Multi-dimensional Capital Enters Its Tenth Year: Becoming an "Inter - system Industry Architect" in the Globalization Era
As the boundaries between capital, technology, and industry are constantly being broken down,
what is truly scarce is the industrial judgment that can withstand economic cycles.
If we compare the evolution of China's primary market over the past decade to a migration from a "gold rush" to "intensive cultivation," then 2016 was undoubtedly a delicate turning point. That year, the dividends of the mobile internet still lingered, and the hype around O2O and the sharing economy still echoed in our ears.
It was also in that year that Cao Fangning chose to leave Roland Berger, a top consulting firm where she had worked for many years, and founded Duowei Capital.
At that time, boutique financial advisors (FA) were springing up in the primary market, but Duowei Capital seemed like an "outsider" among them. While peers were competing to see who could match information faster and who had more eye - catching project business plans (BP), Cao Fangning didn't choose to be a "traffic hunter" riding on the wave of trends. Instead, based on her prediction of China's industries, she led Duowei to take on the most challenging task: cross - border mergers and acquisitions (M&A).
This was also an inevitable result of Duowei Capital's DNA. As a former global partner at Roland Berger, Cao Fangning's understanding of transactions was that simple "money - to - money" matching would eventually lose value. The ability to understand, translate, and restructure different technology systems, capital systems, and organizational systems from the industrial foundation was the real hard currency in the capital market. In the first two years of its establishment, relying on its global network, Duowei Capital completed several textbook - level cross - border transactions. It even completed more than a dozen cross - border M&A deals in the early stage, ranking among the top in the market.
Later, as the cross - border M&A market entered an adjustment period, Duowei shifted its focus to the core FA business, which is the most competitive and demanding in terms of comprehensive capabilities.
In the FA industry, Duowei Capital was not an early starter, nor did it choose to specialize in a single vertical. Therefore, over the years, this FA firm, which has been around for a while, has not stood out in the industry due to one or two market trends. However, with the reshaping of global geopolitics and the rise of the domestic hard - tech wave, the rules of the primary market have completely changed. Institutions accustomed to the "quick - in, quick - out" logic of the internet suddenly found that the traditional "matching logic" of FA no longer worked when dealing with chip semiconductors, lithography machines, quantum computing, low - altitude economy, as well as complex state - owned capital investment and corporate spin - offs.
And this "failure" has precisely become an "opportunity" for Duowei Capital.
As it enters its tenth year, Duowei Capital finally seems to have welcomed the era that truly belongs to them. This is an era that emphasizes "complex transactions," an era that requires FAs to deeply dissect industrial logic like consulting advisors and design capital structures like architects.
Especially in the process of artificial intelligence evolving from "digital intelligence" to "physical intelligence," the complexity of industries has been further amplified. As an interdisciplinary field where AI is deeply integrated with manufacturing, supply chains, and scenarios, embodied intelligence places higher requirements on capital understanding, industrial collaboration, and long - term path design.
Duowei Capital's differential advantages are also prominently displayed here: it's not about "being better at financing," but rather about being better at completing a systematic calibration among global technology paradigms, different capital languages, and China's real - world industrial conditions. They are not only helping companies raise funds but also helping them find their positions in the global division of labor, sort out their logic, and find the greatest common divisor among different capital systems. Whether serving hardcore players like XPeng Motors, Benyuan Quantum, and Tuoxi Technology, or deeply participating in the industrial integration, new business trials, and spin - offs of central state - owned enterprises and global Fortune 500 companies, Duowei Capital is trying to define a new type of "long - term industrial investment bank."
As of 2025, Duowei Capital has served more than 500 companies in total, completed transactions worth 55 billion yuan, and completed more than 300 deals. It also manages and serves seven professional investment funds in the long term. As China's technological innovation focus accelerates its shift towards "hard - tech" and the "deep end of industries," Duowei's service scope has further expanded to key industrial areas such as artificial intelligence, embodied intelligence, new materials and new energy, semiconductors, and aerospace, gradually forming an integrated service system centered around "technology trend judgment + industrial structure understanding + capital plan design." Among them, projects related to artificial intelligence and embodied intelligence have become one of the sectors with the fastest - growing service volume and the highest complexity per project in the past three years.
However, there is never a shortage of narratives in the primary market, and those in the FA industry are experts in storytelling. In an era where all FAs claim to "understand industries," what real problems does Duowei Capital's approach actually solve? As an INTJ - type founder, how does Cao Fangning use rational logic to combat anxiety in an extremely uncertain cycle? As Duowei Capital enters its tenth year, where will the "from 0 to infinity" end - game it pursues lead?
With these curiosities and questions, 36Kr had a conversation with Cao Fangning about cycles, professionalism, and organizational evolution. The following is the full text of the conversation, edited by 36Kr -
Entering the Home Field in the Tenth Year
36Kr: When you founded Duowei in 2016, you started with cross - border M&A. At that time, the mobile internet was still booming. What was the reason for your choice?
Cao Fangning: Any institution in its early days will start from the resource circle it is most familiar with and good at. Duowei's starting point was indeed very special - I came from the global partner system of Roland Berger, and Roland Berger is also one of Duowei's shareholders.
2017 and 2018 were the most active years for Chinese enterprises' overseas M&A. Soon after Duowei was founded, it had built a global cooperation network and had long - term cooperative partner institutions in many countries. In the first two years, it completed more than a dozen cross - border M&A transactions. This laid a very "atypical FA" foundation for Duowei - we are used to working in complex structures.
However, cross - border M&A was just an entry point, not the end - game. What I really want to do is accompany China's emerging enterprises through the journey from 0 to 1, from 1 to 10, and finally enter the mainstream global industrial vision and become part of the global Fortune 500.
In 2016, the materials field was dominated by BASF, and the chip industry was controlled by NVIDIA and Qualcomm. But when I was in charge of researching the automotive and hardware industries, I clearly saw the structural changes taking place in China's hard - tech - the return of talents, the maturity of engineering capabilities, and the gradual completion of the industrial chain. This was not just a passing trend but a long - term industrial evolution. Based on this judgment, I chose to leave the consulting firm and get directly involved.
36Kr: Looking back now, does the original intention at that time match the current reality?
Cao Fangning: It has happened faster than expected. In 2016, the core topics in the market were still traffic, business models, and growth curves. But from the day Duowei was founded, we predicted that China would definitely enter the hard - tech era, and Chinese enterprises would surely compete globally.
In the first two years, Duowei was actually conducting an "experiment" - using our existing resources to build a global network and conduct cross - border M&A. This was a very rare path in the FA industry at that time, and some people thought we were doing "slow and heavy work." But now, the so - called "light work" in the market has almost disappeared. Most of today's transactions are a combination of complex problems: the technical evaluation of hard - tech, the multi - layer decision - making processes of state - owned capital and industrial capital, and the reorganization and re - allocation of cross - border supply chains.
It is precisely these complexities that have become Duowei's core competitiveness today and made this our "home field."
36Kr: How complex can today's transactions be?
Cao Fangning: In the past, transactions were linear. You sent out the BP, the investors looked at the data, and then signed the Term Sheet. But now, the complexity lies in the "cross - system" nature. We need to design systematic capital and industrial architectures against the backdrop of global technological evolution and industrial restructuring. The composition of investors has changed: there are local government - guided funds, which aim to attract investment; there are large industrial investors (CVC), which want to strengthen and supplement the industrial chain; and there are financial investors, who focus on distribution to paid - in capital (DPI) and certainty. The languages, decision - making logics, and risk preferences of each system are completely different. For example, in fields like embodied intelligence, this complexity is further magnified - the technological maturity, supply chain costs, scenario implementation, and policy orientation must all be examined within the same system.
Duowei's role is no longer that of a mere messenger but an "architect." The essence of this ability is not "knowing more" but being able to design a common future path in advance, taking into account the time scales and constraints of different systems.
For example, in the field of AI computing power, the company we served, Fangqing Technology, is not just a simple "GPU replacement." Instead, it started from the underlying system architecture and proposed a new path for distributed computing. For this kind of transaction, we need to answer the following questions simultaneously: Is the technical route feasible? Is the industrial ecosystem coordinated? Can the capital structure support the evolution? Another example is Songyan Power in the field of embodied intelligence. The challenge is not "whether it can be done" but how to connect costs, supply chains, and consumer - level scenarios and achieve the coordinated evolution of technology, costs, and scenarios in the real physical world. The common feature of such embodied intelligence projects is that they are not single - point technological breakthroughs but systematic engineering projects. Whether they succeed often depends on whether the capital structure allows for long - term trial - and - error and whether industrial resources are involved at the right time.
Duowei's role in these projects is not just to facilitate a single transaction but to help enterprises design a "sustainable evolutionary capital and industrial path" from the perspective of the global industrial structure.
We need to translate a hard - tech project into an industrial contribution that state - owned capital can understand, a collaborative value that CVC can understand, and an exit logic that financial investors can understand. This ability to "translate" and "align" is the core value precipitated by our consulting DNA.
36Kr: Many people say that the "differential ability" of FAs is a false proposition.
Cao Fangning: FAs definitely have differential abilities. Our real difference lies in "global industrial understanding."
Duowei doesn't simply make BPs more attractive. Instead, it tries to understand global technology paradigms and the fundamentally different investment logics and decision - making systems of different investors, whether they are US - dollar funds, state - owned capital, or industrial investors. Duowei's role can be understood as a calibrator or translator, trying to make everyone make decisions from a win - win perspective. If a few years ago we were talking about the "third - generation FA," today Duowei is more concerned about how to become a real industrial - level infrastructure in the new generation of general technology cycles.
36Kr: Can you give a specific example?
Cao Fangning: For example, in 2025, we were deeply involved in the project between Brilliance BMW and Shenyang Automobile. This project is very typical. It was a full - life - cycle service, including industrial consulting and positioning, asset M&A, incubation, globalization, and even co - creating funds.
In complex transactions involving large CVCs or state - owned enterprises, decisions are not made by a single boss on a whim but through a complex system. If a linear FA can only do simple matchmaking, success depends entirely on luck. Duowei, on the other hand, uses the organizational language that the other party can understand to comprehensively analyze the demands of all stakeholders. We bid for the project together with first - tier foreign and domestic investment banks, and only Duowei won the bid. The client valued our industrial knowledge, access to innovative projects, and the ability to prompt a relatively traditional organization to make a final decision.
36Kr: Then there are two questions - First, how high is the moat of this ability? Second, can this ability be transferred within the organization?
Cao Fangning: The moat comes from the system, not single experiences. Duowei's ability is not based on individual star projects but on long - term industrial research, project reviews, and the precipitation of methodologies. We treat each transaction as a systematic project, disassembling decision - making paths, sources of risks, and collaborative logics. More importantly, this ability can be transferred within the organization. We don't rely on "genius individuals." Instead, through standardized research frameworks, transaction structure training, and cross - project reuse, different teams can develop judgment in complex transactions.
36Kr: Nowadays, every FA is emphasizing "in - depth industrial involvement." Is this so - called "involution" in the FA industry in the industrial field really solving problems or just a marketing label?
Cao Fangning: Some of it is just for show. But real in - depth understanding is not about memorizing data but about having the judgment after "mapping the industrial chain." Many FAs do research to convince investors, while Duowei does research to "challenge" founders.
Especially in fields like embodied intelligence, this difference is quickly magnified. On the surface, everyone is talking about models, algorithms, and parameters, but what really determines how far a project can go is often the comprehensive judgment of hardware costs, supply chain maturity, mass - production schedules, and specific application scenarios.
We will tell founders that their technical routes may not be the most optimal globally, or that their commercialization timelines are too optimistic. Only when we can have high - quality discussions with founders and even industry experts in a professional manner can we be considered to have truly entered the industry.
36Kr: In recent years, many FAs have established government relations (GR) teams. Whether for founders or investment institutions, the most important "translation" targets are state - owned capital and industrial capital. What is the secret to Duowei's accurate "translation"?