At the end of the year, the fundraising boom for GPs has arrived.

The primary market at the end of this year has finally felt a long - awaited warmth.

As the year draws to a close, the year - end report cards of the primary market are being unveiled one by one. The phased results of fundraising have become the key confidence boost for many GPs this year.

In sharp contrast to the sluggishness of the past two years, the fundraising market has significantly heated up in the second half of this year, with frequent good news. Almost every few days, an institution announces the first or final close of a new fund, and the fundraising scale is quite substantial, continuously injecting vitality into the already accelerating primary market.

According to our observations, in just the past month, nearly 10 institutions have announced the establishment/closure of new funds, including several US - dollar funds.

The fundraising boom restarts

There was a time when "difficulty in fundraising" became a common consensus in the primary market. Especially since 2022, not only have RMB funds faced challenges, but the fundraising of US - dollar funds has almost come to a standstill. Some US - dollar institutions have even repeatedly reported layoffs and salary cuts in the past two years.

However, in 2025, with the popularity of hot sectors such as AI and robotics, the rise of the domestic secondary market, and the boom of the Hong Kong stock market, the primary market has further recovered. LPs have seen the liquidity and potential returns of assets, and their investment confidence and actual actions have gradually been restored. The primary market has started to liven up.

Recently, a series of institutions have successively announced new progress in fund fundraising.

On December 16, Qiji Investment announced the successful first - close of its second - phase RMB fund, with a first - close scale of 900 million yuan. On December 11, Zhongke Chuangxing Technology Investment Co., Ltd. announced that its Zhongke Chuangxing Leading Venture Capital Fund had recently completed its final close, with a total fund scale of 4.08 billion yuan. On December 9, Jiayu Capital announced the establishment of multiple new funds, with a total scale of over 4 billion yuan. On December 3, Fudan Science and Technology Innovation announced the official launch of its overseas investment fund, with a scale of 100 million US dollars. On November 13, Source Code Capital announced the completion of fundraising for a new growth fund, with a total scale of 600 million US dollars, covering both RMB and US - dollar currencies. On November 12, Xinlian Capital announced the completion of fundraising for its first main fund, with a scale of 1.25 billion yuan. On November 11, MONOLITH's dual - currency fund completed its final close at 488 million US dollars...

It is worth noting that after more than two years of silence, several institutions such as Source Code Capital have successfully raised dual - currency funds, further sending positive signals to the market.

In the view of Wang Chunjie, the managing director of Shanyu Capital: Technological breakthroughs and industrial progress represented by DeepSeek may greatly enhance the long - term capital's underlying confidence in Chinese technology investment and further boost foreign LPs' investment confidence in Chinese assets.

Simultaneously with the warming of capital flow, institutions' thirst for professional talents has also increased. Recently, headhunters specializing in the financial field have reported to us that the demand for investment and fundraising positions from institutions has soared. High - quality candidates have become scarce, and the recruitment pace has significantly accelerated. Some institutions can even make employment decisions for key positions within a week. This recruitment wave has also spread to middle - and back - office positions, and the resurgence of US - dollar IR positions is particularly noticeable. Many institutions have started to actively plan for future US - dollar fund fundraising.

However, the market's enthusiasm has not lowered institutions' employment standards. Currently, institutions' requirements for talents show a high degree of "consistency" and "elitism": investment positions generally prefer candidates with top - tier university backgrounds, and most require a compound background in science and engineering; IR positions place more emphasis on proven implementation experience, resource networks, and other comprehensive abilities. This concentrated pursuit of "hard power" exactly mirrors the current situation of the fundraising market - institutions that can successfully raise funds are becoming increasingly similar in terms of resource endowment, professional ability, and strategic positioning, highlighting the Matthew effect.

Structural recovery: Some are happy, some are sad

The recovery of the primary market cannot be ignored.

According to the "LP Panorama Report 2025" released by FOFWEEKLY, driven by both policies and the market, the private equity market has shown signs of recovery after in - depth adjustment, with nearly 10% growth in both fundraising and investment. Specifically, in the first three quarters of 2025, the committed capital of institutional LPs was approximately 1.24 trillion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 9%; during the same period, the number of newly registered funds reached 3,434, a year - on - year increase of 15.18%.

From a data perspective, in the first three quarters of 2025, the committed capital of institutional LPs was approximately 1.24 trillion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 9%; the number of newly registered funds was 3,434, a year - on - year increase of 15.18%.

However, as the market gets busy again and practitioners feel the long - awaited heat, a consensus is gradually becoming clear: this round of recovery is structural, and volatile recovery has become the new normal. For GPs, new challenges and adjustments cannot be ignored.

The market recovery is not evenly distributed. Currently, most LPs in the market clearly tend to allocate funds to "future industries", and the overall investment scale is not high, especially for market - oriented LPs. This means higher fundraising barriers for institutions that are not focused on these industries.

Even for institutions that have recently announced fundraising news, their fundraising scales have "shrunk" compared to their past records, which may reflect a more rational industry perception.

According to Wang Chunjie's observation: "In the past two years, (GPs that have successfully completed fundraising) should have realized that scale has an impact on performance. If the fund scale does not match the institution's investment management, pre - investment research and post - investment empowerment capabilities, it will ultimately be backfired by the scale. The essential mission of a fund is to create returns for LPs, and this truth is often only deeply understood after experiencing a complete cycle."

Meanwhile, a close look at the investment directions of newly established funds reveals a highly concentrated trend. Many institutions that have completed fundraising have clearly listed cutting - edge technologies, especially artificial intelligence and robotics, as their key investment directions.

Wang Chunjie believes that this is exactly one of the core logics for LPs to invest - essentially, they are "betting" on China's competitiveness in future core technology fields.

From a financing perspective, the story of "completing two rounds of financing and raising hundreds of millions of yuan in just half a year" is happening again, but the script is completely different. Now, such scenarios almost only occur intensively in emerging industries such as robotics, artificial intelligence, and semiconductors.

Despite the active market atmosphere, many front - line practitioners admit that the improvement of the fundraising environment is structural, and there is a shortage of market - oriented funds. For GPs to raise funds, they really have to rely on performance, reinvestment ability, and service ability. The threshold for being a GP is getting higher and higher.

Conclusion

At the end of 2025, the primary market is bidding farewell to the simple narrative of a cold winter and entering a new stage characterized by structural differentiation, higher requirements, and in - depth development centered around strategic emerging industries.

The recovery is real, but only for players who meet the new paradigm; busyness is common, but it is also accompanied by more severe screening and competition. Overall, this wave of fundraising signals also means the beginning of a new cycle in the primary market, where new opportunities often emerge.

Times make heroes. The generational change in the venture capital industry always coincides with major technological waves, and each era will produce a group of new GPs.

Wang Chunjie pointed out that just as the Internet in the late 1990s, the mobile Internet around 2010, and the hard - technology era that started around 2018, the beginning of a new round of industrial revolution marked by AI will also give birth to and achieve a group of brand - new investment institutions of this era.

This article is from the WeChat public account "FOFWEEKLY", author: FOFWEEKLY. Republished by 36Kr with permission.