Liu Jingkang of IDG Capital: A Victory in Heavy Investment in the Youth
Text by Ren Qian
After a five - year long run, the IPO journey of Insta360, a provider of intelligent imaging devices, has finally reached the finish line. Today (June 11), Insta360 officially listed on the A - share market, becoming the "first stock in intelligent imaging".
On the first day of listing, the opening price was 182 yuan per share, a 285% increase from the issue price, and the total market value exceeded 70 billion yuan. It is worth mentioning that Insta360 raised 1.938 billion yuan through its listing on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, ranking third in the overall fundraising amount on the Shanghai Stock Exchange (main board + Science and Technology Innovation Board) since 2025 and first on the Science and Technology Innovation Board.
At the listing ceremony, Liu Jingkang, the founder of Insta360 and a post - 90s entrepreneur, wore a simple cultural T - shirt and held an Insta360 panoramic camera to ring the gong, completing the ceremony with a technological product instead of the traditional mallet.
Currently, there are more than 50 post - 90s chairmen among A - share listed companies, most of whom are "second - generation" inheritors of family businesses or co - founders. Liu Jingkang's uniqueness lies in: he was born in 1991 and started his business at the age of 23 as a senior at Nanjing University; he built his business from scratch and achieved a listing on the Science and Technology Innovation Board; the company is technology - driven and has achieved global success - this set of life experiences is almost unique among post - 90s founders in the A - share market.
It is also a long - awaited feast for the capital market. Since its establishment, Insta360 has raised funds in eight rounds. According to the prospectus, IDG Capital, which held more than 13% of the shares before the listing, became the largest external shareholder. Qiming Venture Partners and Xunlei held 9.4% and 8.7% of the shares respectively, ranking second and third.
Among them, IDG Capital is the most notable. As early as 2013, Tong Chen (now an investment partner), who was an analyst at IDG Capital at that time, met Liu Jingkang. In 2014, when Liu Jingkang had "no revenue, no team, and no product", IDG Capital clearly expressed its investment intention. In 2015, it invested several million yuan and became the earliest investor. In the same year, Liu Jingkang officially founded Insta360.
It is not common to have a VC accompany an invested company for 12 years while the company has only been established for 10 years.
This is an inevitable victory, a victory of betting on young people.
Before Insta360's listing, Waves interviewed Niu Kuiguang, a partner at IDG Capital, and Tong Chen, an investment partner, to talk about this 11 - year investment story. The following are the highlights.
1. It was one of the most correct and bold decisions IDG made 12 years ago to spend time and money on young people. When they found Liu Jingkang in 2013, he was just a tech geek on campus who couldn't even write a business plan. The first software he developed was not officially launched, and there were only six people in the Nanjing office (mostly part - time). However, because Liu Jingkang showed rare technical talent and product sense, IDG made the decision after just one meeting, and there was almost no internal opposition.
2. The core is to "invest in people", but the risk was still too high. The underlying logic was to believe in the inevitability of technological evolution. At that time, the R & D of fisheye cameras and cinema camera hardware that IDG was concerned about was still in its early stage. Although the technological ideas were groundbreaking, there were significant uncertainties in the industrial maturity and commercialization path. Investing in Insta360 was largely due to its keen observation of emerging consumer scenarios (such as VR and action cameras) and its advantage as a technology native generation (good at making hardware with an Internet mindset).
3. There was no hesitation about the valuation at all. The only concern was the lack of funds. When Insta360 transformed from software to hardware, the initial investment from IDG was indeed not large. Later, it added a sum in the Series A round. Even when starting to make hardware in the Series A round, the funds were still very tight, which was IDG's biggest concern. Later, IDG not only helped Insta360 complete that round of financing but also helped the company solve the difficulties in the equity structure under the then circumstances.
4. Tolerate the cycle of technology R & D and commercialization exploration. They discussed the early hardware models with Insta360 - whether it was the big box or the prototype that could be plugged into the phone. These discussions were concentrated in 2015 and 2016, and 2014 was the critical moment when Insta360 shifted from software to hardware. Finally, the breakthrough came in 2018: Insta360 launched a milestone consumer - grade product and achieved large - scale shipments. In 2018, the company's revenue was 258 million yuan, and the net profit was 18.287 million yuan.
5. Many people were not optimistic about hardware because the consumer electronics industry is very difficult. However, IDG always believed that Insta360 was undervalued. Looking back at the time when Liu Jingkang started his business, from starting from scratch, going through difficulties, to making a comeback, there are indeed not many A - share listed companies that have achieved such a feat.
6. Initially, IDG's expectation was just to invest in the best and most outstanding group of post - 90s young entrepreneurs in China, but it unexpectedly captured the generational dividend. It can be said that IDG was the first institution in the industry to study the post - 90s generation and their lifestyles and to strongly support young entrepreneurs. For example, IDG invested in Bilibili in its Series A round.
The reason is that they believe that the evolution of PC Internet business models in the past more than a decade was mainly driven by the needs of the generation born around 1984 and 1985. Next, many business models in the mobile Internet will be driven by the post - 90s generation, and only contemporary entrepreneurs know what the post - 90s really need. Moreover, entrepreneurs such as Xu Yi, the founder of Bilibili, Nie Yunchen, the founder of Heytea, Wang Xinwen, the founder of Lilith Games, and Guo Lie, the founder of Faceu (formerly the Facemoji team) are all new - generation entrepreneurial forces discovered by IDG in the early days, and IDG participated in their early - stage financing rounds.
7. Set up a checklist and a risk control system after deciding to take action, and allow the young team to make mistakes. IDG focused its investments on products that represent the lifestyles and preferences of this group. In 2014, it set aside a special fund of 100 million US dollars to mainly invest in post - 90s young people. It also recruited a group of post - 85s and post - 90s investors to specifically look at projects of post - 90s entrepreneurs, focusing on scanning universities to select outstanding young entrepreneurs from undergraduate and postgraduate students. At that time, IDG spent half a year persuading Chen Rui, an angel investor in Bilibili and an Internet veteran, to join Bilibili and lead the company towards commercialization.
8. Invest in "people + belief in technology" in the early stage, and "inject resources" rather than just give money in the growth stage. In the process of supporting Insta360, in addition to funds, IDG mainly focused on three dimensions: talent introduction, strategic synergy, and exploration of the capital market path. IDG's ability to accompany companies in the long - term is related to its investment gene - it started from early - stage investments, and many projects were the first financing for the companies. As the companies grow, there are PE, M & A, and even secondary - market teams to support them. Patient capital does not only mean "patience" in mentality but more importantly, the ability to solve problems at different stages of a company's development.
9. Especially in the consumer electronics business, it is the happiest thing to create a blockbuster product (such as the iconic iPhone). However, most startups are not that lucky and have to follow the development path of breaking through in niche markets and gradually building competitive barriers. Take Insta360 as an example. Its core advantage is based on long - term technological accumulation in imaging and vision algorithms. The key lies in how to transform technological reserves into diversified and extensible commercial capabilities. In addition, a giant single product often cannot meet the diverse market needs, and the essence of market demand lies in the diversity of consumer preferences.
This means that running this business requires continuous capital investment, ranging from tens of millions to hundreds of millions. It requires VC firms to have continuous judgment ability and capital reserves. At the same time, as Insta360's product line covers a wider range, VC firms also need to build tolerance for the long - term commercialization cycle of technology.
10. When investing in Insta360, there was no deliberate attempt to label it as "globalization" because at the beginning, it was just an accessory that could be connected to a phone. It was not until it first entered the Apple Store and gradually became an independent product that IDG was more certain that this unique category would have great opportunities. However, IDG is indeed sensitive to global layout - it invested in Anker Innovations in 2011 and SHEIN in 2015 from the perspective of meeting global demand with high - quality Chinese products. Subsequently, it also invested in companies such as Ecovacs, Dreame, and Toolwiz, all of which are hot companies in the primary market.
11. Move the "young entrepreneur radar" to fields dominated by the post - 00s generation. In recent years, when looking at some cutting - edge fields, it is not difficult to find that truly breakthrough innovations often come from young teams. IDG is currently targeting two types of entrepreneurs: one is the practical group with a background in top companies/institutions, such as well - known star entrepreneurs; the other is the new forces in universities, including current doctoral students and those who have just worked for one or two years, just like Liu Jingkang 12 years ago.
To summarize IDG Capital's underlying investment logic, the institution acts more like a "start - up operating system" rather than just a capital provider. In the future, the role of VC should shift from a "hunter" who bets on tracks based on information asymmetry to a "farmer" who nurtures an ecosystem. And young founders × technology/product innovation × global market × in - depth post - investment services may be the formula for building the core competitiveness of VC firms in the next decade.