VC Talent Hunt: Generation Z Preferred

The primary market is extremely busy.

Right after the Lunar New Year, there have been a continuous stream of financing news in the market. Especially in the fields of AI and embodied intelligence, the news has been bombarding densely and shows no sign of stopping.

Meanwhile, the investment pace of LPs has also significantly accelerated. Apart from the continuous activity of local mother funds, many national and central enterprise mother funds have started to make investments this year, adding new signals to the already bustling market.

What is more direct than the financing news is the abnormal situation in the recruitment market.

Since the Spring Festival holiday, more and more institutions have started to post recruitment information. Some institutions that haven't had any fundraising news for several years have quietly launched recruitment plans.

Headhunter Iris told us that since the second day after the Lunar New Year work resumed, her phone has been ringing non - stop, all from people urging her to find candidates. One institution even directly told her: This year, the recruitment pressure is extremely high. The investment positions are in urgent need of talent replenishment, and we must recruit people.

The demand of this institution is not an isolated case.

Before the Spring Festival holiday, Iris's WeChat was already filled with messages from various institutions urging her to find candidates. She is holding recruitment requirements from more than a dozen institutions. Besides investment and fundraising positions, there are also many new demands for middle - and back - office positions this year, mainly concentrated in areas such as risk control and exit, and the demand is equally urgent.

Behind this "eagerness" is a "talent war" triggered by the combination of technological revolution and market recovery.

There's simply too much work to handle

In the spring of 2026, a "talent war" is taking place first.

Since work resumed, the PR of a certain institution has been getting off work after 2 a.m. for two consecutive weeks.

If even the PR is this busy, let alone the investment and fundraising positions.

An IR said, "There's simply too much work to handle."

"They basically didn't recruit new people last year," Iris recalled when talking about a well - known dual - currency fund. "Except for sporadic fill - ins for the IR position, the investment position was frozen throughout the year. But this year, as soon as the internal adjustment was over, everyone felt overwhelmed, and the partners personally urged us to find candidates."

This sudden switch from "lying flat" to "sitting up" constitutes the most real background of the current primary market - it has come to life.

According to the "LP Panoramic Report 2025" released by FOFWEEKLY, in the first three quarters of 2025, the subscribed investment scale of institutional LPs was about 1.24 trillion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 9%; 3,434 new funds were registered, a year - on - year increase of 15.18%.

The exit end is also full of vitality. The demand for mergers and acquisitions has surged, the IPO on the Hong Kong stock market has reopened, and the demand for S transactions has increased, bringing new vitality to the primary market.

When the money starts to flow, the people must keep up. Not only dual - currency funds, but also some institutions that have been quiet in the market in the past few years have become active again and started to look for new candidates in the market.

"In the past two years, candidates were begging institutions for an interview opportunity. Now, it's the institutions begging candidates to accept the offers," said another headhunter, Eden. According to her feedback, a candidate she recommended at the end of last year received 4 offers at the same time, and one institution has been waiting for this candidate to accept.

Eden said, "This was an unimaginable phenomenon two or three years ago."

At that time, the industry was in a difficult situation. Before 2024, many headhunters left the primary market one after another, and some headhunting companies even directly cut off relevant business lines. Since 2025, the recruitment market has gradually recovered, and this state has continued until the end of the year. Right after the Spring Festival in 2026, the recruitment demand has further heated up. Some institutions said that they can accept candidates who graduated within the past two years; some institutions even said that it doesn't matter if the IR has no experience, just come to do some basic paperwork - they are really too busy.

The talent war is on the verge of breaking out.

Reconstruction of the recruitment structure

If the busyness of recruitment is just the appearance, then the reconstruction of talent standards is the core of this storm.

The post - 00s enter the game

In Eden's view, the most direct manifestation of this reconstruction is the rise of the post - 00s group.

"Do you know what kind of people institutions want now?" Eden asked a question and then gave the answer herself: "Post - 98s. Preferably those born after 2000, even if they have less experience."

This is not a joke. Since this year, many institutions have quietly set an age limit when recruiting - they prefer to directly recruit post - 00s as analysts and investment managers. A partner of an institution privately admitted, "We are investing in AI, embodied intelligence, and the next - generation technology this time. The post - 00s are true digital natives, and they naturally understand these things."

This extreme desire for "youth" is reshaping the age structure of investment teams.

In the past, the investment industry emphasized seniority and experience accumulation. One could reach the VP - ED level at the age of 35. But today, a group of post - 00s have started to enter the game and become the key training targets of institutions.

Of course, this doesn't mean that educational background is not important. In fact, a science and engineering background is still a standard requirement, but this requirement has become the norm since last year. The real new variable this year is the addition of the "youth" dimension on top of the "science and engineering" background.

As Eden said, "The ideal candidate profile has changed now: post - 00s, with a science and engineering background, and flexible thinking."

This is not a deliberate pursuit of youth. The oldest post - 00s are already 26 years old, and it's really time for them to take on important responsibilities.

Besides the age change, there have also been new adjustments in terms of geography.

From "passive sinking" to "active return"

"The wave of hard - tech enthusiasm in the past two years was actually a bit 'fragmented'," said Jessica, a headhunter with years of experience in the industry. At that time, due to the deep layout of new energy, carbon neutrality, and other industrial chains in second - tier cities in the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta, coupled with the lay - off wave in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, a large number of investors were forced to leave the core areas and flock to cities such as Nanjing, Hefei, and Suzhou.

That was a round of "passive sinking." They might have been laid off due to institutional contraction or were forced to leave due to the pressure of living costs.

But this year, the situation has fundamentally changed.

"Although many people are still going to second - tier cities, the logic has completely changed," Jessica emphasized. "Now it's an 'active choice'."

There are two core driving forces for this change.

On the one hand, the industry's baton has changed. This year, the focus is on artificial intelligence, embodied intelligence, aerospace, etc., which has directly made Beijing "thrive again." Compared with the dominance of the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta in the hard - tech manufacturing end in the past few years, Beijing has an overwhelming advantage in the talent reserve of AI large models and algorithm fundamentals. Therefore, the recruitment market in Beijing is also very active this year.

On the other hand, the maturity of local state - owned assets and the rise of industries. After several years of development, the guiding funds and industrial capital of Yangtze River Delta cities represented by Suzhou, Wuxi, and Ningbo have become more and more mature. They are no longer just policy implementers but have clear investment logic and substantial capital strength. Many candidates are from the Yangtze River Delta region. They were forced to return to second - and third - tier cities before and were not willing to do so. But now it's different. The funds in cities such as Wuxi, Ningbo, and Hangzhou have offered very attractive conditions. For them, it's not only going home but also a career advancement.

This change from "passive" to "active," combined with the generational change from the post - 85s to the post - 00s, reflects the deep - seated changes in the entire industry ecosystem. Talents are no longer simply chasing the spotlight of first - tier cities but are looking for a stage that truly matches their age and technological direction on a broader geographical map.

When we look further, we will find that this generational change and geographical migration in the talent market are just a slice of the recovery of the entire primary - market ecosystem.

More than just recruitment

This seemingly sudden "talent - grabbing" frenzy has actually been in the making for a long time. The busyness is not only a sign of the recovery of the recruitment market but also an epitome of the primary market standing at the starting point of a new cycle.

Since 2025, with the opening of the Hong Kong stock market, the recovery of the A - share market, the implementation of policies encouraging mergers and acquisitions, S funds, and "patient capital," the exit channels of the primary market have been re - activated. Especially at the end of 2025, the "Four Little Dragons of Domestic GPUs" went public collectively, and at the beginning of 2026, AI companies such as Zhipu AI and MiniMax had intensive IPOs, directly boosting the market sentiment.

Behind the excitement is the multi - party resonance of technological innovation and policy dividends from top - level design.

Since the release of Document No. 1 by the State Council General Office, there have been continuous positive news for the primary market: National mother funds have been established one after another, and the 100 - billion - yuan national venture capital guiding fund and many central enterprise mother fund clusters have entered the market one after another. More notably, the term of the guiding funds has been extended. For the strategic emerging industries, the term has been extended to 15 - 20 years, and some regions even have no term limit. The tolerance for state - owned assets has increased, and the investment return requirements have become more flexible. Government investment funds are transforming from "scale expansion" to "mechanism reshaping."

Especially recently, many central enterprise mother funds have entered the normal investment stage. It is worth noting that the three regional mother funds of the highly anticipated National Venture Capital Guiding Fund have all made substantial progress recently, which means they have officially entered the investment period.

There have also been positive changes at the IPO level. In March 2026, Wu Qing, the chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, said at the Fourth Session of the 14th National People's Congress that two incremental policies, namely deepening the reform of the Growth Enterprise Market and optimizing the refinancing mechanism, will be introduced to further promote the concentration of factor resources in the field of new - quality productivity. Yang Delong, the chief economist of Qianhai Kaiyuan Fund, pointed out that as the capital market strengthens and IPOs are gradually liberalized, the listing channels for science and technology enterprises have become more unobstructed, providing reasonable exit and profit - making channels for PE/VC, which will stimulate their investment motivation in unlisted science and technology enterprises and break the bottleneck in the capital cycle.

Meanwhile, the highly anticipated national merger and acquisition fund is also accelerating its implementation.

An institutional investor admitted, "This year is not only a big year for investment but also a big year for fundraising."

On the fundraising side, national mother funds continue to enter the market, local state - owned assets are becoming more and more mature, and long - term funds are accelerating their entry. On the exit side, the IPO channel has reopened, the merger and acquisition fund is ready to go, and S funds are becoming more active. On the policy side, from the extension of the guiding fund term to the increase in the tolerance for state - owned assets, from the reform of the Growth Enterprise Market to the relaxation of mergers and acquisitions and reorganizations, the tools in the policy toolbox are being activated one by one.

When the LPs' money is in place, when the secondary market gives more clear signals, and when the policy toolbox continues to release positive signals, the primary market must immediately step up its efforts.

And the first step in breaking through is talent.

Therefore, 2026 is not only a big year for investment and fundraising but also a big year for recruitment. All institutions are vying to recruit talents. For practitioners, this is a rare opportunity to jump to a better platform and a period when they can make active choices. Compared with the passive sinking, salary cuts, and position demotions in the past two years, this year finally brings hope for industry practitioners.

Of course, on the other side of the coin is the cruel reality: the primary market cannot expand as crazily as large companies. Because the number of positions is limited, the competition for "perfect candidates" is extremely fierce. "The candidates who are both young, understand technology, and have industrial intuition are extremely rare." Most institutions are caught in a paradox: the people they most want to recruit are precisely the most difficult to recruit.

However, overall, there are more market opportunities.

Conclusion

The generational change and geographical flow in the talent market are just the most vivid footnotes in this large cycle. As the post - 00s start to enter the market and the post - 95s become the backbone, the value of those who were forced to sink in the past is being rediscovered. These subtle changes together outline an industry picture that is recovering and being reconstructed.

When we shift our focus from the recruitment market to a broader picture, we will see more positive signals converging.

The primary market is standing at the starting point of a new cycle.

This article is from the WeChat official account "FOFWEEKLY", written by FOFWEEKLY and published by 36Kr with authorization.