The case describes what happened in December 2019 when Guo Meiling, the chairwoman of Beijing Century Galaxy Group, needed to decide whether she should invest in the RMB 50 million (US$7.1 million) deal of Yisheng Health. Yisheng Health consisted of two O2O platforms, Yisheng At-home and Yisheng Carefree. Guo Meiling has already invested RMB 60 million in the firm in 2016, and this will be the second round of investment. Century Galaxy Group is established in 1994 as a for-profit group. It mainly operates in the healthcare business, in two major sectors, industrial operations and investment. The group has invested in several companies, and is also actively involved in CSR initiatives that includes charity donation drives and volunteering activities. In addition, Guo is attracted to impact investing, hoping that she can integrate her sense of compassion into the healthcare business. Under her leadership, the group has reinterpreted 'natural wellness' and made several double bottom-line investments. Yisheng Health is one of them. Guo's decision to invest further depends on her views on social investment, especially on impact investing. To date, China has accumulated limited knowledge about impact investing, and domestic scholars has not yet published any related articles. If Century Galaxy were to attempt to conduct impact investing, what would be a good international standard to follow? How could this type of investment be integrated into healthcare to create synergy for Century Galaxy? From the perspective of impact investing, should Guo invest in Yisheng Health?

Set in January 2020, this case presents Ant Financial's success in promoting financial inclusion in China through its Quick Response (QR) Merchant Growth Plan. Established in 2014, Ant Financial grew out of Alipay, a mobile payment provider that served Alibaba's e-commerce customers. Inheriting Alipay's huge customer base, Ant Financial grew rapidly and in 2019, it dominated 54.2% of China's US$7 trillion mobile payment market. The QR Merchant Growth Plan was launched in May 2018, encouraging merchants to accept QR codes in payments. Also known as QR Merchants, these micro-entrepreneurs typically resided in China's lower tier cities. The Plan progressed from offering 'plain vanilla' business loans to a multi-product suite, and has since served more than 12 million micro businesses. To scale further, Ant Financial has set a bold target of reaching out to 100 million small and micro businesses by 2021. However, China's central bank had announced a new regulation requiring all merchants to use a universal QR code for transactions by 2021. How will it challenge Ant Financial's dominance of the mobile payment market? In the face of impending regulatory pressure, how viable will the QR Merchant Growth Plan be in the mid to long term? Concurrently, Ant Financial's foray into the digitisation of commercial banks presents new business opportunities. Through the provision of 'technology as a service' to banks, Ant Financial's pivot from a competitor to a partner is timely as traditional banks realise the need for digital transformation. But will the new business model work in favour of Ant Financial to bring the next wave of growth?