Is CVC no longer in the game? Over 60% of institutions have made no moves, and 90 have "exited the circle".

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The widely - watched CVC is moving towards differentiation.

In the past few years, with its unique resource background and industrial advantages, CVC has become an active and stable capital provider in the primary market. According to CVSource of Chinaventure Group, since records began, 574 CVCs in the entire market have made a total of 16,310 investments, with a total investment scale of 1.16 trillion yuan. It is one of the main players in the hard - tech market.

However, since 2021, CVC's investment has gradually declined. In 2024, the number of CVC investments dropped to less than 1,000, and the total investment amount was 48.247 billion yuan. Both the number and amount of investments were less than half of those in 2021.

Moreover, 375 CVCs have not made any investments this year, accounting for 65.3% of the 574 CVCs. 90 CVCs stopped investing after 2021, accounting for 15.7% of the total number of CVCs.

During my research and interviews in Chengdu last year, some investors reported that the investment performance of CVCs may not be as high as the market expects, and entrepreneurs "should not blindly believe in the industrial advantages of CVCs." The above - mentioned data disclosed by Chinaventure Group in the Report on China Corporate Venture Capital Data (H1, 2025) corroborates the investors' views from the side: The differentiation trend in the primary market is also playing out among CVCs.

574 CVCs participated in equity investment, with 3 new ones added last year

How many CVCs are there in China?

There is no clear definition within the CVC industry. The CVCs we counted include corporate direct investment departments, controlling/participating CVCs, and financial CVCs. It does not include the way that enterprises entrust market - oriented GPs to manage as a single LP; nor does it include industrial investment groups with local state - owned asset backgrounds.

Within this scope, according to the statistics of CVSource of Chinaventure Group, as of July 30, 2025, there are a total of 705 corporate venture capital institutions (CVCs) in China. Excluding those that have never made an investment and those that only participated in mergers and acquisitions and new share issuances, among these 705 CVCs, a total of 574 have made minority equity investment behaviors.

Most of these 574 CVCs were established after 2010 (see the above figure). In terms of the number of CVCs established, there was an obvious peak in 2015, when a total of 76 CVCs were established. In the following two years, the enthusiasm for establishing CVCs continued in the market, with 59 and 62 CVCs established respectively. A total of 197 CVCs were established in these three years, constituting the "peak" stage of CVC establishment from 2010 to 2024.

The formation of the "peak" is not difficult to understand, and there are at least two reasons for it.

Firstly, by around 2015, the development of venture capital in China had been relatively mature. Many enterprises grew rapidly driven by venture capital. They were no longer unfamiliar with the CVC model and were interested and capable of participating in the primary market. Secondly, driven by the "mass entrepreneurship and innovation" policy and combined with the industrial opportunities of the mobile Internet, more investment opportunities emerged in the market.

These two factors enabled many enterprises to quickly become active forces in the primary market. For example, Kuaishou established an investment department in 2015; NIO Capital was established by NIO in 2016; and Inovance Industrial Investment was established by Inovance Technology in 2017. These three CVCs are representative institutions established during this stage.

However, after 2017, affected by the overall environment of the primary market, the establishment of CVCs also showed a rapid downward trend. After a slight rebound in 2021, it continued to decline.

In 2024, we only counted 3 newly established CVCs, namely Yiyang Investment established by Hisense Group, Xinke Fund under JinkoSolar, and Tongluda CVC established by Guangxi Tongluda.

574 CVCs invested 1.16 trillion yuan

Let's take a look at the investment situation of these more than 500 CVCs.

The total number of investment events of 574 CVCs is 16,310, with a total investment scale of 1.16 trillion yuan. Two investment peaks were formed in 2018 and 2021.

Let's first look at the first investment peak - in 2018, the number of CVC investments was 1,565, and the transaction scale was as high as 161.404 billion yuan. This is obviously a data reaction after the intensive establishment of CVCs from 2015 to 2017.

In this year, the CVCs of Internet giants played an important role in the market. According to CVSource of Chinaventure Group, Tencent Investment made 168 investments this year; Alibaba made 64 investments; and BV Baidu Ventures made 74 investments. Taking Tencent Investment as an example, it successively invested in a number of well - known Internet projects such as Beike, Kidswant, MINISO, Bilibili, Meituan, Xiaohongshu, and JD Logistics in this year. The nickname of "Tencent Investment Bank" came from this.

In addition, the CVCs of new energy vehicles also began to emerge. In 2018, Shangqi Capital participated in the investment in enterprises such as Horizon Robotics and Jiesheng Hydrogen Technology; Hengxu Capital invested in Zebra Intelligence; BAIC Industrial Investment invested in BAIC Zhong'an and Changyuan Lithium; and NIO Capital invested in Siwei Zhilian. These investments were hidden in the "jungle" of Internet CVC investments, and it would take another two or three years for them to grow into big trees.

The second investment peak was in 2021.

In this year, CVCs across the country made 2,106 investments, with an investment scale of 124.638 billion yuan. Compared with 2018, the active CVCs in 2021 were more diverse. In addition to traditional Internet giants, they also included CVCs in the new energy vehicle industry chain, CVCs in the pan - semiconductor industry chain, and institutions under traditional enterprises and central and state - owned enterprises.

In the automotive industry chain, SAIC Group has grown into a huge empire. Its Shangqi Capital made 22 investments, and Hengxu Capital made 40 investments. BYD made 15 investments in the form of direct corporate investment this year, three times the number of the previous year (5 investments in 2020).

Among the CVCs in the pan - semiconductor industry chain, Hubble Investment under Huawei and SMIC Juyuan under SMIC are the most prominent. Hubble Investment made 36 investments this year, and SMIC Juyuan made 57 investments. The influence of these two institutions in the market is self - evident.

In addition, traditional enterprises such as Futong Micro - Electric, Desay SV, and Wens Group have investment records. Driven by the motivation of transformation and upgrading, these enterprises have gradually begun to engage in equity investment. The CVCs under central and state - owned enterprises have become an important part of state - owned capital in the subsequent primary market. For example, Aero - Engine Fund, Three Gorges Capital, CECEP Smart Fund, and SPIC Innovation Investment are all important forces that cannot be ignored.

375 institutions have not made any investments, and 90 have exited the market

The investment intensity of CVCs in the new energy vehicle and semiconductor industry chains has continued since 2021. However, overall, since 2021, the number of overseas investment events of domestic CVC institutions has declined year by year.

In 2023, the number of overseas investments by CVCs was 1,404, with a total investment amount of 99.697 billion yuan. In 2024, the number of overseas investments by CVC institutions throughout the year dropped to less than 1,000, and the total investment amount was 48.247 billion yuan. Not only was the number of investments halved compared with 2021, but the amount was also shrunk to only 40% of that in 2021.

As of this year, in the first seven months, domestic CVCs have made a total of 515 investment events, with a total transaction amount of 32.7 billion yuan. It is expected that this year's investment level will be the same as last year's.

It is worth mentioning that according to the statistics of CVSource of Chinaventure Group, among the 574 CVCs that have made investments, 375 institutions have not made any investments this year, accounting for 65.3% of the CVC institutions. A total of 90 CVC institutions have not participated in any investments since 2021, accounting for 15.7% of the CVC institutions.

This means that nearly a hundred CVCs have gradually withdrawn from minority equity investment.

Of course, the good news is that the investment frequency of leading CVCs has not further declined in the past two years.

The top 20 CVC institutions still maintain more than 15 investments every year. In 2024, Shangqi Capital, Lenovo Capital and Incubator Group, Inspur Group, Tencent Investment, SMIC Juyuan, and Tailong Investment made more than 20 investments. In the first seven months of this year, these CVCs are still the most active investors in the market.

This shows that CVCs are also moving towards differentiation in the context of the overall downward trend of the industry.

This article is from the WeChat public account "Beyond the J Curve", author: Song Zixiang. Republished by 36Kr with permission.