Another female leader leads the team, and a well-known Chengdu company is going to IPO.

In the end, those who remain at the gaming table are still the real power players.

A star company from Chengdu is heading towards the Hong Kong stock market.

Under the leadership of 61-year-old female entrepreneur Chen Lijuan, Zeling Biotech, which has won the favor of Qiming Venture Partners, Gao Rong Capital, Wuyuan Capital, Tencent, BlueRun Ventures, Chengdu Science and Technology Innovation Investment, Sichuan Venture Capital Investment, Ceyuan Ventures, Guizhou Bailing, Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Fund, and funds under Dan Ming Capital Group, recently approached the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Looking in the direction she is moving, more female entrepreneurs are queuing up to pursue IPOs.

Within just about a month, star companies such as Qian Dama, InnoVir Bio, Onyxboox Information, Jiazhi Technology, and AXON Technologies, founded by them, including Zeling Biotech, have also embarked on the IPO journey, making people deeply feel the "She Power".

Under Her Leadership, a Star Company is Born in Chengdu

The birth of Zeling Biotech stems from the transformation of scientific and technological achievements of West China Hospital of Sichuan University.

Going back to 2018, at the request of the National Health Commission, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, as a pilot unit, undertook the task of exploring the "incentive policy system for the transfer and transformation of scientific and technological achievements within the hospital" and introduced a new series of incentive policies for achievement transformation, thus laying the groundwork for the establishment of Zeling Biotech.

At that time, in the view of Chen Lijuan, the then deputy director of the State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy at Sichuan University, this incentive policy filled the long - standing policy gap in the distribution of ownership between individuals and units in achievement transformation, providing policy guarantees for everyone in external achievement transformation, personal shareholding, and company establishment.

In order to explore and develop an early - stage research project, Chen Lijuan chose to establish Zeling Biotech in Chengdu in April 2019. When the company was founded, she and Huaxi Health, an affiliated company of West China Hospital of Sichuan University, jointly invested with proprietary technologies and introduced Guizhou Bailing as a founding shareholder.

According to them, the main reason for establishing Zeling Biotech was to promote the clinical transformation of innovative drugs in the laboratory stage, break through the "transformation barrier" between basic research and drug development, and enable early - stage scientific research achievements with potential to truly move towards clinical applications, ultimately benefiting a large number of patients.

Based on the real - world data pool and multi - disciplinary clinical cooperation network built by West China Hospital of Sichuan University, which has an annual outpatient volume of over ten million, 32 national clinical key specialties, and a national precision medicine industry innovation center, Zeling Biotech chose to focus on small - molecule therapies, concentrating on meeting the medical needs in the fields of hematological diseases, oncology, central nervous system diseases, and immune/inflammatory diseases.

For the FM product (flotinib maleate) for the treatment of myelofibrosis, they chose to conduct a head - to - head study with ruxolitinib at the 2b - stage clinical trial and successfully advanced it to the Phase III clinical stage. As for the PM product (puyisostat mesylate) for the treatment of relapsed/refractory diffuse large B - cell lymphoma, it has currently obtained conditional marketing approval.

Due to the fact that the products have not yet been launched for sales and the continuous R & D investment, Zeling Biotech is still in a state of loss. Looking through the prospectus, their net loss exceeded 91 million yuan in 2024 and reached nearly 120 million yuan in the first nine months of 2025. During the same period, the company's cumulative R & D investment exceeded 160 million yuan.

The emphasis on R & D has also enabled them to successfully enter the fast lane of development. After nearly seven years of development, Zeling Biotech has not only built a drug R & D process based on scientific logic and data - driven, but also has a pipeline consisting of eight proprietary assets, ultimately becoming a typical case of moving from a laboratory project to industrialization.

Tencent and Qiming Invest, Valuation Exceeds 3.4 Billion Yuan

Along the way, Zeling Biotech has raised more than 1.1 billion yuan in cumulative financing.

After receiving an investment from Guizhou Bailing in the early stage of its establishment, the company completed its Series A financing in November 2021. The investors included Sichuan Development Hongke, Chengdu Pengze, Sichuan Academician Fund, Sichuan Venture Capital Investment, Guosheng Capital, Xinheng Lida, etc.

After the patient enrollment for the Phase 1/2a clinical trial of FM and the Phase 2a clinical trial of PM was completed, and with the expansion of the indications of PM for multiple myeloma and advanced solid tumors, Zeling Biotech completed its Series B financing in November 2023.

After raising 192 million yuan from investors such as Chengdu Science and Technology Innovation Investment, Sichuan Venture Capital Investment, Huajin Capital, Ceyuan Ventures, Shengzhong Investment, and Baihui Medical Management, the company began to accelerate the research on core technology sectors and pipelines under development.

In the view of Huajin Capital, Zeling Biotech's drug molecule design has significant differences, and multiple pipelines have entered the middle and late stages of clinical trials, with excellent clinical data.

Ceyuan Ventures believes that Chen Lijuan has rich experience in new drug R & D, a solid R & D foundation, and strong execution ability. The company's multiple pipelines have achieved excellent clinical data.

Seeing that FM showed good safety and significant efficacy in the Phase 1/2a clinical trial and that PM demonstrated excellent clinical results in the 2b - stage clinical trial for relapsed/refractory diffuse large B - cell lymphoma, more investors chose to invest in this company.

With the support of Qiming Venture Partners, Gao Rong Capital, Qiji Investment, Wuyuan Capital, Zhongyuan Investment, Sichuan Development Hongke, etc., Zeling Biotech completed the first closing of its Series B+ financing in February 2025 and completed the second closing of this round five months later.

"Relying on the full - chain innovative drug platform, Zeling Biotech has successfully promoted the efficient clinical transformation of multiple new drugs and demonstrated exciting clinical efficacy in various treatment fields," said Chen Kan, a partner at Qiming Venture Partners and the co - head of the medical innovation industry. He judged that with the simultaneous launch of overseas clinical trials, they will stand out on the global innovative drug stage.

While making multiple progress in pipeline products, the company completed its Series C financing in November 2025, co - led by the funds under Dan Ming Capital Group, which is indirectly wholly - owned by Temasek, and Qiming Venture Partners. Tencent, Sichuan Academician Fund, Chengdu Hongze, Wuyuan Capital, Guosheng Capital, Huajin Capital, Newell Capital, BlueRun Ventures, C&D Emerging Investment, Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Fund, etc. participated in the follow - on investment, and the final valuation exceeded 3.4 billion yuan.

At that time, out of recognition of Zeling Biotech, investors such as Tencent, Qiming Venture Partners, and Wuyuan Capital also bought old shares. Sensing the enthusiasm of investors, Chen Lijuan and Huaxi Health also sold some of their old shares at transaction amounts of 85 million yuan and about 48 million yuan respectively.

Before the listing, Chen Lijuan holds about 25.6% of the voting rights of the company. If roughly calculated based on the valuation of 3.4 billion yuan, then Chen Lijuan's net worth has reached hundreds of millions of yuan, and the shareholding values of Guizhou Bailing, Qiming Venture Partners, and Tencent will exceed 500 million yuan, 400 million yuan, and 150 million yuan respectively.

They, Queuing Up for IPO

Under the leadership of Chen Lijuan, Zeling Biotech embarked on the IPO journey on January 13th. Looking in the direction she is moving, more female entrepreneurs are queuing up to pursue IPOs.

One day before Zeling Biotech submitted its prospectus, Qian Dama, the leading community - chain fresh food brand founded by Feng Weihua, began to advance its listing in Hong Kong. After more than a decade of development, Qian Dama provides fresh food products by "not selling overnight meat" and has opened more than 2,900 stores, with an annual GMV of up to 14.8 billion yuan.

Supported by investors such as Qichen Capital, Gao Rong Capital, Taikang Life Insurance, Cornerstone Capital, Hejun Capital, and Hezhi Investment, Qian Dama has raised funds all the way to the Series E. In the "2025 Global Unicorn List" released by Hurun Research Institute, the valuation of Qian Dama, headquartered in Guangzhou, has reached 13 billion yuan.

On January 14th, InnoVir Bio, which focuses on novel oncolytic immunotherapy and engineered exosome therapy, applied for listing in Hong Kong. Zhou Guoying, a 61 - year - old woman, is the founder of this Suzhou - based biotech company and is widely recognized in the industry for discovering the cancer - selective targeting mechanism of herpes simplex virus type 1.

After seven rounds of financing, InnoVir Bio has attracted investors such as Hillhouse Capital, Tongchuang Weiye, OrbiMed, Huagai Capital, Mifang Health Fund, Greater Bay Area Common Home Development Fund, Lanting Capital, and Wuzhong Biomedical Industry Development Fund, and its valuation has reached 485 million US dollars (about 3.372 billion yuan).

Two days later, Onyxboox Information, which owns the Onyxboox brand, headed towards the Hong Kong stock market. This Guangzhou - based company was founded by 61 - year - old Dan Yuting. It specializes in the Onyxboox series of e - readers. Currently, it has served customers in more than 100 countries and regions, with an annual revenue of more than 1 billion yuan, and has shareholders such as Rongjie Group, Lenovo Capital & Incubator Group, and Chuanqi Optoelectronics.

On January 23rd, Jiazhi Technology, founded by Xiong Rong, a post - 70s female professor from Zhejiang University, approached the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Since its establishment in 2016, this Hangzhou - based general intelligent robot company has completed nine rounds of financing and received investments from ByteDance, Lenovo Capital & Incubator Group, Ginkgo Valley Capital, Xianghe Capital, Shenzhen Capital Group, Hongrong Capital, Anchor Technology, etc., with a valuation of 2.13 billion yuan.

Subsequently, AXON Technologies passed the Hong Kong Stock Exchange's hearing and will be listed on February 10th, expected to become the first Chinese edge AI chip stock. As the founder of this company, Qiu Xiaoxin has served as the chief scientist at AT&T Bell Labs in the United States, the vice - president of Broadcom Corporation in the United States, and the chief technology officer of UNISOC.

After winning the favor of many investors such as Lenovo Star, GGV Capital, Yuanhe Puhua, Qiming Venture Partners, Tencent, Meituan, Yaotu Capital, Liangjiang Capital, and Yufu High - quality Industry Mother Fund, AXON Technologies has grown into a star unicorn headquartered in Ningbo with a valuation of over 10 billion yuan.

These outstanding female entrepreneurs make people deeply feel the "She Power". With the continuous progress of society and the rapid development of the economy, more and more outstanding female entrepreneurs are rapidly standing out in various industries and continuously creating one star IPO after another.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Dongshisi Tiao Capital" (ID: DsstCapital), author: Lu Zhigao, editor: Wang Qingwu, published by 36Kr with authorization.