20 billion! Suzhou is in a fierce competition!

Jiema LP, an investment media outlet, learned that yesterday (July 10th), at the opening ceremony of the 2025 University Technology Transfer and Transformation Conference, the 2nd Suzhou International Science and Innovation Conference, and the 17th International Elite Entrepreneurship Week, Suzhou unveiled two funds worth 10 billion yuan each.

Among them, the Suzhou Major Industry Development Fund focuses on "chain - leading" projects in major industrial fields, with a minimum investment of 500 million yuan per single project, aiming at the development of Suzhou's "1030" industrial system. On the same day, the Suzhou Talent No.1 Fund with a total scale of 10 billion yuan was also officially launched.

Suzhou has sounded the horn to attract talents and industries.

Suzhou Launches Two 10 - Billion - Yuan Funds in One Day

Specifically, the Suzhou Major Industry Development Fund is jointly established by Suzhou State - owned Investment Group leading the linkage of municipal and district - level state - owned assets. Suzhou Industrial Investment Private Equity Fund Management Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Suzhou State - owned Investment Group, serves as the fund manager, with a total scale of 10 billion yuan.

Suzhou State - owned Investment Group was established in 2023 and is the only state - owned capital investment and operation platform under the jurisdiction of Suzhou. It is actively building three 10 - billion - yuan fund clusters: the Suzhou Major Industry Investment Fund, the Suzhou State - owned Enterprises High - quality Development Fund, and the Suzhou Urban Innovation and Development Fund.

In May this year, Suzhou Industrial Investment Private Equity Fund Management Co., Ltd. (referred to as Suzhou Industrial Investment) was established. It is a private equity management platform controlled by Suzhou State - owned Investment Group, with strategic participation from Yuanhe Holdings and Suzhou Venture Capital Group.

At this conference, as the manager of the Suzhou Major Industry Development Fund, Suzhou Industrial Investment made its official debut. It is reported that as an important vehicle for Suzhou State - owned Investment Group to actively layout the industrial investment field, Suzhou Industrial Investment will focus on the layout of strategic emerging industries and future industries, further improve the professional level of capital operation, effectively enhance the cultivation efficiency of major industrial projects, and precisely target major industrial projects with innovative industrial investment strategies to help Suzhou build a new pattern of world - class industrial clusters.

In terms of investment direction, the fund focuses on "chain - leading" projects in major industrial fields to comprehensively support the upgrading and development of Suzhou's "1030" industrial system.

Zhai Junsheng, the chairman of Suzhou State - owned Capital Investment Group Co., Ltd., introduced more details: The fund mainly invests directly, with a minimum investment of 500 million yuan per single project. The investment direction focuses on terminal chain - leading enterprises in Suzhou and key enterprise projects that control scarce resources and core technologies in key links.

At the same time, it serves the national and provincial strategic layouts, actively guides the industrial layout of central enterprises in Suzhou, proactively lays out major industrial projects with disruptive technology potential such as artificial intelligence, deepens cooperation with major research institutions, and promotes the transformation of cutting - edge technological achievements and industrial breakthroughs.

In addition, the Suzhou Talent No.1 Fund was also officially launched. The fund is initiated by Suzhou Venture Capital Group, with a total scale of 10 billion yuan, an initial phase of 2.5 billion yuan, and a term of 15 years. Sub - funds for artificial intelligence, low - altitude economy, biomedicine, cultural and creative industries, and youth entrepreneurship are established simultaneously, focusing on investing in leading talents, competition participants, start - up enterprises, and hard - tech projects.

The preparation of this fund has been going on for a long time. Since the beginning of this year, Suzhou has released the implementation plan of the "Three - Hundred Project", including a plan to add one million talents, an alliance of one hundred universities and one thousand enterprises, and a 10 - billion - yuan talent fund. Last month, Suzhou Talent No.1 Venture Capital Partnership (Limited Partnership) was officially established.

According to Qichacha information, the talent fund is jointly funded by Suzhou Innovation Investment Group Co., Ltd. (Suzhou Venture Capital Group), Suzhou Chuangyuan Investment Development (Group) Co., Ltd. (Chuangyuan Group), Suzhou Asset Investment Management Group Co., Ltd., Suzhou State - owned Capital Investment Group Co., Ltd. (Suzhou State - owned Investment), and Suzhou Angel Venture Capital Guidance Fund Management Co., Ltd. (Suzhou Angel Mother Fund). Among them, Suzhou Angel Mother Fund serves as the private equity fund manager.

Previously, the implementation plan of the 10 - billion - yuan talent fund mentioned that the fund will invest in four aspects: First, invest in leading talents, focusing on supporting national, provincial, and municipal talents and teams; second, invest in competition participants, focusing on supporting high - quality talent projects that stand out in the "Win in Suzhou" series of competitions such as international maker competitions, global science and technology innovation and entrepreneurship competitions, and youth elite competitions; third, invest in start - up enterprises; fourth, invest in hard - tech projects.

With the launch of two 10 - billion - yuan funds in one day, Suzhou is accelerating its pace to attract talents and industries.

Attracting Talents and Projects

Suzhou Takes Action

Throughout this conference, a keyword emerged - "chain - leading".

The so - called "chain - leading" refers to the leading or core enterprises spontaneously formed by the market during the development of the industrial chain. Chain - leading enterprises often have a far - reaching impact and can attract and drive related enterprises to gather in the industrial chain, leading the development of the industrial chain.

Looking around, in the industrial competition across the country, all regions are exploring the "chain - leading" model. By focusing on supporting leading enterprises in the "chain - leading" position in the industrial chain, more upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain are attracted to gather, thus forming industrial clusters. This is a microcosm of the industrial growth of many cities.

Obviously, Suzhou has long recognized the potential of "chain - leading". Previously, Suzhou issued an opinion on cultivating and strengthening chain - leading enterprises, established a database of "1030" key backbone enterprises, and reserved, tracked, and selected a number of advantageous enterprises in the industrial chain with strong foundation and great development potential. More than 270 enterprises have been promoted to enter the cultivation database of chain - leading enterprises, driving the development and growth of upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain through benchmarks.

The story of a leading enterprise bringing an industrial chain is playing out in Suzhou. Take Wuzhong District as an example. It is home to chain - leading enterprises such as Jiuwu Intelligence, Ecovacs, Green Harmonic, and Dreame Technology, which have driven a series of small and medium - sized companies to gather in Wuzhong District. The complete industrial chain enables enterprises in each link to cooperate with each other, forming a synergistic effect. Now, the total number of robot + artificial intelligence enterprises here has exceeded 1,000, and the industrial scale has reached more than 160 billion yuan, forming a relatively complete industrial chain covering key components of robots, artificial intelligence, ontology manufacturing, and system integration.

Remember at the end of last year, Suzhou Venture Capital Group jointly initiated the establishment of eight chain - leading enterprise funds with a total scale of 2.28 billion yuan with eight listed companies and leading enterprises such as Borui Medicine, Ecovacs, and Xuchuang Technology. A group of leading enterprises in Suzhou have actively participated in setting up "chain - leading funds". On the one hand, it can help leading enterprises invest along the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain and enhance their own business capabilities; on the other hand, it will also help the local area continuously supplement and strengthen the industrial chain, improving the overall resilience and security of the industrial chain.

The "chain - leading" enterprises play an agglomeration effect, and talents are also indispensable. Just as Suzhou has established a 10 - billion - yuan talent fund to focus on supporting talent projects in Suzhou's "1030" industrial tracks. According to Suzhou's policy, all young talents who come to Suzhou and meet the requirements have the opportunity to receive subsidies for transportation, accommodation, and living, attracting talents to gather with real money.

An imaginative industrial map will be unfolded in Suzhou. According to data from Zero2IPO Research Center, in the distribution of investment regions in the Chinese equity investment market in 2024, Jiangsu ranked first with 1,603 cases. Among them, Suzhou's investment activity was second only to Shanghai, Beijing, and Shenzhen. In communication, many investors mention that they often travel to Suzhou on business every year.

Subsequently, Suzhou has gradually formed a "1030" industrial system, including three trillion - level industries of electronic information, equipment manufacturing, and advanced materials and 11 billion - level industries. It has been approved for six national advanced manufacturing clusters, three national characteristic industrial clusters for small and medium - sized enterprises, and one national strategic emerging industry cluster.

This summer, a "Suzhou Super League" became popular across the country. Among them, Suzhou, Wuxi, and Changzhou were ridiculed by netizens for their low rankings. Now, halfway through the season, Suzhou has quietly made a comeback and ranked sixth. Interestingly, Suzhou's GDP reached 2.67 trillion yuan in 2024, also ranking sixth among Chinese cities.

In the changing industrial landscape, every city is seizing opportunities.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Jiema LP", written by Wu Qiong and published by 36Kr with authorization.