Seres takes action, establishing a venture capital platform with 500 million yuan.

Seres (09927.HK) has made new moves in capital operation.

Chuangxin (Chongqing) Investment Co., Ltd. was officially registered recently with a registered capital of 500 million RMB. Its business scope has only one item: venture capital (limited to investing in unlisted enterprises). Through equity penetration, it can be found that this newly established company is wholly owned by Seres Group Co., Ltd.

In response, a reporter from Star Market Daily called the office of Seres' securities representative. Regarding the establishment of this subsidiary, the other party stated that it is not within the scope of the company's public disclosure, and the future business direction cannot be disclosed for the time being.

However, it is worth noting that the legal representative of Chuangxin (Chongqing) Investment is Shen Wei, a director, vice president, and board secretary of Seres Group. It is reported that Shen Wei holds a master's degree in law. She early worked at King & Wood Mallesons in Beijing, and then served at Yushang Investment Group Co., Ltd. and Chongqing Western Securities Yufu Equity Investment Fund Management Co., Ltd.

From a top law firm to an industrial group and then to a professional equity investment institution, Shen Wei's resume is quite unique among the management, with a composite background in law and equity investment. After joining Seres, she has repeatedly represented the company to share practical experience in achieving transformation and development with the help of the capital market.

The reporter from Star Market Daily also noticed that another person in the company related to "Chuangxin" is Zhang Zhengping, the general manager of Seres. He is currently the executive director and manager of Beijing Chuangxin Capital Management Co., Ltd., which was established in 2015 and has no public records of external investments.

Moreover, Seres is not a newcomer to the venture capital field. Before directly establishing an investment subsidiary this time, Seres mainly participated in external private equity funds as a limited partner (LP). Currently, Seres is mainly involved in two funds. One is the Guangdong Rongchuang Lingyue Intelligent Manufacturing and Information Technology Industry Equity Investment Fund, jointly established by industrial capitals such as TCL Technology Group and Seres Group, with a management scale of over 2 billion RMB, focusing on core areas of intelligent manufacturing such as semiconductors, optoelectronic technology, and network communication. The fund has publicly made 12 investments, and the invested companies include Xianke Semiconductor, Huada Beidou, and Ailing Network.

The other is the Chongqing Yuxin Chuangneng Private Equity Investment Fund, jointly initiated by multiple institutions such as Chongqing Yufu Holdings Group and Seres Group, with a subscribed capital contribution scale of 553 million RMB, focusing on strategic emerging industries such as new energy intelligent connected vehicles, hydrogen energy, and energy storage. It has completed investments in companies such as Lingzhi New Energy and Yuntong Technology.

According to the 2025 annual report of Seres, during the reporting period, the Guangdong Rongchuang Lingyue Fund distributed 24.4934 million RMB to Seres, including 19.0934 million RMB in principal and 5.4 million RMB in earnings; the Chongqing Yuxin Chuangneng Fund distributed 2.861 million RMB in principal to Seres.

Judging from the financial data, Seres also has the confidence to directly engage in venture capital. The financial report shows that in 2025, Seres achieved an annual operating income of 165.054 billion RMB, a year-on-year increase of 13.7%, setting a new historical high; the net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was 5.957 billion RMB, achieving profitability for two consecutive years.

In the new energy vehicle industry, it is not new for enterprises to engage in industrial investment. BYD, CATL, NIO, etc. have all made different degrees of layout, but their strategies and paths vary.

BYD has been quite active in investment. In April last year, it completed a strategic investment of over 100 million RMB in Pacini, a company focusing on tactile perception and humanoid robots, becoming its largest external shareholder. In September of the same year, BYD invested 100 million RMB to participate in the second phase of the Advanced Manufacturing Industry Investment Fund.

CATL is recognized as a model of corporate venture capital (CVC) in the industry. It has a wholly-owned CVC subsidiary, "CATL New Energy Industry Investment Co., Ltd.", and its Puquan Capital focuses on tracks such as carbon neutrality, embodied intelligence, and new energy materials. In December 2025, CATL subscribed 500 million RMB as an LP to participate in the Boyu Xinzhi Xinchan Fund and made intensive bets on the embodied intelligence track through multiple channels.

NIO adopts a relatively independent capital platform model. NIO Capital has a management scale of 10 billion RMB. Its first-phase fund was jointly initiated by NIO, Sequoia China, Hillhouse Capital, and Yangtze River Industry Fund, maintaining a certain degree of independence from NIO.

In contrast, Seres' establishment of Chuangxin Investment Company this time is different from BYD's direct strategic investment, CATL's CVC system, and NIO's independent capital platform model. Seres chose to establish a wholly-owned venture capital subsidiary with its own funds, and it is directly managed by the board secretary with a composite background in equity investment, indicating its strategic emphasis on industrial investment.

However, in the latest annual report and recent investor communications, Seres did not mention a clear external investment plan. But considering the innovative business plan mentioned by the company in its communication with investors in March this year - intelligent robot products for both C - end and B - end users are expected to be launched this year, it is worth continuously paying attention to whether the newly established Chuangxin Investment Company will make a layout around emerging tracks such as embodied intelligence in the future.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Venture Capital Daily", author: Yu Shiqi. Republished by 36Kr with permission.