(Yicai) Dec. 19 -- Hu Xiaoming, former chief executive of Chinese financial technology giant Ant Group, founded an agri-tech company aiming to improve agriculture through innovations.

1.8 Meters Agricultural Technology was officially established yesterday, together with its unit 1.8 Meters Marine Technology, which focuses on high-quality seafood. The latter already released its first two seafood products, which will be sold at the online and offline stores of Alibaba Group Holding's supermarket chain Freshippo.

Hu joined Alibaba in 2005 and held several important positions in the Chinese e-commerce giant, including member of Alibaba Partnership, a body that can nominate most of the company's board members. Hu became Ant's CEO in 2019 and resigned two years later.

"The mission of 1.8 Meters Agricultural is to make agriculture better through technological innovation," Hu said on Weibo. The company will provide better and higher-quality ingredients to consumers so that farmers can earn more, he added.

China needs more young people and talents with experience in the internet and technology industries to enter the agricultural field, cooperate with farmers, fishermen, breeding experts, agricultural research institutions, and university scholars, accumulate more resources to promote rural revitalization, and explore ways to upgrade agriculture-related industries, Hu noted.

Hu's devotion to agriculture seems to have something to do with the agricultural blueprint of Alibaba's founder Jack Ma. The new company's name 1.8 Meters calls up Ma's words: "Every mother wants her child to grow to 1.8 meters."

Moreover, investment-holding firm Hangzhou Dajingtou No. 22 Arts and Culture, in which Ma holds a 99 percent stake, is a shareholder of the two companies founded by Hu.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione