Investors have started to make money at the Beijing Stock Exchange.

9:30 a.m., May 18, 2026, Beijing Financial Street.

As the bell rang, Yao Xin, Chairman of Henan Jiachen Intelligent Control Co., Ltd., stood on the stage of the trading hall of the Beijing Stock Exchange. The company launched its listing process on May 18, 2021, and by that day, exactly 1826 days had passed. After a five-year long journey, the starting point and the end point fell on the exact same date.

But Jiachen Intelligent itself focuses on the "brain" of forklifts: motor drive and complete machine control systems. It has no large language model, nor is it a humanoid robot. Its customer list includes a string of industrial vehicle manufacturers such as Hangcha, Heli, and XCMG. In any roadshow, it can hardly be the one under the spotlight.

At market close, its share price stood at 112.01 yuan, marking a 676% surge for the day, with two temporary trading halts triggered during the session.

However, the people who truly deserved to open champagne that day were not on the stage, but hidden in the second line of the shareholder list.

In 2018, Hangcha Group, the largest customer of Jiachen Intelligent at that time, invested 79.2 million yuan to acquire 22.22% of its shares. For the following eight years, it did not sell a single share. By the close of the first trading day after listing, the book value of this equity stake reached about 1.3 billion yuan, representing an appreciation of over 15 times.

"Planting a tree for eight years and harvesting the fruit overnight", such stories have played out repeatedly on the Beijing Stock Exchange in 2026.

A few years ago, at dinner parties in the venture capital circle, the Beijing Stock Exchange was often regarded as a "backup option when listing on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board is not possible". Five years later, it has become the first point circled in red on the exit map of many investors.

The Beijing Stock Exchange has changed, and investors' calculation logic has also changed accordingly.

A five-year-old performance report card

Today, November 15, marks the fifth anniversary of the opening of the Beijing Stock Exchange. Up to now, there are 355 listed companies on the BSE, with a total market value of about 800 billion yuan.

Let's go back a few years.

In November 2021, the Beijing Stock Exchange opened for trading, and almost all of the first batch of 81 companies were "transferred" from the Select Layer of the New Third Board. In the first two years, it was like a newly delivered residential community: the buildings were completed and residents moved in, but the housing prices failed to rise, and transactions were sparse.

At that time, a state-owned capital investor revealed the true mentality of the primary market: most enterprises that chose the Beijing Stock Exchange were either in a hurry to resolve the bet agreement with investment institutions, or had great difficulty raising funds in the primary market.

Of course, some people looked further ahead. An investor calculated a different account at that time: "The Beijing Stock Exchange not only allows financing and exit, but also supports board transfer in the future. Why not choose to list there?"

However, few people agreed with him at that time.

"In our investment decision meetings in 2022 and 2023, when the project report wrote 'planned to list on the Beijing Stock Exchange', the partners would almost frown and ask: 'Is there really no chance for the Sci-Tech Innovation Board?'" recalled a director of investment at a RMB VC firm, talking about the attitude towards the BSE listing path in the investment decision meetings back then.

In 2024, the overall A-share IPO pace slowed down, and the Beijing Stock Exchange only welcomed 23 new companies for the whole year, with the fundraising faucet almost turned to the minimum. The turning point came in the second half of 2025, when new stocks repeatedly posted several-fold gains on their first trading day. By 2026, the fundraising faucet was fully turned on.

Moreover, this time, not only are there more participants, but the scale of listed companies has also become larger.

For companies listed in 2026, their average net profit in 2025 reached 141 million yuan, exceeding the 100 million yuan profit threshold of the Main Board. In late September, the total initial public offering fundraising on the Beijing Stock Exchange within the year had refreshed the full-year record set in 2022.

As of November 8, 2026, the number of listed companies on the BSE has reached 355, more than 4 times the number at its opening, with a total market value of 7.64 trillion yuan. The cumulative public offering fundraising has exceeded 83 billion yuan, and more than 80% of the capital has flowed into "hard core" tracks such as high-end manufacturing, new materials, biomedicine, and digital economy.

The pace this year is particularly fast. As of the beginning of November, 69 new enterprises have been listed within the year, accounting for half of the new A-share listed companies. The total initial public offering fundraising reached 20.692 billion yuan, exceeding the sum of the full years of 2024 and 2025.

The once backup bench has thus been pushed to the center of the stage within a year. The more critical change lies behind the figures: projects on the Beijing Stock Exchange have begun to truly make money for investors.

A subscription more difficult than housing lottery in first-tier cities

The first signal that made investors change their minds came from new share subscription.

New share subscription on the Beijing Stock Exchange in 2026 is very similar to the lottery for new properties in first-tier cities: the price is set much lower than the surrounding second-hand housing, and everyone knows that "you make a profit as soon as you get it", the difficulty is whether you can win the lottery. As of the end of September, the average first-day gain of 62 new stocks within the year was 214%. However, the average online winning rate is only about 0.03%. To win 100 shares steadily, you need to prepare an average of about 6.3 million yuan.

As a result, a series of "capital barrier lakes" filled up and discharged within a few days. In January, when Dalian-based Meadler, a manufacturer of intelligent conveying systems, opened for subscription, more than 590,000 investors froze 1.06 trillion yuan, marking the first time that the total frozen capital on the BSE exceeded 1 trillion yuan. In August, Zhuhai-based chip firm Jieli Technology pushed the record to 1.4 trillion yuan. Once the winning results are announced, the capital recedes; when the next new share opens for subscription, the capital accumulates again.

Why are the "properties" priced so low? Because the issue price is "controlled". In 2026, the average P/E ratio of new shares on the Beijing Stock Exchange is only 14.89 times, while the overall P/E ratio of the secondary market is between 30 and 40 times. For example, a commodity marked at 100 yuan is sold at 40 yuan before the market opens, which is almost bound to be snapped up.

In April, Shenyang Scientific Instrument Co., Ltd. of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS Instrument) became the first one to try this new model. This company, which manufactures semiconductor dry vacuum pumps, its products are equivalent to the "lungs" of chip factories. It became the first enterprise on the Beijing Stock Exchange to adopt offline inquiry issuance after a three-year interval, with an issuance P/E ratio of 35 times, more than double that of new shares with direct pricing. Even though the pricing was "higher", its share price still rose by 3.44 times on the first trading day after listing; by mid-May, its share price had increased by nearly 6 times compared with the issue price.

What really caught the attention of insiders was Jieli Technology, which listed in August. This leading Bluetooth headset chip maker posted a total revenue of over 8.8 billion yuan in three years, with a net profit of about 600 million yuan in 2025. Its shareholder list includes Xiaomi, Transsion and Hua Hong. In terms of scale, it is like a big star who went to the wrong set: it could have listed on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board, but chose the Beijing Stock Exchange, becoming the "first chip design stock" on the BSE. Its share price rose by 182% on the first trading day after listing.

"After Jieli came, when we talked about the listing path with our invested enterprises, the Beijing Stock Exchange is no longer a 'backup option', but a path that will be seriously discussed," the above investor said bluntly.

The pricing in the secondary market has directly changed the investment philosophy of primary market investors.

Who are the first batch of VC/PE firms to reap the dividends?

Why did VC/PE firms seize this wave of dividends so accurately?

The answer lies in the "preparatory class" system of the Beijing Stock Exchange. To list on the BSE, most enterprises need to first get listed on the New Third Board, standardize their operation, and complete private placement. This long preparatory period is exactly the window for regional funds, local state-owned assets, broker direct investment and industrial capital to enter the market. By the time the enterprise reaches the door of the Beijing Stock Exchange, the venture capital network has already been woven, just waiting to close the net.

It is understood that since the establishment of the Beijing Stock Exchange, private equity funds have participated in the private placement of about 400 listed companies, with a cumulative investment of over 26 billion yuan, and 90% of BSE listed companies have received investment from venture capital institutions.

On this network, the figure of industrial capital is particularly prominent: Hangcha for Jiachen Intelligent, Xiaomi, Transsion and Hua Hong for Jieli Technology. Customers and upstream and downstream partners have become shareholders, doing business with one hand and getting returns with the other.

After the Beijing Stock Exchange expanded the strategic placement ratio in August, the participation of upstream and downstream industrial chains and local state-owned assets platforms increased significantly.

In the past, many investors believed that the market value of BSE projects after listing was low, and the returns were limited. But now, driven by hundreds-billion-yuan market value companies such as Hengdong Optoelectronics, Betray, CAS Instrument, Jieli Technology, Gebiga, Jinbo Bio, Shuguang Digital, Tiangong Co., Ltd., and Starway Measurement & Control, this view is changing.

When the harvest season comes, the book returns are very impressive. As of the beginning of September, 315 stocks on the Beijing Stock Exchange have doubled their prices compared with the issue price, accounting for nearly 93%. For VC firms that invested before listing, the issue price itself is often higher than their entry cost, and a good book return is basically locked in.

For an anxious industry, this bill came just in time.

Funds established during the fundraising peak from 2016 to 2018 are maturing intensively, with more than 7 trillion yuan of stock funds facing liquidation pressure. LPs are urging cash return, and GPs' next round of fundraising is stuck. For GPs, fundraising is the entry, but exit is the lifeblood.

When it comes to exit, IPO is still the largest source of returns in China. Among the 71 companies listed on A-share in the first half of 2026, 36 are listed on the Beijing Stock Exchange.

Investors will crowd to where the cake is.

On October 16, Southern Dairy, a leading local dairy enterprise in Guizhou, was listed on the Beijing Stock Exchange.

Compared with the stock price, what is more eye-catching this time is the strategic placement list, with the strategic placement ratio as high as 30%. The National Social Security Fund 418 Portfolio and the CITIC Securities-Social Security Fund 17052 Portfolio both appeared on the list, with a total of 2.7888 million shares allocated, amounting to about 39.63 million yuan. This is the first time that the social security fund has appeared in the placement lineup of new shares on the Beijing Stock Exchange as a strategic investor.

On the first trading day after listing, Southern Dairy surged 104.08% at the opening, and the maximum intraday gain once touched 111.05%.

The long-term capital of the "national team" formally sat at the poker table of the Beijing Stock Exchange for the first time.

At the Financial Street Forum on October 19, Chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission Wu Qing announced four measures: steadily launching the BSE 50 ETF, market value placement for new shares on the Beijing Stock Exchange, innovative evaluation standards, and optimizing the hierarchical management of the New Third Board. The next day, the BSE 50 Index closed up 3.88%.

The most concerned one is the market value placement.

Its logic is a bit like the membership price in a supermarket: in the future, if you want to get the "coupon" of new shares, you must first become a holder of BSE stocks, instead of just queuing at the door with cash. The secondary market may welcome a number of new long-term buyers.

For VC/PE firms, the days of several-fold gains on the first trading day will not last forever. But for them, a market with stable valuation, long-term capital and smooth exit is more valuable than a one-time skyrocketing.

A market that can accommodate long-term capital and has more stable valuation may be a more valuable exit channel.

On November 15, the Beijing Stock Exchange celebrated its fifth birthday. For investors, this harvest season has just begun. And the new journey of the Beijing Stock Exchange is still on the way.

This article is from WeChat Official Account "Rongzhong Finance" (ID: thecapital), written by An Duo, and authorized for release by 36Kr.