The richest person born in the 1990s has emerged.
"Going public is like getting married and getting a marriage certificate, which means you have to take on more obligations in the future." Two months ago, at the Shenzhen headquarters of Insta360, Liu Jingkang (JK) talked to a group of media from the investment circle about his feelings after the company went public. At that time, he had just returned from ringing the bell at the Science and Technology Innovation Board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
Unexpectedly, since then, Insta360's stock price has been rising all the way. In recent trading days, the stock price has reached the daily limit of 20%, and the market value has reached a record high, exceeding 120 billion yuan. As of today's closing price, it has reached 300 yuan per share. Calculated based on the issue price of 47.27 yuan per share, the stock price has skyrocketed by about 530% in the two months since going public.
Finally, Liu Jingkang, the first post - 90s entrepreneur to ring the bell on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, has become the head of a company with a market value of over 100 billion yuan. According to "New Fortune Magazine", he has become the richest person among Chinese post - 90s.
In just ten years, from a student graduating from university to the helmsman of a company with a market value of over 100 billion yuan, this was an unimaginable scenario in the past. However, in today's era of Chinese technology, such stories are emerging.
The first post - 90s founder on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, with a market value of 120 billion yuan
A new stock with a market value of over 100 billion yuan has been born.
On August 18, after the opening of Insta360, the stock price soared significantly, and the market value exceeded 100 billion yuan. A few days earlier, Insta360 officially announced the world's first panoramic drone, "Insta360 Antigravity A1", and launched a global beta test. Subsequently, the stock price reached the daily limit of 20% twice in two trading days.
This scene is quite shocking. Calculated based on the issue price of 47.27 yuan per share, in the two months since going public, Insta360's stock price has skyrocketed by more than 530%.
The entrepreneurial story behind him has long been widely talked about. Liu Jingkang was born in 1991 in Meizhou, Guangdong. He grew up in Zhongshan and has been a technology enthusiast since childhood. In 2010, Liu Jingkang was admitted to Nanjing University to study software engineering. He was not "well - behaved" during his college years. In his sophomore year, he accurately found Zhou Hongyi's phone number through the 10 - second keystroke sound during a phone interview with a journalist, which caused a sensation at that time.
During this period, Liu Jingkang organized a team at school to develop a video product called "Famous School Live". In 2015, one year after graduating from Nanjing University, Liu Jingkang led his original entrepreneurial partners to establish a new company, focusing on VR and panoramic cameras. Thus, the story of Insta360 began.
After some consideration, the team moved the company from Nanjing to Shenzhen, where the supply chain is more complete. However, the real entrepreneurship was much more difficult than expected. In the early stage, the entire Insta360 team slept only about 3 hours a day. Liu Jingkang even often went to the factory to screw screws and polish equipment himself. The team still remembers a sentence he often said at that time:
"If we can't make it, the company will go bankrupt."
It was a tough period. Until July 2016, Insta360 finally launched the consumer - grade panoramic camera Nano, which quickly swept the mass consumer market. This revolutionary product can not only be directly plugged into an Apple phone for shooting but also can be shared on social networks with one click without post - processing.
The subsequent professional - grade VR camera Pro series also received a good market response. In 2018, Insta360 continued to expand its product line and entered the action camera market, launching the ONE X panoramic anti - shake action camera. Since then, Insta360 has maintained a new product launch rhythm of half a year to one year, with rapid product iteration.
Liu Jingkang realized the importance of the overseas market very early. From the first day of deciding to make smart hardware, Insta360 set its sights on the global market, and the proportion of overseas sales once reached 80%. When Labubu of Pop Mart caused a frenzy among global fans, Insta360 X5 also triggered a global rush to buy.
Looking back on the ten - year journey, one can't help but feel a lot of emotions. On June 11, 2025, Insta360 officially listed on the A - share market, with a market value of over 70 billion yuan on the first day. After the IPO, Liu Jingkang and his persons acting in concert held more than 30% of the shares in total. Still remember that day, 34 - year - old Liu Jingkang stood on the bell - ringing stage and said, "We haven't done anything earth - shattering. We just insist on doing one thing to the extreme - helping people better record and share their lives."
A decade, creating a feast of returns
This is a rare super - return case in the venture capital circle in recent years.
Just as Thunder's financial report revealed these days: "Thanks to the successful investment of founder Zou Shenglong in Insta360 in 2016, we have generated a pre - tax floating profit of 720 million US dollars (more than 5 billion yuan)."
In 2016, Insta360 completed hundreds of millions of yuan in Series C financing, led by Thunder and followed by Qiming Venture Partners and IDG Capital. According to Insta360's prospectus when it listed on the A - share market, Thunder held 7.84% of the equity in Insta360 after the IPO. Calculated based on the market value of 120 billion yuan, the latest market value corresponding to Thunder's shares is about 9.4 billion yuan.
You know, Thunder's latest market value is 548 million US dollars (about 3.9 billion yuan), which is less than half of the market value corresponding to its shares in Insta360.
After ten years of accompanying, the investors behind finally waited for the harvest season.
Among them, the early investor IDG Capital left a deep impression on the outside world. As early as 2013, the IDG Capital team extended an "olive branch" to Liu Jingkang. Until 2015, it became the earliest external investor in Insta360. In the angel - round financing of Insta360 in March of that year, IDG Capital subscribed for 20% of the company's shares with 652,500 US dollars (about 4.7 million yuan).
"We made the decision after just one meeting, and basically no one in the company opposed it." Several partners within IDG Capital once talked to the investment circle about this decision, and all of them pointed to the core of the evaluation - "Invest in people and believe in young people."
After that, IDG Capital bet in subsequent rounds and became the largest external institutional investor in Insta360 and the investor who accompanied the company's team for the longest time. According to the prospectus, IDG Capital held nearly 12% of the shares in Insta360 after its listing. Based on the total market value of 120 billion yuan, the latest market value of its shares exceeds 14.4 billion yuan.
Another early investor, Qiming Venture Partners, also got rich returns. Just half a year after the angel - round financing arrived, IDG Capital and Qiming Venture Partners jointly invested 8 million US dollars in the Series B financing of Liu Jingkang's team. As time passed, more and more investors extended olive branches. Qiming Venture Partners participated in the Series C financing again. After the IPO, it held nearly 8.4% of the shares, and the latest corresponding market value of its shares exceeded 10 billion yuan.
This is a victory for betting on young people and investing in the future. Moreover, Zhuhai Technology Group, Macquarie Group, China Merchants Capital, Cornerstone Capital, and Langmafeng Venture Capital, which were among the top 10 major shareholders before the IPO, all received varying degrees of return feasts.
Every IPO at present is extremely precious. Nowadays, the primary market is suffering from the difficulty of exiting. Such a case of sticking to it for many years and finally getting returns is undoubtedly a source of comfort and emotion.
Chinese post - 90s, opening the era of technology - driven wealth creation
Through Liu Jingkang, we can see the image of a new generation of Chinese entrepreneurs. As Zhang Wei, the chairman of Cornerstone Capital, summarized:
"They grew up in an era of economic take - off and embracing the world. They are more confident, have a more global perspective, and are more creative, rebellious, and challenging. They are ambitious, want to change the world, have grand dreams, and want to create great products."
The IDG Capital team also found a phenomenon: Since the emergence of ChatGPT, truly breakthrough innovations often come from young teams. "They may lack industry experience, but because they are not restricted by traditional thinking, they can quickly establish technological advantages in cutting - edge fields such as AI."
This scene is particularly obvious this year.
Last month, the website of the China Securities Regulatory Commission disclosed the "Report on the Filing for Guidance on the Initial Public Offering and Listing of Hangzhou Unitree Technology Co., Ltd." So far, this star robot unicorn has started to sprint for the A - share market.
Behind Unitree is also a post - 90s. Wang Xingxing, who graduated from Zhejiang Sci - Tech University with a bachelor's degree and from Shanghai University with a master's degree, has been good at making various small inventions since childhood. During his college years, 19 - year - old Wang Xingxing made his first robot. And when he received his first investment, he was only 26 years old. The Unitree Technology he founded has gathered a long list of investors so far.
Coincidentally, Yuanzhi Robotics recently acquired Shangwei New Materials, a company listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board. After that, Shangwei New Materials had a continuous daily - limit rising trend for 10 trading days and became the first 10 - fold stock this year.
As we all know, behind Yuanzhi Robotics stands another post - 90s - Peng Zhihui, a B - station up - master with 2.7 million followers, also known as Zhihui Jun. He graduated from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China with a bachelor's and a master's degree and was once selected for Huawei's "Genius Youth Program". Until the end of 2022, he officially announced that he was leaving Huawei to pursue his dream and beloved career and embarked on the journey of robot entrepreneurship.
Looking around, there are many such faces: Yang Zhilin of Dark Side of the Moon, Zhang Junbin of Yunjing Technology, Wang He of Galaxy Universal, Zeng Guoyang of Mianbi Intelligence, Hu Yuanming of Meshy... These young - looking people have founded amazing companies from scratch with their knowledge and technology.
If the previous generation of Chinese entrepreneurs was good at business operations and sales, then this group of young founders is more focused on technology. Undoubtedly, they are lucky and have grown rapidly on the wave of technological explosion.
With the help of the favorable wind, I can soar to the sky.
The legend of wealth creation is just the prologue. A longer journey has just begun. How to promote Chinese technology to truly go global and leave a mark in the long history is the real mission of this generation.
This article is from the WeChat official account "Investment Circle". Authors: Yang Jiyun and Wang Lu. Republished by 36Kr with authorization.