The first to be approved after the strictest new regulations, uncovering the mystery behind the Shouyi Science and Technology Innovation Mother Fund.
Under the general trend where various regions are making efforts in the mother fund, Wuhan has also ushered in a science and technology innovation mother fund.
Recently, the Shouyi Science and Technology Innovation Mother Fund has completed industrial and commercial registration. This fund is fully funded by the finance of Wuchang District, Wuhan City and the district-owned state-owned capital platform, with a total scale of 5 billion yuan. It is understood that the establishment of the Shouyi Science and Technology Innovation Mother Fund is a major decision and deployment made by Wuchang District, Wuhan City to implement the provincial and municipal science and technology innovation strategies.
It is worth mentioning that against the backdrop of the strictest new private equity regulations in history and extremely strict window guidance, as the sole entrusted management institution of the Shouyi Science and Technology Innovation Mother Fund - Wuhan Shouyi Technology Venture Capital Fund Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Shouyi") was the first to be approved as a state-owned capital background manager, which has attracted widespread attention in the industry.
Why was Shouyi the first to be approved? What unique highlights does it have? What reference value does it have for the qualification application of government mother fund managers across the country? In response to these questions, 36Kr had an in-depth conversation with Gong Xiaolin, the managing partner of the Shouyi Science and Technology Innovation Mother Fund.
Behind the First Approval of the State-Owned Capital Fund Manager
The private equity investment industry is ushering in an era of strong supervision.
Since 2023, the first administrative regulation in the securities industry, the "Regulations on the Supervision and Administration of Private Investment Funds", as well as a series of regulations such as the "Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Private Investment Funds (Draft for Comment)" and the "Operating Guidelines for Private Securities Investment Funds" have been successively introduced, and the private equity supervision system with the framework of "laws and regulations - departmental rules - self-regulatory norms" has been continuously optimized.
The implementation of relevant policies is of great significance for the accelerated clearance and long-term standardized development of the industry. But at the same time, it has also greatly raised the entry threshold of the industry. Based on this, Shouyi was the first to be approved as a district-level state-owned capital fund manager, which has benchmark value in the current industry context.
"Starting from March 2023 to prepare for the license application, to the first submission at the end of July last year, and the subsequent multiple feedbacks and re-submissions, we were also 'feeling our way across the river' and did a lot of detailed work." Gong Xiaolin told 36Kr, "During the preparation process, the district government and relevant departments gave great support." For example, in order to cooperate with the adjustment of the controlling shareholder, the Wuchang District Government carried out a large amount of coordination and communication work in the practical process, and transferred the shares to the State-owned Assets Bureau, which directly served as the controlling shareholder of the fund manager. This is unprecedented in Hubei Province and is also a rare case in the country.
Another example is in the manager registration stage, the Wuchang District Government took the initiative to invite industry experts to provide support for the manager registration matters; and when handling the industrial and commercial change, due to the relatively tight time window for submitting to the association for filing, the relevant main leaders participated in the communication and coordination many times to ensure the progress was advanced quickly and steadily.
"It can be said that without the full commitment and strong support of the Wuchang District Government leaders and various departments, as well as the guidance of the Asset Management Association of China, this matter would be difficult to accomplish." Gong Xiaolin said.
In addition to the support of the government and the association, the approval of this state-owned capital fund manager is also inseparable from the rigor of the overall plan: On the one hand, the plan is strictly in accordance with the regulatory guidance, and is planned in combination with the industrial, regional and talent advantages of Wuchang District, Wuhan City; on the other hand, it also fully integrates the deep accumulation of the Shouyi team in various sub-fields and the rich experience accumulated in the capital market to find the best fit point.
Take the important shareholder structure arrangement as an example, This fund has both state-owned capital holdings (65% directly held by the Wuchang District State-owned Assets Bureau) and market-oriented professional team holdings (35% held by the Shouyi team). Under this structure, the government can strengthen the supervision and management of the company, and also achieve the upgrading and empowerment of the company, and give great support in the horizontal coordination of various resources. At the same time, this structure design encourages the core team to directly hold equity, thereby participating in and sharing the future earnings of the company, as well as bearing the possible losses of the company's operations.
It is not difficult to find that the shareholder structure design reflects the government's determination, open mindset and the concept of leaving professional matters to professionals.
At the same time, the Shouyi team has also done a lot of preparatory work and accumulated rich experience in the application process. Among them, Gong Xiaolin provided five valuable suggestions to companies that are applying or about to apply for licenses:
· First, there must be a professional team. Only a professional team can solve many problems;
· Second, a strong legal team must be hired;
· Third, there must be a strict logic for the development plan of the fund and the company;
· Fourth, the evidence chain of past experience is very important and must not be faked;
· Fifth, there must be a high degree of consensus at the team level.
It is precisely through the efforts of multiple parties that under the strictest new private equity regulations in history, Shouyi was able to be the first to be approved as a district-level state-owned capital background manager this year and become the sole entrusted management institution of the Shouyi Science and Technology Innovation Mother Fund.
The Core Thinking of Investment
After the fund is established, how will Shouyi make its layout?
In terms of the overall investment idea, Gong Xiaolin said that the company has three major principles, that is, to invest in science and technology innovation enterprises that the country needs, the market has prospects, and the enterprises have advantages.
In detail, the country's needs are mainly for the security fields mentioned in the 20th National Congress report, including food security, energy security, supply chain security, information security, and national territory security. In these fields, the country is sparing no effort to carry out resource overlay layout, and some new opportunities are beginning to emerge.
The market has prospects by looking at the next ten years, focusing on industries that continue to develop and have deterministic growth in accordance with the national policies. Enterprises have advantages that not only consider the industrial projects that Wuhan already has a strong industrial foundation, but also look at the projects with high growth potential in the future with a development perspective.
Based on the above logic, Shouyi, in combination with the regional characteristics and industrial planning of Wuhan, has selected the "two major and four minor" investment directions, that is, focusing on fields such as digital economy, dual carbon, advanced manufacturing, new materials, military industry, and biotechnology.
Among them, software services, synthetic biology, new energy ships, and aerospace information and other sub-sectors are the key focus directions. "70% to 80% of our funds and 70% to 80% of our team members will deeply cultivate in these four sub-sectors," Gong Xiaolin said.
It is important to mention that The fund also has sufficient considerations in the details of the implementation. For example, as an industrial fund, Shouyi will give full play to Wuhan's scientific research advantages, and cooperate with national research centers, national (national) key laboratories, provincial laboratories, characteristic colleges and universities, and new R & D institutions related to the "two major and four minor" industries within the regional scope. Focusing on key industries and collaborating with industrial parties, it improves the efficiency and success rate of the industrialization of scientific and technological achievements of universities, research centers and laboratories through industrial empowerment and capital support, and solves the problems of engineering, marketing and capitalization of technology from the laboratory to the industry.
Of course, the logic of industrial incubation is not limited to the local area. In the selection of specific targets, Shouyi's vision will jump out of Hubei and focus on the whole of China for the selection of tracks.
"In general, we use the science and technology innovation mother fund as the basis, and further introduce industrial partners through direct investment and the establishment of industry sub-funds and angel sub-funds, so as to truly realize the development model of'scientific research + industry + capital'." Gong Xiaolin said.
Through multiple measures, the Shouyi Science and Technology Innovation Mother Fund can not only bring a valuable source of vitality to the venture capital industry, helping the development of emerging industries that the country attaches importance to; it can also carry out capital investment for Wuchang District, Wuhan City, accelerate the formation of industrial clusters, achieve strong chain supplementation, and improve the overall competitiveness of the local area.
A New Future Sample for Serving Regional Economic Development
In the current venture capital narrative logic, new industrial trends have emerged.
Judging from the actions of various regions, some local governments have begun to find professional institutions to manage the mother fund with a more open mindset, adopt market-oriented decision-making, and respect the professionalism of the market; at the same time, the mother fund has played a more extensive role in serving the local industrial strong chain supplementation and industrial structure transformation and upgrading.
In this process, local governments are increasingly aware that to form a good investment and industrial development environment, a better business environment must be matched, a stronger determination for industrial transformation must be possessed, and a consensus and mechanism design must be formed on this basis, so that industrial development can truly be stable and sustainable.
After all, in the future competition of cities, the core must be the competition of industries. Therefore, whoever can take the lead in finding a breakthrough in the science and technology innovation industry can seize the commanding heights of urban competition in the future.
As one of the four major science and education center cities in China and one of the three major intellectual-intensive areas in the country, Wuhan already has a good industrial foundation and investment environment, especially in terms of scientific research strength and innovation vitality, enjoying a high reputation both nationally and globally.
The data can give a glimpse of the achievements. Currently, Wuhan has 83 ordinary colleges and universities, 7 211 colleges and universities (including two 985 colleges and universities, Wuhan University and Huazhong University of Science and Technology), and more than 1.35 million college students, which together constitute Wuhan's strong scientific research talent pool. In addition, Wuhan is also supported by 30 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 40 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and 19 national engineering technology research centers and 30 national key laboratories, which makes the city's scientific research ecology more abundant and provides sufficient kinetic energy for future industrial development.
At the same time, A good business environment is like sunlight, water and air, and Wuhan is also working in this direction. According to the official introduction, since 2024, the political and legal organs in Wuhan have carried out in-depth special investigations around improving and optimizing the legalized business environment, improved the working mechanism, and formulated and issued documents such as the "Work Measures for Optimizing and Improving the Legalized Business Environment of the Political and Legal Organs in the City" and the "Work Plan for Further Optimizing the Legalized Business Environment (2024 - 2026)", which better play the role of the rule of law in consolidating the foundation, stabilizing expectations, and benefiting the long term.
Based on Wuhan's fertile scientific research soil, high-quality industrial foundation and good business environment, Shouyi will continue to closely cooperate with innovation platforms and incubation platforms to jointly build a scientific research project establishment library, an intellectual property library and a scientific and technological achievement industrial transformation library, thereby becoming one of the important promoters leading the reshaping and upgrading of the urban industrial ecology.
Not only that, The development of new-quality productive forces requires the assistance of capital, and more importantly, the long-term companionship of patient capital. "Shouyi will give full play to the guiding role of policies, be 'patient capital', adhere to long-term investment, strategic investment, value investment, and responsible investment, and increase the investment in industry technology leading enterprises, scientific and technological achievement transformation projects and small and medium-sized enterprises in the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain." Gong Xiaolin emphasized at the end of the interview.
The wind rises at the end of the duckweed, and the waves form between the tiny ripples. With the joint efforts of all parties in the industrial ecology such as government, industry, academia, research and investment, and the gradual cultivation of patient capital, the story of China's industrial city represented by Wuchang District, Wuhan is turning a new page.