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X5 Begins Scouting For Start-ups In China
2019-10-23 14:32:38 GMT2019-10-23 22:32:38(Beijing Time) Sina English
Shanghai, 22 October 2019 – X5 Retail Group, a leading Russian food retailer, has launched its search for innovative solutions on the Chinese market. Participating start-ups will be reviewed from 18 October to 29 November 2019, with the selection results set to be announced at pitch sessions scheduled for mid-December.

The scouting process is designed to provide technology solutions for key areas of retail digitalisation, including customer experience, in-store operations, supply chain, e-commerce, and process automation. In a four-stage selection process, X5’s expert panel will join forces with the Company’s Chinese partners to assess the submitted projects. The Company aims to attract over 100 start-ups as part of this initiative.

“China is the world’s largest and fastest growing market that leads the way in promoting innovation. Due to the sheer size and specific context of the Chinese market, local start-ups have long been drawing exclusively on domestic demand. But mature start-ups that have developed a strong position in the domestic market could decide to go global. In such case collaboration with Russian companies is becoming increasingly appealing to them. For us, tapping into the Chinese market means gaining access to a major source of innovative solutions. The combination of our extensive experience in retail and Chinese innovations is expected to produce a strong synergistic effect,” Denis Levchenko, Head of Innovation Scouting at X5 Retail Group, said about the launch of X5's campaign.

The projects will be assessed in terms of their commercial value, as well as their potential to be rolled out within 18 months and customised to the Russian market. Several start-ups will be invited to take part in the proof of concept (PoC) phase involving X5’s investment and infrastructure.

XNode, a leading Chinese platform, was chosen as the partner and advisor for the scouting campaign in China. XNode started as a coworking space in Shanghai and is now a platform helping entrepreneurs and innovators to build fast-growing tech businesses across China. XNode runs community projects and corporate innovation programs with the intent to better understand how innovation thrives in a Chinese context. Wei Zhou, CEO and founder of XNode said: “We are excited to partner with X5 in bringing Chinese innovative solutions to Russia. Chinese start-ups and scale-ups are innovating at an unprecedented speed specifically in areas such as Retail and E-commerce. As a result, we see increasing demand from Chinese founders with more mature start-ups to engage in cross-border collaboration. Our partnership with X5 is a first major step towards building more bridges between Russia and China in the area of tech innovation and we hope to build many more in the future”.

X5 continues to develop its international scouting programmes, with the selection of technology start-ups now taking place in Israel, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and new projects being prepared for roll out in Italy, France and Germany.





Additional information:

For press

Tatyana Khaustova

PR-manager

X5 Retail Group

Cell.: [phone] ???. 13-953

E-mail: [e-mail]

For start-ups

X5 scouting team

E-mail: [e-mail]



About company:

X5 Retail Group N.V. (LSE and MOEX: FIVE, Fitch – ‘BB+’, Moody's – ‘Ba1’, S&P – ‘BB’, RAEX – ‘ruAA’) is a leading Russian food retailer. The Company operates several retail formats: the chain of proximity stores under the Pyaterochka brand, the supermarket chain under the Perekrestok brand and the hypermarket chain under the Karusel brand.

As of 30 September 2019, X5 had 15,752 Company-operated stores. It has the leading market position in both Moscow and St Petersburg and a significant presence in the European part of Russia. Its store base includes 14,850 Pyaterochka proximity stores, 811 Perekrestok supermarkets and 91 Karusel hypermarkets. The Company operates 43 DCs and 4,029 Company-owned trucks across the Russian Federation.

For the full year 2018, revenue totalled RUB 1,532,537 mln (USD 24,439 mln), Adjusted EBITDA reached RUB 109,871 mln (USD 1,752 mln), and net profit for the period amounted to RUB 28,642 mln (USD 457 mln). In H1 2019, revenue totalled RUB 843,175 mln (USD 12,905 mln), adjusted EBITDA reached RUB 66,072 mln (USD 1,011 mln), and net profit amounted to RUB 22,805 mln (USD 349 mln).

X5’s Shareholder structure is as follows: CTF Holdings S.A. – 47.86%, Intertrust Trustees Ltd (Axon Trust) – 11.43%, X5 Directors – 0.08%, treasury shares – 0.01%, Shareholders with less than 3% – 40.62%.