Zhang Yong has become the LP of Cao Xi.
On the B1 floor of InterContinental Beijing Financial Street. In the spring of 2012, the first Xinrongji outlet in Beijing opened here. Walk roughly 100 meters outward and you will reach the Inblue International Building, which houses dozens of financial institutions including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, HSBC and UBS. For years, the private dining rooms of Xinrongji have been a unique sight on this street.
Until this August, this high-end Chinese restaurant brand specializing in Taizhou cuisine, poured capital into an AI-focused VC.
Yifeng Environment issued an announcement that its wholly-owned subsidiary Guangdong Yifeng Environment Investment Co., Ltd. subscribed for the shares of Tianjin Lisi Xinghan Venture Capital Partnership with its own capital of 17 million yuan. This fund was just established in June, with a total size of 472 million yuan. Tianjin Lisi Mingtang serves as the general partner, and Hainan Lisi Private Equity Fund Management Co., Ltd. acts as the fund manager, with primary investment focus on high-tech fields.
In the LP list, there are Tianjin Lisi Xingtai, Internet Star, Guangzhou Fandao, as well as Ningbo Xinrong Taihang Investment Co., Ltd. This company is 90% held by Xinrongji Catering, with a subscribed capital contribution of 20 million yuan, accounting for 4.24% of the fund shares.
As of 2024, Xinrongji has won a total of 79 Michelin stars, making it the Chinese restaurant brand with the most Michelin stars in China. Founded in Taizhou, Zhejiang, it has long been renowned for its meticulous selection of ingredients and high-quality services. Now, it has invested in a 5-year-old VC — Cao Xi (Monolith Lisi Capital).
It is worth noting that this is not the first time Xinrongji has made a move in the capital market. As early as June 2019, Ningbo Xinrong Taihang Investment Co., Ltd. contributed about 1.2976 million yuan to subscribe for 9% of the shares of Shilifenfei Cultural Tourism Group Co., Ltd. Zhang Yong, founder of Xinrongji, has also made multiple investments through his wholly-owned platform — Taizhou Xinrongtai Investment Co., Ltd.
In January 2026, Xibei Catering Group completed its Series A financing. Zhang Yong, founder of Xinrongji, took shares through Taizhou Xinrongtai Investment Co., Ltd., with a subscribed capital contribution of 4.495 million yuan, accounting for 4.42% of the shares.
This latest move directly targets the most sought-after technology sector at the moment.
From Michelin Starred Restaurant to LP
Lisi Capital was founded in November 2021, with founding partners Cao Xi and Tim Wang. Among them, Cao Xi came from HSG China Fund, and Tim Wang once served as the secondary market partner of Boyu Capital.
The name Monolith comes from the black monolith in Stanley Kubrick's film *2001: A Space Odyssey*, which appears repeatedly in the process of human civilization progress. Cao Xi once said that it represents the curiosity, the pursuit of truth and the spirit of exploration towards the essence of business and the world.
Its first fund was not a VC fund, but a tech hedge fund with a scale of more than 500 million US dollars. The VC business started fundraising in November 2022, and completed the first round of fundraising in only more than three months. By November 2025, both the US dollar VC Phase II fund and the RMB VC Phase I fund had finished fundraising, with a total dual-currency scale of about 488 million US dollars, equivalent to roughly 3.5 billion yuan. The two funds received a total subscription intention of about 630 million US dollars, 60% higher than the original target.
As the leader, Cao Xi has invested in Kuaishou, Douyu, Tencent Music, Supermonkey, Enzyme Biotech, Metis Pharmaceuticals, Moffett AI and Mooore Intelligence during his tenure at HSG. After joining Monolith, projects like Moon Valley and Moffett AI are also among his investment portfolios.
The starting point of Xinrongji was a street food stall. In 1989, Zhang Yong craved seafood from Wenzhou but did not want to travel back and forth just for fresh ingredients. He simply set up a stall in Linhai City to cook seafood in the Wenzhou style, and at first he only served a few friends. On October 1, 1995, he upgraded the stall to a restaurant, which was located in a basement on Sanjiao Road, Linhai. The original name was "Yongji", and later he changed it to "Xinrongji Restaurant" using homophonic characters in the local dialect.
The subsequent development was rather slow. It did not open its second outlet until 1998. In 2002, it expanded its business to Taizhou City, and rented a small shop in front of the Hangzhou Municipal Government Guest House in Hangzhou. It entered Shanghai in 2010, and Beijing in 2012, which was the outlet in Financial Street. In the following more than 10 years, its outlets successively opened in Wan Chai of Hong Kong, the Bund of Shanghai, Bulgari Hotel Beijing, Ping An Finance Center of Shenzhen and other locations. In February 2024, it opened its first overseas outlet in Akasaka, Tokyo, with an investment of about 1.5 billion yen.
Slow development has its downsides, but it also brings unique benefits.
Up to now, Xinrongji has only opened more than 30 outlets across the country, with around 2,000 to 3,000 employees, which is not as large in scale as chain brands with tens of thousands of stores. But in 2019, its Xinyuan South Road outlet in Beijing became the first Chinese restaurant in the Chinese mainland to be awarded three Michelin stars; in 2021, its 8 outlets won a total of 12 Michelin stars, and no other restaurant could surpass it in that year except for Robuchon, Ducasse and Le Gavroche. As of 2024, Xinrongji has received a total of 79 Michelin star ratings.
According to data from Zhaimen Canyan, the per capita consumption at Xinrongji's domestic outlets is close to 800 yuan, and at some outlets in Shanghai it reaches about 1100 yuan, while the per capita consumption at Rongfu Banquet exceeds 1000 yuan. According to previous reports, Xinrongji's annual operating income is roughly 1.1 billion yuan, with a net profit of about 130 million yuan.
And this is not the first time Xinrongji has made external investments.
In June 2019, Ningbo Xinrong Taihang invested about 1.2976 million yuan to increase the capital of Shilifenfei Cultural Tourism Group Co., Ltd., and held 9% of its equity. The founder of Shilifenfei is Zhang Bei, who started her business with Huajiantang and is known as a pioneer of China's homestay industry.
In January 2026, Taizhou Xinrongtai Investment Co., Ltd. participated in the Series A financing of Inner Mongolia Xibei Catering Group, subscribing 4.4951 million yuan, accounting for 4.42% of the shares. The registered capital of Xibei increased from the original 89.9029 million yuan to the current 102 million yuan. Also participating in this round is Hangzhou Zhouxuan, controlled by Hu Xiaoming, former CEO of Ant Group.
A Brand Focused on Craftsmanship
Why Buy a Ticket for the Tech Cycle
Yifeng Environment stated in its announcement that Lisi Xinghan Fund mainly invests in high-tech industries. Monolith's public portfolio includes Moon Valley, Moffett AI and other projects. There are no investments in cold chain, central kitchen, food traceability or store digitalization related sectors.
Xinrongji owns its own fishing boat, a seafood procurement base and a fruit and vegetable planting base, and has founded a corporate university, cooperating with multiple schools to launch "Xinrongji Classes". It does not stint on investment in the upstream industrial chain, but all these funds are spent on its own business. This investment is different from the past. If it wanted to supplement its supply chain, there would be no lack of investment funds themed on consumer and food technology in the market, and the conditions would be much more favorable.
The catering industry is a high-frequency trading sector with rapid capital inflow and outflow, and labor costs and rent are like two non-stop working pumps. In contrast, equity investment has the exact opposite features: long term, poor liquidity, large book value fluctuations, and no returns can be seen for several years. Putting the two businesses in the same balance sheet is not a mutually replacing relationship, but a mutually complementary one.
A reference case is Yangyuan Drink. By mid-2025, the company's revenue reached 2.465 billion yuan, down 16.19% year on year, and its net profit was 744 million yuan, down 27.76% year on year. Despite the pressure on its performance, the net cash flow generated from operating activities was 377 million yuan, and the monetary capital balance at the end of the reporting period was 1.459 billion yuan. Having sufficient cash on hand allows it to make investments in the primary market.
The situation of Xinrongji is rather special. The company has been established for 30 years, and all its store expansions are completed with cash accumulated on its own. For GPs, this is a very high-quality source of capital.
It is worth noting that Xinrongji does not form its own investment team, nor does it split the entire industrial chain into many independent companies for separate management like Haidilao. The catering industry is a sector that places extremely high demands on operation and management, and the founder's time is one of the most precious resources. Xinrongji now runs multiple business lines including Xinrongji, Rong Xiaoguan, Rongfu Banquet, Jingji, Rongcun, Furong Wushuang, Rongji 95, and also needs to manage its outlet in Akasaka, Tokyo. The cost of cultivating a talent team that can understand chips and large language models is very high, and the return period is extremely long.
Buying an LP ticket is a much more convenient option. VC teams review hundreds of projects every year, and Monolith also runs a research institute composed of professors, industry executives and entrepreneurs. The 20 million yuan investment brings more than a partnership agreement, but also a continuously operating technology radar. For a company without technology genes, this is the most cost-effective way to gain access to cutting-edge technology insights.
Xinrongji is not alone on this path. Data shows that in the first half of 2026, 261 listed companies completed 331 capital contributions as LPs, with the disclosed subscribed amount reaching 50.644 billion yuan. Excluding the financial industry, 254 non-financial listed companies completed 307 capital contributions, with a subscribed amount of 25.103 billion yuan. Among them, 211 companies only made one investment in the first half of the year, accounting for 83.1% of the total.
Catering Tycoons Enter the LP Circle
Xinrongji is not the first one to do so.
Mixue Ice City's investment is more noticeable. In the first half of this year, Shenzhen Qianhai Huaxia Tou Xingwang Technology Venture Capital Fund completed industrial and commercial changes, with the largest investor changed to Mixue Ice City Co., Ltd., with a capital contribution of 1.5 billion yuan, accounting for 98.68% of the total shares, and the executing partner is Shenzhen Qianhai Xingwang Investment Management Co., Ltd. Xingwang Capital was founded in 2015, with an AUM of more than 10 billion yuan, and has invested in projects including Ximalaya, Baixiang Food, Tianmuc Coffee and Weijie Group.
The 1.5 billion yuan investment is roughly equivalent to a quarter of Mixue's net profit in 2025, ranking first in the list of disclosed subscribed amounts of listed company LPs in the first half of 2026. Looking back, Mixue established Snow King Investment as early as 2021, with a registered capital of 50 million yuan, and made small investments in Guangdong Huicha and Chicken Box.
Yangyuan Drink, the company behind the "Six Walnuts" brand, has a more complete sample case. In 2015, it invested as an LP in the Gaosheng Kangrui Fund managed by Yuanchao Venture Capital, with a scale of 138 million yuan. In May 2021, Yangyuan jointly set up Wuhu Wenming Quanhong Investment Management Partnership with Wenming Fund, with an initial scale of 3 billion yuan, of which Yangyuan subscribed 2.997 billion yuan, and Wenming Fund contributed 3 million yuan to serve as the GP. Quanhong has successively invested in Changkong Group, Zhenliang Intelligence, Hengchuan New Energy, Ruipu Lanjun, Ziguang Huazhi and Xinchao Media, with a total capital contribution of 2.954 billion yuan. The 1.6 billion yuan invested in Changkong Group in December 2023 later became the highlight of the story. In September 2025, Changkong Group completed shareholding reform, and the market expected it to apply for listing on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board. Once the news came out, Yangyuan's stock price rose more than 60% in a week, hitting an all-time high. In October 2025, Yangyuan added another 1 billion yuan, raising the total scale of Quanhong to 4 billion yuan.
Compared with the above cases, Haidilao took a different path. It barely made any investments as an LP, but split industrial chain links such as Shuhai Supply Chain into independent subsidiaries to operate on its own. From food ingredients to seasoning to store decoration, almost the entire industrial chain is controlled by itself.
Haidilao's model is self-construction, which gives it full control, at the cost of consuming huge management bandwidth. Mixue and Yangyuan are nominally LPs, but they actually hold more than 98% of the fund shares, and the GP is more like a licensed execution team, which essentially outsources their CVC business. Brands like Qiaqia and Xinrongji are standard LPs, whose share ratio stays at single digits, with no intention to pursue control or industrial synergy.
Xinrongji is a very pure player in this category. It does not even use the "consumer track" as a fig leaf, and directly invests its capital in high-tech sectors.
In the first half of 2026, LPs across the market completed 7616 capital contributions, with a total subscribed amount of 989.161 billion yuan. The 307 investments made by non-financial listed companies account for 4.0% of the total by number of deals, and only 2.5% by amount.
The low proportion precisely shows the scarcity of such capital. Raising state-owned capital is difficult, and raising the remaining 30% of market-oriented capital is even more challenging. The capital from catering and consumer enterprises is exactly the most sought-after type of capital for market-oriented fundraisers: decentralized, patient, free of policy demands, and not constrained by investment return requirements and investment attraction tasks.
But there is no need to overestimate the significance of this investment. For Xinrongji, 20 million yuan is far from reaching the level of a strategic investment. It is a tentative move, rather than a complete business transformation. What is worth paying attention to is the next investment, whether there will be a second and third investment after this one.
For 30 years, capital players have made decisions in the private dining rooms of Xinrongji. Now, the culinary practitioners have sent 20 million yuan into the private meeting rooms of others.
This article is from WeChat Official Account "The Capital" (ID: thecapital), author: Wang Tao, editor: Wu Ren, published with authorization from 36Kr.