WAVES 2025: Riding the Waves in the New Era of Venture Capital
In 2025, we witnessed a new undercurrent surging in the venture capital circle: AI technology is reshaping the competitive landscape at an unprecedented pace. China's globalization is on the rise, and state-owned LPs are increasing their investments against the trend, becoming the stabilizer of the market. Only by conforming to the trend and making flexible adjustments can we seize certain opportunities in the face of uncertainties.
A year ago, everything was cautiously hovering in the cold wind. Dollar funds tightened their purse strings and were only willing to bet on a few "chosen entrepreneurs." The financing path for startups was long and arduous. As time moved on to 2025, a game emerging from the harsh winter was quietly surging like a warm current.
Every year, the WAVES Conference hosted by 36Kr's Undercurrent has become the best opportunity for various capital players to take the stage. This year's conference is co-organized by Hangzhou Innovation (Artificial Intelligence) Camp and Hangzhou Liangzhu New City Management Committee, focusing on the "new era" of venture capital. In the investor session and the entrepreneur session, founders of emerging enterprises, creative young scientists, and creators gathered with top investors to jointly discuss cutting-edge issues such as AI technological innovation, the wave of globalization, and value reevaluation, and to dissect their visions of business ideals and the future world.
"In 2025, a new cycle is beginning, and the core of the new cycle is the 'rise of the new generation's power'." Feng Dagang, the CEO of 36Kr, is full of hope for the new generation of venture capitalists. "History tells us that when industries change and the landscape is reshaped, young entrepreneurs will have the opportunity and possibility to break through the barriers of industry giants. The new things they create are truly subverting the world, and 36Kr will always stand with these new entrepreneurs."
Feng Dagang, CEO of 36Kr
l The venture capital story of 2025 unfolds in Liangzhu
The reason why WAVES 2025 is held in Liangzhu is that this ancient city, which testifies to 5,000 years of Chinese civilization, has now become an ideal place for "digital natives." With the multi - dimensional superposition of ecology, policies, community, and culture, Liangzhu has attracted more and more digital nomads and star projects. The land of Liangzhu is surging with endless creativity and imagination, which is highly consistent with the spirit in the WAVES IP culture that "symbolizes the spirit of the younger generation who are not satisfied with the status quo and are brave enough to explore and create." WAVES came to Liangzhu to get closer to the new venture capital forces.
At the opening of the conference, Mei Jiansheng, a member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Yuhang District Committee and the Executive Deputy District Mayor of Hangzhou, delivered a welcome speech. He emphasized that the fact that WAVES 2025 is held in Hangzhou fully shows that Hangzhou's innovation and entrepreneurship atmosphere is in line with the scenario and ecosystem of the conference. As a major economic district for innovation, Yuhang District hopes to jointly build a more influential venture capital ecosystem with everyone.
Lu Hongbo, a member of the Party Committee and the Deputy General Manager of Hangzhou Capital, mentioned in his keynote speech "Being the Builder of Urban Industrial Innovation and Technological Entrepreneurship Infrastructure" that Hangzhou Capital has taken three major measures of "bold capital, patient capital, and warm - hearted capital" to build a full - life - cycle investment service system and continues to be the leader in innovation implementation and the companion of entrepreneurs.
Lu Hongbo, a member of the Party Committee and the Deputy General Manager of Hangzhou Capital
In the forum "Thirty Years of Chinese Venture Capital," Li Wei, the founding partner of Songhe Capital, sighed about the benign ecosystem in the venture capital circle. In 1992, people in the Chinese mainland didn't know what the capital market was. The Chinese mainland issued its first convertible bond, and he was the designer of that bond.
Feng Dagang, CEO of 36Kr, and Li Wei, the founding partner of Songhe Capital
More than 20 years later, the bond has long since turned yellow. Li Wei, who has already retired, still has great enthusiasm for the future of the Chinese venture capital market. Regarding the current investment environment of state - owned capital, he suggested further loosening the restrictions on state - owned enterprises. "We should really let everyone act in accordance with market rules and allow for both profits and losses. Only by fully relaxing this can the economy continue to be vibrant."
Compared with the veterans in the venture capital circle, the new generation of entrepreneurs are more daring to speak and act.
In 2015, when "Avatar" was a huge hit across the country, the amazing special effects of Hollywood shocked Wu Di, who had just entered the Shanghai University of Science and Technology. "Why can Hollywood create such amazing movie special effects while Chinese people can't?"
Wu Di, the founder and CEO of Yingmou Technology
Even after experiencing a whole round of failed financing and watching 7 Term Sheets being dropped one by one, Wu Di still insisted on proving himself. From 3D modeling, digital characters to 3D generation, his goal is "spatial intelligence."
From Li Wei, an old - timer in the venture capital circle, to the rising stars like Wu Di, this cross - century dialogue in terms of age reflects a reality -
No matter what era one is in, each wave has its own splendor. In Chinese venture capital in 2025, the upward power of different generations is still surging.
l The good and bad bubbles of AI
When technology investment has become the mainstream in the venture capital industry, placing heavy bets on artificial intelligence has become what 90% of investors and entrepreneurs want to do or are currently doing this year. This is also the path that WAVES 2025 is eagerly pursuing. The breakthrough of Deepseek and the popularity of Manus this year are all signal flares.
Xia Zhijin, the managing partner of Vertex Ventures, said in the "2025 Everyone's Discussion" forum that he clearly felt that many investors were worried about "missing out." "It's been a long time since I've had this kind of experience. Whether it's DeepSeek or embodied intelligence, people are often worried about missing AI investment opportunities in some projects. Should they invest in Agents?"
Round - table forum: 2025 Everyone's Discussion
Liu Yiran, the managing partner of Yuanjing Capital, also mentioned this surprise: "In the first half of this year, we unexpectedly saw a small upsurge in some projects. Some projects received seven or eight Term Sheets within a month of their emergence. We had to hold a meeting within a week or two after meeting the entrepreneurs. We can already see a glimmer of a bull market."
China has indeed entered a new era of technological innovation. Song Chunyu, the Chief Investment Officer and Senior Partner of Lenovo Capital and Incubator Group, is delighted with this phenomenon. "Since entering 2025, the most impressive thing is that DeepSeek has ignited a brand - new innovation model and market confidence in Chinese AI. The market acceptance has reached a peak."
Amid the upsurge of AI competition in all industries, on the one hand, people are worried about "missing out," and on the other hand, they are also uneasy about "making the wrong move." For investors, a very real question is: How to grasp the direction of future industrial development? And how to evaluate the AI investment bubble?
Round - table forum: One Year On
At the "One Year On" forum, Dai Yusen, the managing partner of ZhenFund, answered with the words "keep a normal mind." "It's very difficult to predict the development and changes of AI. So we still need to keep a normal mind. When facing challenges in the drastic industry changes, we need to stabilize the team and boost morale because there are still many opportunities on the table."
AI is a bit like a steam engine. Only when the water is boiled can there be a steam engine. When the water is heated to 99 degrees Celsius, it may only be enough to make coffee.
He believes that bubbles in early - stage investment are inevitable. The first type of bubble is the belief that what happened in the past will continue in the future, and the second type is the belief that the future will be very different from the present. "The technology field belongs to the latter. This kind of good bubble at least has a strong positive spill - over effect on infrastructure construction."
Hu Shuo, a partner of Banyan Capital, agrees with this view. "Bubble may not just be a derogatory term. You will find that because of the existence of the capital market, the release of technological potential is accelerated. So many new technologies have to go through the stage of bubbles."
Of course, in the AI era, it doesn't mean that every entrepreneur has to engage in large - scale models or Agents to be considered an entrepreneur. Finding real market needs, whether it's using AI to optimize traditional industries or developing small and beautiful vertical applications, as long as it can create value, it's a direction worth exploring for entrepreneurs.
l The shadow of globalization: Export or going global?
The Chinese venture capital has not lost all its splendor to AI and the new - generation forces. Even today, with the volatile international situation, Chinese investors and entrepreneurs are still striving to go global and redefine the discourse power in the global business ecosystem.
Ye Shengxuan, the founder and CEO of Whale Intelligence
"Now is not a bad time to go global." Ye Shengxuan, the founder and CEO of Whale Intelligence, believes that "in the past when the environment was good, there might have been 100 (competitors) overseas competing with you. Now there are few Chinese competitors. If you have the ability or opportunity to go global today, it's a better choice."
He boldly predicted that in the next few years, more and more Chinese brands will gradually become global brands, such as Pop Mart and TikTok. "Because the domestic market is highly competitive, and we have the ability to compete with others, so we are not lacking in the ability to compete globally."
Since China joined the WTO, the export - oriented economy has gradually shifted from export to going global. Mao Yunjun, the vice - president of Fandian International, pointed out that to define whether a company has truly changed from export to going global, two core indicators need to be considered. First, it should have its own pricing power overseas; second, it should be able to reach a more in - depth sales system overseas.
While others were busy in the relatively glamorous tracks such as e - commerce and going global, Airwallex, iMile, Fandian International, Winit, and Deel silently focused on the tough jobs such as cross - border payment, overseas warehouses, cross - border logistics, and cross - border employment. Now they are all doing well in their respective fields. Some of them have reached a revenue level of one billion US dollars and are even on the verge of going public.
Round - table forum: The "shadow companies" of globalization
They are called the shadow companies of globalization. The outside world may know nothing about this group, but no one can do without them. This reminds us of an ancient business: Everyone always needs water sellers.
The iMile company, which is engaged in overseas e - commerce logistics and distribution, started in the Middle East in 2017, entered Latin America in 2021, and entered Europe and Australia last year. "But how to replicate the success after emerging in one country is the most challenging part." Gao Wenli, the co - founder of iMile, revealed that iMile's management model is that human governance is more important than the system, and the system is more important than the process.
This "human - governance" thinking is recognized by Zhang Zhijian, a partner of Shunwei Capital. "We don't regard going global as a special track. Essentially, we still invest in the most outstanding Chinese entrepreneurs."
Whether it's domestic investment, cross - border investment, or from AI investment to all - industry investment, the understanding of "people" has always been an eternal topic in the venture capital circle.