Lianchuang Yongjun has completed a fundraising of 1 billion yuan, with multiple industrial LPs such as Anhui Mother Fund, Meijin Energy, SenseTime, and Zongshen Group participating.
Hard technology investment, which has entered the deep - water zone, welcomes another patient capital.
Recently, Lianchuang Yongjun, a management firm focusing on artificial intelligence hard technology and spun off from the well - known large - scale venture capital institution Lianchuang Investment with a long history in China, successfully raised 1 billion yuan for its Hard Technology Phase II Fund against the trend. The fund will mainly invest in hard technology fields such as artificial intelligence, intelligent manufacturing, and new energy.
The investors of this fund form a luxurious lineup with distinct strategic synergy characteristics: It was jointly established by the Anhui Artificial Intelligence Theme Mother Fund as the cornerstone investor, along with industrial and state - owned capitals from Meijin Energy (000723.SZ), SenseTime Group (00020.HK), Zongshen Industrial Group, etc.
This is not simply a combination of funds: In Anhui, the industrial clusters of "China Sound Valley" and the University of Science and Technology of China provide the best testing ground for AI technological innovation. Ma'anshan, known as the "heart of the Yangtze River Delta", is deeply embedded in the supply chain of the advanced manufacturing corridor in the Yangtze River Delta. In Shanxi, Meijin Energy's entire hydrogen energy industry chain opens up an outlet for the implementation of carbon - neutral technologies. In Shanghai, SenseTime has made long - term and in - depth accumulations from the underlying foundation to the application implementation of AI. In Chongqing, Zongshen Group, as a representative enterprise of the first generation of reform and opening - up, fully embraces the new AI era with more than thirty years of industrial accumulation.
This means that the management firm Lianchuang Yongjun will demonstrate stronger vitality in the era of hard technology investment. The fund will accurately break through the core bottlenecks from technology R & D to industrial implementation through the iron - triangle model of "the highest - level government - guided funds in key regions + in - depth and solid industrial ecosystem + long - term focus on venture capital".
"Currently, hard technology investment has entered the deep - water zone, and it is difficult for a single capital force to break through the industrialization bottleneck," said Song Yu, a partner of Lianchuang Yongjun. "What we have built is a precise grafting system for industrial resources, and each LP is an indispensable key node in the ecological chain."
01 Strong fundraising ability and coordinated layout of Phase I and II funds
When US dollar funds are shrinking and GPs generally face difficulties in fundraising, the successful closing of Lianchuang Yongjun's Phase II Fund demonstrates its strong fundraising ability and the flexible and high - level operation art of bringing together multiple industrial giants.
According to public data research, among the nine private funds under the cornerstone investment institution Anhui Artificial Intelligence Theme Mother Fund, the Lianchuang Yongjun Hard Technology (Phase II) Fund ranks second in scale, only after China Mobile. Moreover, except for state - owned capital, all the investors in this fund are private capitals with strong industrial chain leading capabilities, which undoubtedly shows the market's high recognition of the Lianchuang Yongjun brand.
In the past, the successful practice of the Lianchuang Hard Technology (Phase I) Fund initially proved Lianchuang Yongjun's investment strategy in the hard technology track. Similar to the Phase II Fund, the Lianchuang Hard Technology (Phase I) Fund also adopted the LP structure of "government - guided funds + leading listed companies in the industry": It was jointly established by the Shanghai Municipal Government, the Shanghai Minhang District Government, the Jiangsu Yixing Municipal Government, and multiple listed companies.
Currently, the Lianchuang Hard Technology (Phase I) Fund has completed a systematic layout in the fields of AI and advanced manufacturing, and the invested companies are developing steadily. For example, Kuawei Intelligence, an industrial embodied intelligence company in its investment portfolio, has now become one of the "Eight Big Players" in Shenzhen's humanoid robot industry and has entered a stage of rapid growth. Xiwang, a domestic GPU enterprise, recently completed a new round of financing of nearly 1 billion yuan after Lianchuang Yongjun participated in its first - round investment. Semiconductor CIM software leader Saimeite Technology has completed the listing guidance. The growth trajectories of these invested enterprises verify the advantages of Lianchuang Yongjun's "industrial empowerment + ecological synergy" model.
In addition, in terms of the industrial maturity context, the investment layouts of the Lianchuang Hard Technology (Phase I) Fund and the Phase II Fund complement and synergistically advance each other. The Lianchuang Hard Technology (Phase I) Fund focuses on the digitalization and intelligentization of industrial manufacturing, belonging to the 1.0 - 2.0 stage of intelligent manufacturing. The Phase II Fund conducts investment layouts around artificial intelligence and AI - empowered industry, belonging to the 3.0 stage of intelligent manufacturing.
This means that the industry experience, industrial knowledge, project accumulation, and industrial resources accumulated by the Phase I Fund will all contribute to the investment layout of the Phase II Fund, realizing an effective ecological linkage between the two funds.
02 Industrial operation genes to deeply empower hard technology investment
Talent is the core asset of an investment institution. After years of training and coordination, Lianchuang Yongjun has established a management team with both industrial operation and investment incubation capabilities.
Yang Jun, the chairman of Lianchuang Yongjun, has nearly 20 years of investment and merger experience, as well as years of management and industrial experience in industrial listed companies. He has handled many landmark mergers, acquisitions, and backdoor listing projects and is rich in experience in using key nodes in the capital market to promote project development. He has also managed a multi - billion - level energy fund and has a deep understanding of the inheritance and differences between traditional energy and new energy industries. He is one of the few senior professionals in the venture capital industry with comprehensive experience in investment, mergers, acquisitions, and industrial integration.
Song Yu, a partner of Lianchuang Yongjun, has more than 15 years of investment and industrial experience. He has long focused on emerging technology fields such as artificial intelligence and robotics, accumulated rich resources in the industrial ecosystem, and invested in and incubated multiple target companies, some of which have become star projects in the market and are developing rapidly.
The core management team of Lianchuang Yongjun has accumulated a wealth of project source channels and a network for connecting professional high - end talents. In particular, its in - depth cooperation with universities such as Peking University, Tsinghua University, Zhejiang University, and Harbin Institute of Technology provides Lianchuang Yongjun with extensive coverage and the ability to discover high - quality projects in the fields of intelligent manufacturing, artificial intelligence, and robotics. The fund can access the highest - quality and top - tier projects.
Moreover, the management team of Lianchuang Yongjun has profound industrial operation experience. Most members of the team have actual operation experience in industrial listed companies. With an industrial perspective and thinking, the team can analyze problems from the perspective of the industrial side through listed companies with ecological connections and make independent judgments in the investment process based on industrial development laws.
More importantly, Lianchuang Yongjun has established a complete industrial empowerment network. It can integrate the technological ecosystems of invested enterprises, the government, listed companies, industrial LPs, and first - class universities, implement post - investment empowerment in practice, conduct effective post - investment management, and assist invested enterprises in development at key nodes. For example, relying on its successful experience in investing in the intelligent warehousing unicorn enterprise Quicktron, Lianchuang Yongjun quickly incubated and empowered Shanghai Zhishi Robotics, a provider of four - way shuttle warehousing solutions in this industry, and successfully helped the enterprise achieve three - fold growth for two consecutive years.
In the future, Lianchuang Yongjun will rely on the Lianchuang Hard Technology (Phase II) Fund to continuously provide invested enterprises with real scenarios for product R & D, verification opportunities for new products, and connect them with core customers at key nodes in their development.
03 Anchoring three main tracks of AI manufacturing with systematic capabilities
Lianchuang Yongjun has also developed a systematic investment approach.
First, Lianchuang Yongjun has strict project screening criteria, almost selecting one out of a hundred. It has strict control over the technological barriers, team quality, and valuation rationality of projects. Data shows that Lianchuang Yongjun examines thousands of projects annually, and the projects it finally invests in need to go through multiple processes such as technological verification and cross - verification of ecological resources.
In addition, exit is one of the key indicators for measuring an investment institution. Currently, relying on a rich pool of listed company resources, Lianchuang Yongjun has established a dual - channel for IPO and industrial mergers and acquisitions at the exit end, which further provides multiple protections for LP funds and greatly improves the safety of LP funds. Under Lianchuang Yongjun's post - investment management services, many investment projects of the Phase I Fund have already achieved independent listing or exited through mergers and acquisitions.
In terms of track layout, the management team of the Lianchuang Yongjun Hard Technology (Phase II) Fund has a deep understanding of the technology cycle and industrial insight.
Regarding the investment logic, Song Yu, a partner of Lianchuang Yongjun, said that the core of the intelligent manufacturing track lies in "technology integration". Currently, China's added value in the manufacturing industry accounts for more than 25% of the global total. The complete industrial chain provides rich scenarios for the application of new technologies. The implementation and application of artificial intelligence technology in industrial scenarios are the most worthy opportunities to focus on. In the intelligent manufacturing track, the management firm will adopt an investment strategy of "equal emphasis on stock optimization and incremental innovation": In stock scenarios, it will focus on the entry points for cost reduction, efficiency improvement, and domestic substitution; in incremental scenarios, it will focus on investment opportunities in technological disruption and model innovation.
In the new energy track, its essence is the realization of technological value driven by policies and the reconstruction of efficiency in the energy revolution. Based on this, Lianchuang Yongjun will conduct differentiated layouts according to the development maturity of different technological paths: Select the companies with the strongest commercialization capabilities in mature paths; capture the enterprises that achieve the earliest commercial breakthroughs in emerging paths; and accurately position at the key nodes of technological breakthroughs in disruptive paths and make layouts at the right time.
In the field of intelligent vehicles, Lianchuang Yongjun will conduct long - term layouts, focusing on three core elements: technological barriers, scenario implementation capabilities, and ecological synergy effects. Song Yu, a partner of Lianchuang Yongjun, emphasized that as China's automotive industry moves towards the middle and high ends of the global value chain, enterprises with core technologies, customer verification, and cost advantages are the key points of attention. Currently, the deep integration of artificial intelligence and the automotive industry is endowed with extremely high investment value. He pointed out that the integration of multi - modal large models with multi - source data can increase the passing rate of complex intersections to 95%, and generative AI can significantly reduce the training cost in extreme weather scenarios by 80%.
Hard technology investment has entered the era of "meticulous cultivation". With its "industrial genes + strict risk control + in - depth empowerment", Lianchuang Yongjun demonstrates strong potential to weather economic cycles. This 1 - billion - yuan "patient capital" is targeting the innovative areas of AI - empowered industrial manufacturing, exploring high - quality projects in the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, and injecting strong impetus into the development of new - quality productivity.