Behind almost all the "star projects", there is this "national team" fund.
The robotics track has become extremely competitive.
In just over 10 days, several companies such as Lingchu Intelligence, Xingdong Era, Zhipingfang, Qianxun Intelligence, Galaxy Universal, Songyan Power, Jijia Vision, and Zhijian Power have successively completed a new round of financing. Among them, Galaxy Universal refreshed the record for a single - round financing in China's embodied intelligence field with a financing amount of 2.5 billion yuan.
As usual, it's time to figure out who the real "winners" behind these are. This time, when we traced back along the capital's "capillaries", we found that all the above - mentioned robotics companies share the same "source of water" - the National SME Development Fund (hereinafter referred to as the "National SME Fund").
Moreover, if we expand the time frame, behind the recently listed star projects such as Zhipu, the "first stock in the large - model field", Biren Technology, the "first GPU stock in the Hong Kong stock market", and Muxi Co., Ltd., also one of the "Four Little Dragons in the GPU field", the National SME Fund can be found.
Those who understand state - owned funds know that compared with pure investment returns, state - owned funds pay more attention to the achievement of policy goals. For example, the core demands of local government guidance funds are usually to boost the local GDP, increase tax revenues, and drive employment. While the "national - team" level funds need to serve the national strategy from a higher perspective.
Therefore, in the past context, state - owned funds were often labeled as being unable to balance "policy goals" and "financial efficiency". However, the National SME Fund has broken this stereotype, proving that fiscal funds can also "make accurate investments", "exit smoothly", and "earn profits".
This naturally arouses my curiosity: What makes this "national team" so unique?
The "National Partner" Behind Hardcore SMEs
Let's go back to September 1st, 2015. On that day, the State Council Executive Meeting made an important decision: to establish the National SME Development Fund.
At that time, SMEs, as the "capillaries" of the national economy, contributed more than half of the innovation achievements but were long troubled by the problems of "difficult and expensive financing". So, the central finance decided to allocate 1.5 billion yuan as "seed funds" and injected long - term "water" into SMEs through the operation mode of the mother fund. Soon after, the first batch of four sub - funds were established, with the fund managers being Guozhong Venture Capital, Yida Capital, Tsinghua Ginkgo Venture Capital, and Orient Fortune Capital respectively.
Although the fund was established in 2015, its real "explosion" happened in 2020. In May of that year, the National SME Development Fund Co., Ltd. (the mother fund) was officially established with a registered capital of 3.575 billion yuan. This time, in addition to the investment from the central finance, it also attracted heavy - weight LPs such as Shanghai Guosheng Group, China National Tobacco Corporation, and China Life Insurance.
At present, this fund has become one of the most active national - level mother funds in the venture capital industry. According to the official website, the National SME Development Fund has currently established 46 sub - funds, with a total scale of over 120 billion yuan and has invested in more than 2,000 enterprises in total. This means that through the two - level amplification of the mother - sub fund structure, the central fiscal funds have directly driven more than 100 billion yuan of social capital, which is mainly invested in early - stage and growth - oriented SMEs.
As a "national team", the positioning of the National SME Fund is very clear, that is, "to implement the national development strategy, support the real economy, and promote the innovation and development of SMEs."
Judging from the actual achievements, this goal has been solidly achieved. According to the data from CVSource of CIMC Group: Among the more than 2,000 enterprises indirectly held by the National SME Development Fund, the investment is highly concentrated in hard - tech SMEs. In particular, the fund has achieved in - depth coverage of emerging pillar industries such as integrated circuits, aerospace, biomedicine, and low - altitude economy, which are key areas mentioned in the 14th Five - Year Plan and the 2026 Government Work Report, as well as future industries such as future energy, embodied intelligence, quantum technology, and nuclear fusion energy.
Not only does it have a wide coverage, but the quality of the projects is also remarkable. Just take a look at the list of invested projects of the National SME Fund. Besides the companies mentioned at the beginning of the article, projects like Yuezhianmian, Unitree Robotics, Galaxy Power, Silicon - based Flow, Accelerated Evolution, LandSpace, Volant Aero, Origin Quantum, Jieti Medical, and Hanhai Jueneng... Almost all the most - discussed projects in the future industry fields in recent years have been quietly invested by this national - level fund.
Here is a detail worth sharing: On February 9th, 2026, General Secretary Xi Jinping visited the National Information Technology Application Innovation Park in Beijing Yizhuang, starting his first domestic inspection this year. Among the scientific and technological innovation achievements on display, more than 10 artificial - intelligence and robotics companies were presented as representatives, and 7 of them were invested by the National SME Fund.
92 IPOs and More Than 200 Exited Projects
When evaluating a state - owned fund, indicators like DPI or TVPI (Total Value Multiple) that are used to measure market - oriented institutions are often not the primary considerations. However, the highlight of the National SME Fund is that it has successfully broken the stereotype that fiscal funds "emphasize policies but have difficulty in achieving returns" and achieved an organic unity of "national strategic goals" and "market - oriented financial returns".
According to the data from CVSource of CIMC Group, as of now, the fund has indirectly promoted 92 enterprises to successfully go public through IPO, and the number of projects with completed exits has exceeded 200. The overall return rate of the fund is about 15%. This achievement is excellent in the current market environment.
Empyrean Technology Co., Ltd. is a typical example.
Empyrean Technology was founded in 2009 and is mainly engaged in the development of EDA tool software. In the semiconductor industry, EDA software is known as the "mother of chips". However, for a long time in the past, this market was monopolized by foreign manufacturers. In 2016, when the venture capital market was still focusing on mobile Internet, Guozhong Capital, one of the first - batch cooperative GPs of the National SME Fund, keenly captured the long - term strategic value of EDA localization. At a critical time when Empyrean Technology was facing a cash - flow shortage and survival challenges, it made an early - stage investment and continued to increase its investment in the following two rounds.
As an early - stage investor in Empyrean Technology, in addition to providing "real money", the National SME Fund also used its own industry ecological resources to connect it with venture capital institutions and customer resources. While promoting more than 500 million yuan of social capital financing, it also helped Empyrean Technology continuously break through key technologies.
With the support of the fund, Empyrean Technology has established an all - process tool coverage advantage in the fields of analog circuit design, memory circuit design, radio - frequency circuit design, and flat - panel display circuit design, successfully breaking the foreign monopoly. In 2021 and 2022, the company was successively awarded the titles of "National Specialized and Sophisticated 'Little Giant' Enterprise" and "National High - tech Enterprise".
On July 29th, 2022, Empyrean Technology was officially listed on the Growth Enterprise Market. On the first day of listing, its stock price soared by 129.4%, and its total market value reached 40.72 billion yuan. The price - earnings ratio of 333 times directly set a record for the highest P/E ratio at the time of issuance on the Growth Enterprise Market. It is understood that this investment also brought substantial financial returns to the National SME Fund - the average return multiple was as high as 43 times, and the return multiple of the first investment (Series A) exceeded 47 times.
Of course, for the National SME Fund, the strategic value leveraged by this investment is far beyond simple financial returns.
This also verifies the internal logic of the current capital market: Only those projects that conform to the national development strategy, have high technological content, strong innovation ability, and prominent strategic positions have greater growth potential and development space, and can receive more favor and support from the capital market. The strategic goals of national funds and market returns are not in conflict but complementary.
Focus on Selecting "Pragmatic" VCs Instead of Just Looking at Fund Brands
So, what is the secret behind the outstanding performance of the National SME Fund? The answer may lie in its strict screening mechanism.
Meridian Capital is one of the fund managers of the first - batch sub - funds of the National SME Fund. When talking about the cooperation experience with the National SME Fund, "professionalism" and "efficiency" are the words that appear most frequently in the mouth of Ji Wei, the founding managing partner of Meridian Capital.
"We submitted the application in August 2020, were notified to participate in the on - site defense in September, underwent due diligence in October, and passed the entire selection process in November." Ji Wei recalled, "The whole process was carried out smoothly without any delay."
Efficiency does not mean being hasty. On the contrary, the "ruler" of this screening mechanism is extremely detailed, detailed enough to quantify every ability.
Ji Wei introduced that the National SME Fund has established a completely open and highly quantifiable screening standard. For example, in the application guide, the requirements for the establishment of sub - funds and the application of management institutions are clearly written, covering detailed descriptions of the positioning of sub - funds, establishment principles, investment directions, as well as the management qualifications and honors of management institutions, team configuration and scale, and investment management ability. "Basically, after reading the materials, we can clearly know whether we are suitable and able to apply."
Another investor who participated in the public selection also mentioned that during the application process, the institution must submit at least three registered venture capital funds registered as "VC", with a total management scale of not less than 1.5 billion yuan. More importantly, the National SME Fund will focus on the proportion of these funds invested in SMEs and the proportion of "522" projects in the cumulative investment.
The so - called "522" is a quantitative standard defined within the fund for early - stage and growth - oriented SMEs: annual sales of no more than 200 million yuan, total assets of no more than 200 million yuan, and the number of employees of no more than 500. This standard ensures that the funds can be accurately invested in early - stage enterprises that really need support.
It is this "open, transparent, inclusive, and quantifiable" approach that enables the National SME Fund to select the best GPs. Looking at the currently selected 31 cooperative GPs, including Meridian Capital, Shenzhen Capital Group, Yuanhe Origin, Lenovo Capital and Incubation Group, Tongchuang Weiye, Puhua Capital, BlueRun Ventures, Matrix Partners China, Fortune Capital, SMIC Capital, Qifu Capital, Zhongke Chuangxing, and Morningside Venture Capital, all are "pragmatic" VC institutions deeply involved in the early - stage investment and with industrial judgment ability. The requirement in Document No. 1 of the General Office of the State Council in 2025 that the fund managers of government investment funds should be selected through market - oriented methods in principle also confirms and affirms the relevant practices of the National SME Fund in the public selection of GPs.
Three - Dimensional Empowerment of "Capital + Industry + Policy"
If the strict selection is the "entrance gate", then the innovative design in the operation mechanism of the fund is even more crucial.
First of all, the most prominent feature of the National SME Fund is to fully utilize the market mechanism to achieve policy goals.
Ji Wei mentioned that as an LP, the National SME Fund mainly focuses on whether the sub - funds touch policy red lines, investment negative lists, and management compliance issues. In the investment process, it fully guarantees the decision - making autonomy and independence of the institutions, respects the market laws of private equity funds, and allows the sub - funds to give full play to their strengths in their respective focused and proficient industry fields. They have a complete investment management system that not only realizes penetrating management but also ensures non - interference when there is no problem.
At the same time, Ji Wei also particularly mentioned the "exemption for the national - team in the registration place". "After getting the funds from the National SME Fund and then raising funds locally, they will actively coordinate with us in various places to try their best to weaken the direct binding of the reinvestment requirement. This has helped us a lot." Ji Wei said.
Secondly, the fund has an extremely long duration. The first - phase fund has a duration of up to 13 years, which provides sufficient growth space for sub - funds and invested enterprises in terms of time. Especially in fields like AI, commercial aerospace, and quantum computing that require long - term efforts, this kind of tolerance in the time dimension is, to some extent, the key to success.
Of course, for early - stage projects, especially hard - tech projects, funds are just the foundation, and more importantly, industrial empowerment. Relying on the SME service system of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National SME Development Fund has built a national - wide empowerment network. From technical route consultation, industrial chain connection, to talent introduction, listing guidance, and even helping start - up enterprises understand and adapt to complex state - owned asset supervision and compliance requirements, the National SME Fund plays the role of a "super connector".
This three - dimensional empowerment of "capital + industry + policy" is a unique advantage that pure market - oriented funds are difficult to replicate. It is precisely this advantage that has quietly formed a "wind - vane" effect for the National SME Fund in the LP circle - many market - oriented LPs have begun to actively "copy" its practices.
Recently, when communicating with several IR friends in charge of fundraising, I found an interesting trend: Now, when screening GPs, many market - oriented LPs will focus on national - level mother funds like the National SME Fund and the guidance funds of top - tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, and preferentially select targets from the managers of the above - mentioned funds.
The reason is also very simple. In the primary market, information asymmetry is an eternal problem. Market - oriented LPs, especially small and medium - sized institutions, often face an embarrassing situation: they want to invest in good GPs but lack sufficient resources and manpower to conduct comprehensive due diligence. The investment decisions of national - level mother funds just provide them with a high - credibility "reference coordinate".
An IR friend summarized it very accurately: The national team combines the three dimensions of policy goals, economic benefits, and compliance requirements, which basically condenses and reflects the core demands of state - owned assets. Now, more than 80% of the funds in the RMB fund market are state - owned. Understanding the choices of the national team means understanding the flow direction and preferences of most of the funds.
It is worth looking forward to that the establishment plan of the second - phase of the National SME Development Fund has been approved, which means that in the near future, the venture capital market will welcome a new heavy - weight capital inflow, and market - oriented LPs will also get a clearer and replicable "investment reference system".
This article is from the WeChat official account "China Venture Capital", written by Wang Manhua and Chen Mei, and is published by 36Kr with authorization.