On August 18, according to media reports, Cai Jingxian, known as "Taobao's first programmer," has taken on a new role as technical partner at startup Beilian Zhuguan Technology.

Last week, it was reported that Cai Jingxian, a former partner of Alibaba Group who had been with the company for 25 years, had left his position, with his internal and external platform status showing "retired from the industry." Sources close to Alibaba confirmed this development.

According to corporate records, Beilian Zhuguan's full name is Beilian Zhuguan Technology (Zhejiang) Co., Ltd. The company was established in November 2021, with Lin Hao as legal representative, registered capital of 10 million yuan, and currently has 47 insured employees.

Notably, Lin Hao also has an Alibaba background. According to public information, from 2007 to 2021, researcher Lin Hao (known internally as "Bixuan") led teams participating in Alibaba's evolution of middleware and other fundamental technologies. He spearheaded the development of the HSF high-performance architecture that provided strong support for e-commerce systems, facilitating developers in building distributed applications and calling common functional modules. HSF supported Alibaba's major promotional events including 618 and Double 11.

Lin Hao left Alibaba in August 2021 and subsequently founded Beilian Zhuguan, with the goal of helping enterprises achieve digital and intelligent transformation.

Beilian Zhuguan's main products focus on big data, AI infrastructure, and cost management domains, including big data operations and efficiency improvement tools like Jiuxiang (Sky DataPilot), cloud cost management products such as Sky CostPilot, Sky AI platform, and computing power optimization tools including LCC-Cost Explorer and LCC-Optimizer. These products have been applied across multiple industries including finance, automotive, and internet.

Lin Hao serves not only as Beilian Zhuguan's legal representative but also as the company's actual controller, with ultimate beneficial shareholding of 86.6715%. Company shareholders also include Hangzhou Shangxiao Technology Partnership (Limited Partnership) and Hangzhou Shangheng Technology Partnership (Limited Partnership).

Beilian Zhuguan's funding records show that it completed a Pre-A funding round in October 2024, raising tens of millions of yuan from investors including Matrix Partners China, InnoLink Capital, and West Lake Science & Innovation Investment.

The newly joined Cai Jingxian, known by his internal nickname "Duolong," was one of three development engineers on Taobao's founding team. In 2000, after graduating with a master's degree in biology from Hangzhou University, Cai joined the then-unknown Alibaba. In 2003, he was recruited by Jack Ma into the Taobao project team, where together with two other engineers, he built the Taobao website from scratch in just one month, completing the development of both the trading system and forum system.

In April 2014, Cai Jingxian passed the evaluation of Alibaba's Partner Nomination Committee and officially became a group partner in September of the same year. The selection reasons included his "record-breaking contributions to Taobao's business" and "pure and focused technical qualities."

Regarding Cai Jingxian's selection as partner, then-Chief People Officer Peng Lei stated that his selection was not easy, having undergone nearly a year of evaluation. In Peng Lei's words, Cai was someone who could code to a state of "deep concentration."

After becoming an Alibaba partner, Cai appeared on the Hurun Wealth List in 2017 with a net worth of 2.6 billion yuan. However, in 2023, with Alibaba Group's "1+6+N" architectural transformation, Cai exited the partner list.