NEWS WRAP: Strong demand for local deliveries drives SF Intra-City to record revenue

Revenue for China’s top on-demand delivery service provider passed the 10 billion yuan mark in the first half of the year, as its net profit more than doubled

By Teri Yu

Hangzhou SF Intra-City Industrial Co. Ltd. (9699.HK) zoomed out of the gate in 2025 with its best half-year performance since its 2021 listing, as its revenue jumped 48.8% year-on-year to a record 10.2 billion yuan ($1.44 billion), according to its latest financial report released last Thursday. As a neutral and open platform providing local on-demand delivery services, the company has benefited from rapidly growing demand from restaurants and retailers across China, which boosted its order volume from intra-city delivery services over 50% year-on-year in the first half of this year.

“Leveraging our profound insights into the local lifestyle services industry, a nationwide flexible capacity network, and highly efficient digital and intelligent technology capabilities, we actively captured new growth and emerging trends in the catering, retail and service industries,” said SF Intra-City Chairman and CEO Sun Haijin.

The company’s net profit more than doubled from 62.2 million yuan in the first half of last year to 137 million yuan in the latest period, driven by strong network economies of scale and improved efficiency, as well as higher revenue from premium customers. Its net profit margin also improved to 1.3% in the first half of this year from 0.9% in the same period last year, signaling continued improvement in its unit economics and profit per order.

Founded in 2016, SF Intra-City was spun off from Chinese logistics giant SF Holding (6936.HK; 002352.SZ), best known as one of China’s leading national express delivery companies. SF Intra-City provides “delivery-as-a service” to a wide array of clients within individual cities, using its massive network of crowdsourced riders to fulfill delivery orders, typically within a 30 minute to 60 minute window.

In the first half of this year, revenue from the company’s intra-city delivery services increased 43.1% to 5.78 billion yuan, of which revenue from merchant-facing (B2B) and consumer-facing (B2C) intra-city delivery services increased by 55.4% and 12.7%, respectively. The company now provides multi-scenario services to merchants in over 2,300 cities and counties nationwide.

Last-mile delivery service revenue, which accounts for about 44% of the total, grew 56.9% year-on-year to 4.46 billion yuan, boosted by rapid growth of e-commerce delivery orders and expansion of its customer base to cover services such as fruit and fresh produce, corporate group meals and company gift deliveries. In addition, its parcel collection support services increased by more than 150% year-on-year in the first six months this year.

The company said it has partnered with its parent to offer integrated supply chain solutions from “warehousing, transport, to intra-city on demand delivery” for customers in a bid to expand its client base and enhance customer loyalty.

SF Intra-City’s asset-light approach uses a scalable rider network, allowing it to operate a flexible and low-cost operation. The company had 1.14 million annual active riders at the end of June. It also deployed over 300 unmanned vehicles in its daily operations in over 60 cities to improve efficiency and reduce costs.

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