Investors are extremely busy.

Although challenges still remain and some practitioners are still feeling the pain, the positive shift in the market cannot be ignored.

The primary market is bustling.

Recently, many investors have expressed similar feelings to us: market confidence is recovering, and trading activity has significantly increased.

On the one hand, the pace of project financing has accelerated significantly. On the other hand, the willingness of LPs to contribute capital has also increased. As market confidence recovers, the allocation demand for long - term funds is being released.

An investor joked: "There have been significantly more project roadshows recently, and the coffee on the startup street is hot again."

Hardly had he finished speaking when an investor who had just finished discussing a project got up and was ready to "rush to the next event" - the next stop was a high - speed train to Shenzhen.

This kind of high - frequency "two - city story" and even "multi - city story" has become the norm for many practitioners.

Bay Area Speed

After several years of the capital winter and valuation adjustments, the market is showing signs of a structural "recovery".

According to FOFWEEKLY data, in September, 1,175 institutional LPs contributed capital to equity investment funds, with a total of 1,282 contributions. According to incomplete statistics, institutional LPs participated in the capital contributions of 572 funds in September. Judging from the trend of institutional LP capital contributions, the number of contributing institutions increased in September, and the number of contributions also continued to rise. Market activity increased compared with the previous month.

Notably, the most active region for institutional LP capital contributions in September was Zhejiang Province, while Guangdong Province surpassed Jiangsu Province to rank second in active capital contributions.

The vitality of Guangdong is still mainly reflected in Shenzhen. In March this year, the "Action Plan for Promoting the High - Quality Development of Venture Capital and Private Equity Investment in Shenzhen (2025 - 2026)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Action Plan") was officially released. The "Action Plan" clearly arranges for aspects such as fundraising, investment, and exit of venture capital, aiming to promote the high - quality development of the venture capital and private equity investment industry in Shenzhen and stride towards an international venture capital and private equity investment center. The "Action Plan" clearly states that by 2026, a trillion - level industrial fund group will be formed, and the number of VC/PE funds will exceed 10,000.

More importantly, there is policy innovation: for eligible early - stage funds, Shenzhen explores canceling the requirement for the proportion of reinvestment; a comprehensive fault - tolerance mechanism is established to protect "patient capital".

Beyond policies, new funds are also rapidly gathering.

In 2025, the capital layout in the fields of artificial intelligence and robotics in Shenzhen has been carried out with unprecedented speed and precision.

On October 9, Nanshan District in Shenzhen launched an "AI Fund Group" with a total scale of 3 billion yuan. The three funds each have their own focuses, targeting the artificial intelligence and embodied robotics tracks. On October 16, the Second Bay Area Semiconductor Investment and Financing Strategic Development Forum was held during the 2025 Bay Core Exhibition. At the forum, the unveiling ceremony of the Shenzhen Semiconductor and Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund (referred to as the "Semiconductor Fund") with an initial scale of 5 billion yuan was held. On September 23, the Shenzhen Guangming Guowan Zhongying Innovation and Entrepreneurship Investment Fund Partnership (Limited Partnership) (referred to as the "Mother Fund"), jointly initiated by the private equity subsidiary of BOC International Securities Co., Ltd., the Guangming District Guidance Fund, Shenzhen Guangming Science City Industrial Development Group Co., Ltd. (referred to as the "Guangming Science and Development Group"), and Shenzhen Angel Investment Guidance Fund Management Co., Ltd. (referred to as the "Shenzhen Angel"), completed industrial and commercial registration. It is reported that the total target scale of the fund is 5 billion yuan.

All along, whether looking for LPs or projects, Guangdong has been a strategic area that GPs cannot bypass.

An investor, after finishing a meeting in Nanshan, Shenzhen, rushed to Songshan Lake in Dongguan, frequently shuttling between major innovation nodes in the Guangdong - Hong Kong - Macao Greater Bay Area.

He couldn't help but sigh: "This pace is like going back to ten years ago."

This kind of recovery with a distinct label of "future industries" is not unique to Guangdong.

This year, from Beijing to the Yangtze River Delta, the popularity of tracks such as artificial intelligence, robotics, and low - altitude economy has continued to reach new heights, further promoting the recovery of the primary market.

Flowing into "Future Industries"

Since 2025, the recovery signal of the primary market has become more and more obvious. After several years of adjustment, the Chinese venture capital circle is regaining its vitality, and the warm wind is blowing frequently. However, behind the market recovery, funds are flowing highly concentratedly into "future industries".

From the perspective of the financing market, the story of "completing two rounds of financing and raising hundreds of millions of yuan in just half a year" has begun to be staged again. The market's pursuit of high - quality projects has heated up again. However, different from the madness in the past Internet era, it now almost only occurs in tracks such as robotics, artificial intelligence, and semiconductors.

According to IT Juzi data, from Q1 2024 to Q3 2025, the number of new financing events in the domestic AI industry has achieved a continuous and significant leap, almost doubling from 188 in Q1 2024 to Q2 2025. In Q3 2025, it reached 435, a 20.8% increase from the previous quarter and a 99% increase year - on - year. From the perspective of city distribution, "Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Hangzhou" firmly remain in the first echelon.

Meanwhile, this year is also known as the "Year of Commercialization of Humanoid Robots".

ZhiYuan Robotics, which was founded only two years ago, is expected to see its revenue soar more than tenfold this year. The Walker series of humanoid robots from Ubtech has received orders worth more than 630 million yuan this year... In addition, robot projects such as Yuanli Infinite and ZhiPingFang have also announced that they have received orders worth hundreds of millions of yuan.

The most intuitive manifestation of this market - side enthusiasm is the schedule of investors. "I rushed to the project site on the first day after the holiday," an investor revealed. "The decision - making cycle has been significantly shortened. It can take as fast as one month from the first contact to the final decision."

The long - lost "FOMO sentiment" has emerged in the market that has been quiet for some time. Along with the active trends of projects and funds, there have also been significant changes in the talent market.

Some headhunters have reported that the demand for investors and RMB IR positions in the AI and robotics tracks has skyrocketed this year, and the recruitment pace has accelerated significantly. It can take as fast as two weeks from the first interview to receiving an offer.

Recently, at the "2025 Annual Forum of Mother Funds and the 6th Lujiang Venture Capital Forum" hosted by FOFWEEKLY, many front - line investors also emphasized that the industry is gradually recovering.

In the view of the guests, the "paradigm shift" in the Chinese primary market is still ongoing, but this does not mean the contraction of the industry. Instead, it is the return of value and the reshaping of logic. From investing in early - stage and hard - tech projects to focusing on breaking through in supply - chain security and efficiency; from building an ecological linkage among universities, industries, and capital to independently defining benchmarks in the technological uncharted areas - the industry is rewriting the investment methodology with practice.

Conclusion

Currently, we are in an unprecedented wave of technological innovation. Although challenges still remain and some practitioners are still feeling the pain, the positive shift in the market cannot be ignored.

As many LPs have said, the current Chinese equity investment is entering a new era that returns to the essence, emphasizes professionalism, and rejects impetuosity. In their view: "There is still a lot of capital in the market, but it will only flow to those managers with clear strategies and excellent performance."

In the current situation where uncertainty has become the new normal, the only certainty is that those institutions that truly have technological insights, ecological resources, and long - term beliefs will cross the cycle faster and lock in high - quality assets.

This article is from the WeChat official account "FOFWEEKLY", author: FOFWEEKLY. Republished by 36Kr with permission.