Jinan has launched four funds at once.

The venture capital vitality of Jinan, the Spring City, burst forth in full force this November.

First, on November 6th, three enterprises - Lingong Heavy Machinery, Kexing Biotech, and Jianbang High - tech - submitted their listing applications to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on the same day, instantly igniting the venture capital circle's attention to this city. Immediately afterwards, four industrial funds were successively established within five days, with a total scale of 11.3 billion yuan, targeting fields such as low - altitude economy, industrial mother machines, and mining.

The capital market has always been a barometer for observing a city's economic vitality and industrial competitiveness. The intensive sprint of enterprises for IPOs and the simultaneous establishment of funds with a scale of billions clearly send a signal - Jinan is accelerating in the integration of industry and capital.

If we extend our view to the entire Shandong Province, its layout strategy for equity investment in recent years has become increasingly clear: centered around the main line of "new and old kinetic energy conversion", it leverages market - oriented funds to invest locally through mother funds. According to CVSource of Chinaventure, since the beginning of this year, the number of newly established funds in Shandong Province has consistently ranked among the top four, only behind Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Guangdong, clearly indicating its high level of activity.

Four funds in five days, with a total scale of 11.3 billion

The four funds recently launched in Jinan each have their own characteristics.

First is the Shandong Gold Mining Equity Investment (Jinan) Partnership (Limited Partnership), which was established at the beginning of the month. It is a mining investment fund with a scale of 1 billion yuan. The LPs include Shanghai Jinlan Investment and Shandong Gold Venture Capital (hereinafter referred to as "Gold Venture Capital"), both of which are 100% owned by Shandong Gold Group.

Shandong Gold Group is the leading enterprise in the local gold industry in Jinan, covering all aspects of the gold business, including exploration, mining, beneficiation, refining, and sales. Historically, Shandong Gold has been generous in the primary market. As early as 2016, it invested in a fund under Tongsheng Capital through Gold Venture Capital. In the following years, it also became an LP of institutions such as Huayao Capital, Luxin Venture Capital, and Guorun Venture Capital.

According to CVSource of Chinaventure, as of now, Gold Venture Capital has directly invested in a total of 39 companies, with a cumulative investment amount exceeding 30.9 billion yuan.

There is no need to elaborate on how crazy the gold market has been in the past two years. The performance of Shandong Gold has risen synchronously. Recently, it released its latest third - quarter report, showing that in the first three quarters of this year, the company's operating income was 83.78 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 25.0%; the net profit attributable to the parent company was 3.96 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 91.5%; and the net cash flow from operating activities was 15.196 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 49.1%.

With sufficient funds at hand, this powerful "financial backer" is also increasing its industrial investment. Before establishing the mining fund, Shandong Gold just participated in the establishment of a limited company in Fujian, whose business scope includes investment with its own funds.

On the day after the establishment of Shandong Gold Mining, another state - owned enterprise in Jinan, "Jinan No.2 Machine Tool Group", led the establishment of an industrial chain investment fund with a total scale of 300 million yuan - the "No.2 Machine Tool Chain and Fund". Among them, Jinan No.2 Machine Tool Group contributed 75%, and a subsidiary of Jinan Financial Investment Holding Group Co., Ltd. contributed 24%.

One of the investors, "Jinan No.2 Machine Tool Group", has a remarkable background. It is known as one of the "world's three major CNC stamping equipment manufacturers" and developed China's first gantry planer in 1953 and the first mechanical press in 1955. Jinan Financial is an investment platform under the jurisdiction of Jinan City.

Nowadays, the combination of "local state - owned assets + industrial leaders" has become a common practice for industrial funds. The fund jointly established by Jinan No.2 Machine Tool Group and Jinan Financial also set a first, being the first corporate venture capital fund in Jinan focusing on the high - end CNC machine tool and robot industry.

In addition to the above two funds led by industrial leaders, recently, the Jinan government also initiated the establishment of two aerospace (low - altitude) industrial funds with a total scale of 10 billion yuan.

Specifically, one is the Jinan Aerospace Information Industry Fund, with a target scale of 5 billion yuan and an initial scale of 500 million yuan. The investors include Jigang Group, Jinan Urban Construction Investment Group, Haitong Kaiyuan, and Jinan Financial. This fund focuses on investing in fields such as advanced manufacturing and information technology related to the aerospace information industry.

The other is the Jinan Low - altitude Economy Industry Fund, with a target scale of 5 billion yuan and an initial scale of 1 billion yuan. The investors include Aviation Investment Private Equity Fund, Jinan Energy Group, and Jinan Financial. It will focus on the whole - machine manufacturing and upstream and downstream core components of the low - altitude economy, low - altitude operation and innovative services, low - altitude computing power, and intelligent manufacturing.

Jinan's layout in the aerospace (low - altitude) industry is not a sudden impulse. As early as 2021, the city issued the "Three - Year Action Plan for the Development of Jinan's Aerospace Information Industry (2021 - 2023)", clearly stating that it would use real money to support the development of related industries and has since included it in the government work report for many consecutive years. Official data shows that as of now, Jinan has established a total of 14 funds related to the aerospace information industry, with a total scale of 4.032 billion yuan.

This time, Jinan's bold move of "5 billion + 5 billion" will undoubtedly take Jinan's aerospace information (low - altitude) industry to a new level.

Build a 60 - billion - yuan fund cluster in five years

The recent intensive establishment of funds in Jinan is closely related to the "Measures for the Management of Jinan Government - Guided Funds" issued in September last year. The "Measures" clearly propose a new framework for the "6 + N" fund cluster, which outlines a clear capital path for the city's industrial investment.

In this framework, "6" represents six guiding funds (mother funds), specifically the angel venture capital, information technology, intelligent manufacturing, biomedicine, strategic emerging, and major project coordinated development guiding funds; "N" refers to the participating funds and direct equity investment funds established under the guiding funds. The six guiding funds will be established in the form of a company system, and it is planned that each guiding fund will reach a scale of 10 billion yuan within five years, with a total scale of 60 billion yuan.

It is worth mentioning that Jinan Financial, which has invested in three funds this time, is in charge of this fund cluster. It is not difficult to speculate that these newly established funds may be the specific implementation measures of the "6 + N" system.

Of course, to achieve the goal of 60 billion yuan in five years, in addition to policy promotion, a solid industrial foundation is also needed as support. In this regard, Jinan also shows certain advantages.

For example, in the field of intelligent manufacturing. Jinan introduced the BYD electric vehicle project as early as 2021. It is understood that BYD not only has a vehicle factory in Jinan but also invests in core components such as power batteries, semiconductors, and energy storage. From the perspective of the industrial chain, the Jinan base is the most complete one in BYD's national production capacity layout.

In addition, there is Tianyue Advanced, known as the "first stock of silicon carbide" in China. According to a report released by Fuji Keizai of Japan, in the global market share ranking of conductive silicon carbide substrate materials in 2024, Tianyue Advanced ranked second in the world with a market share of 22.80%.

The "siphon effect" generated by these leading enterprises is continuously attracting the agglomeration of upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain, providing rich investment targets and diversified exit channels for VC/PE institutions. Data shows that as of now, Jinan has 8 unicorn enterprises, 162 national specialized and sophisticated "little giants" enterprises, 768 provincial gazelle enterprises, 2,612 specialized and sophisticated small and medium - sized enterprises, and 4,625 innovative small and medium - sized enterprises.

Relying on the dual advantages of policy and industry, investing in Jinan has become an important theme for many institutions. According to the 2024 China Urban Science and Technology Innovation Finance Index List, Jinan ranks 10th in terms of comprehensive prosperity.

The number of newly established funds ranks fourth in the country, and Shandong is accelerating

Of course, in addition to Jinan, the entire Shandong Province has also been very active.

According to CVSource of Chinaventure, since the beginning of this year, the number of newly established funds in Shandong Province has consistently ranked among the top four, only behind Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Guangdong. In addition, there have been as many as 378 investment and financing events in the province, which means that there is at least one financing event every day on average. Specifically on the institutional side, Shenzhen Capital Group, CMBC International, Yida Capital, Zhongding Capital, Sequoia China, Legend Capital, etc. have all made layouts.

As an established industrial powerhouse, a strong industrial foundation is one of the reasons for the influx of capital. Shandong is the only province in China with all 41 industrial categories, especially having strong technology and strength in fields such as energy, steel, chemical industry, and machinery manufacturing. For equity investment, there are a large number of investment opportunities in the process of upgrading and transformation of traditional enterprises, and VC/PE institutions naturally won't miss them.

It is also worth mentioning that Shandong's capital layout also has obvious systematicness and concentration.

As early as 2018, the provincial and municipal governments of Shandong jointly invested 40 billion yuan to establish the New and Old Kinetic Energy Conversion Guiding Fund, adopting a two - level structure of guiding funds and sub - funds to attract market - oriented capital to gather in Shandong. Driven by the provincial - level platform, prefecture - level cities such as Qingdao, Jinan, Weifang, Yantai, and Zibo have all taken action and established municipal guiding funds one after another.

By sorting out the government funds at all levels in Shandong, it is not difficult to find that their investment ideas are very clear: they closely revolve around the main line of "new and old kinetic energy conversion" and invest in the "top ten industries" under this strategy.

A clear investment main line means that institutional investment can be targeted, and the investment results are naturally immediate. Data shows that as of the end of 2024, the New and Old Kinetic Energy Conversion Fund in Shandong has jointly established 150 funds, with a cumulative investment in 1,727 enterprise projects. The fund investment amount is 222.3 billion yuan, and it has cumulatively invested in 15 unicorn enterprises, 214 gazelle enterprises, and 306 specialized and sophisticated enterprises in the province, promoting more than 100 enterprises to go public.

With these figures, the New and Old Kinetic Energy Conversion Fund in Shandong has become one of the most concerned guiding funds in the primary market.

This article is from the WeChat public account "LP Spectrum", author: Wang Manhua, published by 36Kr with authorization.