36Kr 2024 Annual Directory of China's Most Influential Industrial Investment and Top 10 Sectors | Officially Released

Seek inward.

Produced by | 36Kr Venture Capital Research Institute

In 2024, the global economic landscape is undergoing profound adjustments, and the pattern of the global industrial chain is also changing drastically. Under the continuous influence of environmental changes, China's venture capital sector and even the entire financial market are in a lengthy adjustment period.

This can be clearly seen from the fundraising and exit data: in the first half of 2024, the number of newly raised funds and the total fundraising scale both dropped sharply by nearly 50% and 23% respectively. Most of the capital sources of large funds are state-owned assets, local governments and leading industrial enterprises, which carry requirements such as precisely serving regional investment promotion, strictly controlling risks, and supporting the development of small and medium-sized enterprises and technological innovation.

The difficulty of exit has also increased. The IPO market continues to shrink. In the first half of the year, the number of Chinese enterprises' IPOs reached 82, a year-on-year decrease of 62%, of which nearly 55 enterprises were backed by VC/PE. This figure was 139 in the first half of 2023. Meanwhile, the highly anticipated "mergers and acquisitions" and "S-transactions" are also moving forward with difficulty in actual operation.

In the current state where state-owned assets play a leading role, venture capital no longer only exists for excess returns, but undertakes more diverse intentions.

On June 19, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Several Policy Measures for Promoting the High-Quality Development of Venture Capital", pointing out that developing venture capital is an important measure to promote the virtuous cycle of science and technology, industry and finance. The standardized regulation of private equity funds, the high-quality development of the multi-level capital market, and the accelerated cultivation of new quality productive forces involved in the document have put forward new historical tasks for the institutions that are currently moving forward with difficulty.

Against this background, investment institutions not only need to continuously improve themselves in the daily operation of "fundraising, investment, management and exit", but also need to proceed from the overall situation, build strong influence and appeal in the "industrial ecosystem", and establish an investment context based on the ESG concept from the inside out and from shallow to deep... At the same time, helping invested enterprises tide over difficulties is also an obligatory duty, especially for the current thorny issues such as supply chain security, data security, cross-border industrial chain integration and operation.

Some leading dual-currency funds split their local teams and set up independent brands to fully focus on cutting-edge industries of "scientific and technological innovation" in the local market, such as artificial intelligence, embodied intelligence, etc.; institutions with completely local genes narrow their selection scope and continue to deeply cultivate fields such as advanced manufacturing, chips/semiconductors, healthcare, new energy/new materials, etc.; while CVCs backed by leading industrial enterprises move deeper into the industry to boost the competitiveness of the entire industry in international competition.

This is perhaps the most conflicting and chaotic period in history: key science and technology are iterating rapidly with each passing day, industrial changes are taking place quietly, and all market players are looking for a glimmer of life in the predicament.

At this moment, based on the overall performance of the applicants in the "fundraising, investment, management and exit" links collected by the "36Kr Equity Investment Market Online Survey System" (https://touzi.36kr.com/), including the following specific dimensions: 1) management scale; 2) investment activity in the latest 3+1 years, status of star projects, number of portfolio companies that have obtained subsequent new financing; 3) exit return level; and 4) influence in key industries (ESG investment).

We have selected the 2024 36Kr "China's Most Influential Industrial Investment Fund", "China's Top 10 Fields Industrial Investment Fund/Investor", and "China's Best ESG Investment Practice Investment Institution".

The full list is as follows:

At the same time, we have widely collected submissions from the market, trying to find a group of boutique investment banks that adapt to market changes and deeply cultivate the industry, and selected the "China's Most Influential/Growing Boutique