He Zhong Qi Yun: Working Capital Fintech for China’s Supply Chains

Name: He Zhong Qi Yun: Working Capital Fintech for China’s Supply Chains (English version)
SKU: W47395

Li Xu, Joe Naoum-Sawaya

Product #:W47395

Supplier:Ivey

Discipline:Finance, Operations Management

Setting:China, 2025

Details:Case (PDF) • 9 pages • 2026-01-08 (Rev: 2026-04-27)

Subjects:

Fintech

Industries:

Financial service sector

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$9.71

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February 2025 marked five years since Max Zhang founded He Zhong Qi Yun (HZQY) and introduced the concept of dynamic discounts to the Chinese market. Now it was time for Zhang to plan the future direction of HZQY. Zhang reflected on the next steps. In terms of industry focus and customer expansion, HZQY proposed to target large enterprises with annual revenues exceeding CNY 3 billion and payment terms extending beyond 30 days. Industries such as fast-moving consumer goods, manufacturing, and retail would be ideal candidates. Regarding HZQY’s services, Zhang proposed to emphasize refining and customizing offerings to better align with the needs of Chinese customers. Ultimately, Zhang’s primary goal was to prepare HZQY for securing financing and designing its equity structure. Did he have the right emphasis? And were his goals achievable?

Learning Objectives

This case can be used in courses or modules at advanced undergraduate and graduate levels in fintech, entrepreneurial finance, operations management, supply chain management, and strategy.

After completing the case, students will be able to do the following:

Analyze the time value of money and the benefits of dynamic discounting.
Explore the operational dimension of supply chain financing, emphasizing the role of cash flow in preventing disruptions and maintaining resilience.
Discuss information systems design and implementation, particularly how a fintech platform for supply chains should handle inputs, outputs, cloud integration, software-as-a-solution deployments, and enterprise resource planning connectivity in a fast-moving environment.
Assess cross-cultural and international business factors, highlighting the idiosyncrasies of Chinese payment practices and how they differ from North American norms.
Develop a strategic growth plan for a fintech start-up, weighing different scaling approaches (vertical, horizontal, and international expansion).
Assess competitive advantage against global competitors.