Die "Dorfbewohner" aus Shenzhen sind wieder Limited Partners geworden.

Recently, two venture capital funds financed by a village community in Shenzhen - the Shenzhen Bantian Artificial Intelligence Venture Capital Fund and the Shenzhen Longgang Longxing Venture Capital Fund - have signed investment intention agreements. The total size of the two funds is 300 million yuan, the term is 10 years, and the Nanling Venture Capital Fund serves as the manager.

The back - end LP - the village community in Shenzhen - has once again piqued the curiosity in the venture capital industry.

Total size 300 million yuan, term 10 years, financed by a village in Shenzhen

Let's first take a look at the two funds -

The Longgang Longxing Venture Capital Fund has a total size of 200 million yuan and a term of 10 years. Looking at the capital contributors, Longgang Jinkong contributed 30%, Longxing Venture Capital 50%, Nanling Village 10%, Zhangshubu Village 5% and Shanglilang Village 5%.

Longxing Venture Capital was jointly founded in 2018 (according to the registration date) by five village enterprises in Longgang District - Nanlian Village, Nanyue Village, Longgang Village, Tongle Village and Longdong Village. According to Tianyancha, Longxing Venture Capital founded a fund in 2023 - the Hongtu Longcheng Innovation (Shenzhen) Private Equity Investment Fund Partnership (Limited Partnership) - and holds a stake of about 24.7%. The manager of this fund is the Shenzhen Capital Group.

The Bantian Artificial Intelligence Venture Capital Fund has a total size of 100 million yuan and also a term of 10 years. The back - end capital contributors include four village enterprises: the Bantian Group, Gangtou Village, Hepinggang Village and Fengmenao Village.

The Bantian Group has a capital stake of 50%. The actual controlling shareholder behind it is the Bantian Village Committee in Buji Town, Longgang District, Shenzhen (collective stake). Over the years, the Bantian Group has invested in several local enterprises and currently controls over 20 enterprises.

It is worth noting that the manager of both funds is the Nanling Venture Capital Fund, a village collective - venture capital enterprise in Shenzhen. As early as 2017, the Nanling Venture Capital Fund was founded in Shenzhen, with Nanling Village as the support. It conducts private equity investment in the model of "direct investment + mother fund" and is thus the first venture capital enterprise founded by a village community in China.

Today, the Nanling Venture Capital Fund has expanded its investment areas to cutting - edge directions such as biomedicine, advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence and electronic information. In April 2022, when Haichuang Pharmaceutical was listed on the STAR - Market of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the Nanling village community won its first IPO. Among the over 10 invested projects, most projects have received a new round of financing, and some projects have met or are close to meeting the conditions for an IPO.

Both funds were this time planned by the state - owned asset management in Longgang District and founded with full efforts. The capital - raising process is already completed. After fulfilling the legal procedures, they will make investments in areas such as Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Semiconductors, High - end Manufacturing, Biomedicine. It is reported that a series of projects have already been reserved.

This is the latest chapter of the entry of village communities in Shenzhen into the venture capital industry. According to incomplete statistics, so far, nearly 40 village - joint - stock companies in Shenzhen have participated in private equity investments, including in areas such as Nanshan, Luohu, Longgang, Longhua and Pingshan.

A mysterious group of LPs in Shenzhen

Here, some background should be added: In the past few decades, first - tier cities, especially Shenzhen, have quickly accumulated a large amount of capital with their land resources. The local villagers have suddenly experienced a sharp increase in their wealth. Their village communities often found a joint - stock company locally. All rural collective economic enterprises in Shenzhen are operated in the form of community - joint - stock companies.

Over the years, the village communities have usually earned their money through real - estate leasing, bank deposits and financial products. However, over time, the villagers' money has depreciated to a certain extent. Meanwhile, a series of emerging industries have emerged in Shenzhen. The village communities have now turned to the venture capital industry and are participating in the up - and - coming movement of these industries.

In 2022, five community - joint - stock companies in Maluans, Shatang and Liulian in Pingshan District, Shenzhen, joined together to invest as LPs in a special fund initiated by the local industrial capital - investment company. This fund has invested in Honor and acquired shares in the Zhujiang Rural Commercial Bank.

One year later, Luohu District organized 11 community - joint - stock companies such as Caiwuwei, Huangbeiling Jingxuan and Hubei to raise over 10 million yuan of collective capital. Together with the state - owned enterprise group Shenzhen Gaoxin Investment Group Co., Ltd., the first private equity investment fund with state - owned and collective capital was founded, with a total size of 17 million yuan.

The most notable event was in July 2023 - a new 505 - million - yuan fund of the Shenzhen Capital Group was founded, in which suddenly 16 joint - stock companies joined together and contributed a total of 405 million yuan.

This was then the fund with the largest amount of capital and the highest proportion of village - joint - stock companies in Shenzhen. The investment areas of the fund mainly cover the "20 + 8" industrial areas in Shenzhen such as information technology, high - end manufacturing equipment, new materials, biology (medicine), new energy.

So, the mysterious village - community capital has gradually come to light. Overall, the village - community capital has two characteristics: On the one hand, the villagers' money mostly lies fallow for the long term. For institutions in areas such as hard - tech and biomedicine, it is long - term capital, and the pressure for repayment is lower. On the other hand, there are not so many restrictions on this capital. Compared with state - owned funds, which have clear incentives for raising investments, the villagers will not overly restrict the investments of the GPs.

Of course, when village communities enter the venture capital industry, the amount of capital and risk tolerance also need to be considered.

On March 11, 2025, the "Action Plan for Promoting the High - quality Development of Venture Capital in Shenzhen (2025 - 2026)" was released, which mentions that the surplus funds of the village - joint - stock companies in Shenzhen should be guided into the venture capital area.

The villagers, who have benefited from the advantages of the times, are now starting to support the local industry. From the past when they "cultivated land" or "built houses", they have transformed into "cultivators of high - tech enterprises". The villagers may not understand all the projects, so they give their money to professional investment institutions and actually participate in the local development.

The "landlords" and "landladies" who run around in the narrow alleys of civilian houses will also, together with the investors in the office buildings, pursue the starry sky and the sea of opportunities.

This article is from the official WeChat account "Investment Community", author: Yang Wenjing, published by 36Kr with permission.