your job. Due to inability to reach an agreement, the company had to terminate the labor relationship with you on January 8, 2025. rdquo;
In early February this year, many Lanma Technology employees collectively went to the downstairs of the West Bank Smart Tower in Xuhui, Shanghai to pull up banners to ask for salary. Employees said that they have entered the stages of filing a case and mediation.
One of the employees told GuShiio.comAGI that the company had just been laid off and closed down, and the wages and social security funds of so many employees must add up to several million yuan.” rdquo; When talking about a platform that released information on Lanma’s recruitment of technical personnel, she said that the company has closed down, who else will maintain it?” rdquo;
Regarding the above news, on the evening of February 23, Lanma Technology founder and CEO Zhou Jian responded exclusively to GuShiio.comAGI that the company may have shrunk and some layoffs were made on New Year’s Day. Then we ourselves also arranged for later compensation. Maybe they are in a mood. We have actually paid two-thirds of the funds recently. No (all 50 employees were laid off), and we still have about 20 (employees). It is mainly a financing problem.& rdquo;
Zhou Jian emphasized to GuShiio.comAGI that the company is now seeking the possibility of being acquired, and some companies are already talking about it. ldquo; We are already actively saving ourselves. I have actually borrowed money myself. I have already sold the house and paid it back (employee salary).” rdquo;
Founded in 2023, Lanma Technology is an enterprise-level AI Agent platform company based on a large language model. The company has developed AskXBOT, an enterprise-level Agent platform that can connect people and systems.In August 2023, it announced the completion of tens of millions of yuan in Series A investment from IDG Capital, Lianxin Capital, and Atom Capital. Other investors also include Turing Ventures, Changfengheng Ventures, etc.
The founder of the company, Zhou Jian, is a master of computer science at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. In 2002, he won the world championship in the ACM International College Student Programming Competition.
In 2006, Kai-Fu Lee recruited him to Google as a closed disciple, and he became one of the very few China engineers at that time who had access to the core code of the PageRank algorithm. After leaving Google, Zhou Jian successively joined Alibaba Cloud, Yitu, Hongji and other companies. Zhou Jian once said that he was the No. 10 employee of Yitu Technology and the CTO of Hongji RPA Company.
Lanma Technology was established and settled in the AI Smart Tower on the west bank of Xuhui. According to the official website,Lanma Technology is one of the third batch of 20 major projects signed by Shanghai Xuhui in 2023, and is the only AI Agent company among them.In addition, the company is also a member of the “China Artificial Intelligence Industry Development Alliance (AIIA)”, a member of the Financial Group of the China Artificial Intelligence Industry Alliance, and the first batch of members of the MaaS Working Group of the China Institute of Information and Technology。
Sky Eye Inspection shows that the industrial and commercial information submitted by the company in 2023 stated that there were 46 insured employees under the main body of Lancode information.
Zhou Jian’s last public speech was in June 2024. He pointed out then thatInvestors are increasingly demanding companies, both positive cash flow growth and competitiveness with industry giants such as OpenAI, resulting in dual pressures.
“For a startup company, if this matter can be clearly defined, it is not a good entrepreneurial opportunity. Because as long as the product definition is clear and attracts the attention of the whole society, then big manufacturers will definitely enter the market and eat this thing. Just like Didi and Kuaidi, Mobai and ofo in the past, these big model companies will inevitably burn money in order to grab market share. Who will use the money? They are either C-end users or people like us who are B-end and can use the big model well.& quo; Zhou Jian said thatA large number of new models have emerged, but the industry is still in its early stages and is not suitable for large-scale investment.
Zhou Jian found that one of the challenges currently faced by customers in the AI Agent field is the evaluation of the capabilities of large language models. Especially in enterprise-level scenarios, the model’s ability to understand and relate to contexts directly determines the performance and user experience of AI Agents.
Zhou Jian also said that people will not be replaced by AI, but will only be replaced by people who can use AI.” ldquo; Informatization is the prerequisite for digitalization, digitalization is the prerequisite for intelligence, and there is no possibility of overtaking in corners. If expert knowledge is not digitized, it will be very difficult to implement AI Agents. rdquo;
Regarding the exploration of business models, Zhou Jian once explained that Lanma Technology provides intelligent solutions for enterprises through its platform.
Many employees said on social platforms that the concept of enterprise-level AI Agent (agent) proposed by Lanma Technology is very advanced. When they joined the company, major manufacturers such as Byte and Ali did not make relevant products, but they ended up stepping on the ground in the workplace., mainly related to internal management.
Zhou Jian responded that the company had made mistakes in operation, and I certainly agree that this was a management mistake.” rdquo;
Tianyan information shows that in November 2024, Chi sued Lanma Technology in the People’s Court of Xuhui District, Shanghai City, over a labor contract dispute.
In fact, the current overall financing environment is not good, and many AI companies are facing financial difficulties.
Recently, news of the explosion of Zhongmu Technology of Shanghai AI Autonomous Driving Company, which has a valuation of 9 billion yuan, has attracted attention. The company’s founder Tang Rui has now lost contact. More than 700 ordinary employees cannot be paid, and several senior executives collectively took the money and ran away.
According to GuShiio.comAGI’s statistics from enterprise inspections and investigations, from the end of November 2022 to July 29, 2024, the number of AI-related companies in China that are now in an abnormal state of cancellation, revocation or suspension after newly registered and established reached 78612, nearly 80,000 companies, accounting for 8.9% of the total number of 878,000 newly registered companies during the same period.
In terms of investment and financing, according to statistics from Rongzhong, in the first three quarters of 2024, the total domestic VC/PE investment scale was 296.246 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 37.69%; the total number of investments was 2403, a year-on-year decrease of 30.15%.
It is worth mentioning thatMany employees signed the “Confidentiality, Non-Competition and Intellectual Property Protection Agreement” when they joined Lanma Technology. According to the confidentiality and intellectual property regulations, it will continue to be valid after the cancellation date. This means that, in general, many technical employees may not be able to work in other domestic peer AI companies before the confidential competition agreement with the company is terminated.
Regarding entrepreneurship and financing, two video remarks recently released by Zhang Ying, founding partner of Jingwei Venture Capital, are worth sharing:
“The first is to continue financing and continue to close down, because companies with technological attributes have a large demand for funds. They usually end one round of financing. As your product evolves in research and development, the next round of financing is usually within one year, so founders must have continuous financing and cannot treat financing as a channel to turn on or off the lights, so they won’t deal with them, because you don’t know when the next round will come and whether the demand for funds will change. So a continuous state or preparation for the future is actually necessary. Another point is that the most effective financing is actually to communicate effectively and frequently with meaningful investors and meaningful investment institutions when you don’t need financing, because when you don’t raise funds, you are in a very relaxed and confident state. You set aside a certain amount of energy and time to maintain a certain frequency with such investment institutions and investors who have high-quality, understand your industry, and have a certain foundation for your company. This will greatly pave the way for your next round of effective financing.& rdquo;
“I have seen many founders of startups encounter difficulties in their own companies and then enter a business trough. Especially during periods of financial difficulties, a large proportion of founders will actually burn their bridges, go bankrupt, mortgage their houses, and use all their money to support the company through the difficult period. This spirit and determination are very touching and touching. They dare to take action and work hard entrepreneurs. However, from a data perspective, most of the results are that the business cannot be sustainable. On the one hand, they lose money from individuals, investors, and institutional investors. At the same time, they have also accumulated their wealth into all their assets today, including houses and wealth. What I want to express is that you shouldn’t do this. No matter how much you love your career and how optimistic you are about my own company, you must draw a very clear bottom line, leave enough money and a house you must live in for your family. This is called the bottom line and should never be crossed at any time, because even if your company is not successful, you still have a stable family, stable life and funds. In this case, you are still there. Then you adjust your state, then find the general direction, and deal with angel investors and institutional investors in a down-to-earth manner to get the money of the new enterprise you need to start and make a comeback. rdquo;
Zhang Ying emphasized that in the current economic environment, financing is crucial to technology startups.Many technology startups need continuous investment in the early stages of R & D, but the financing window is often short, so founders need to maintain rolling financing rather than wait until funds are in a hurry to find it.
