Launched about a year ago为过去分词短语作状语。不可能是定语，因为过去分词短语作定语不可能置于被修饰名词之前，且用逗号隔开。这种结构只能是状语，不过这个过去分词是个悬垂分词，因为它的逻辑主语并不是句子的主语，而是后面的it. 悬垂分词是语病，因此这个句子需要改进。

原文是这样的：

Luckin Coffee, a Chinese startup that’s banking on selling cappuccinos to on-the-go office workers, is spending millions of dollars a year opening outlets to unseat Starbucks Corp. as the top java seller in the country.

Launched about a year ago, the local challenger is confident it’s got a winning model: small coffee outlets that will outnumber Starbucks cafes by year’s end, an app that rushes out deliveries in about 18 minutes and lots of steep discounts. Chasing the entrenched rival, it’s burning through $130 million a year, according to the Xiamen-based company on China’s southeast coast.

改进后的句子：

The local challenger is confident that, launched about a year ago, it’s got a winning model: small coffee outlets that will outnumber Starbucks cafes by year’s end, an app that rushes out deliveries in about 18 minutes and lots of steep discounts.

说明：过去分词短语改为confident后的that从句中的状语，that从句的主语it指代Luckin Coffee，这样，过去分词短语的逻辑主语为Luckin Coffee，避免了悬垂结构。