Last week, Xiaomi Intelligent Manufacturing Fund raised billions of yuan, and Lei Jun will serve as the chairman of the new fund investment committee; Shanghai's 100 billion yuan parent fund has officially signed a contract to invest in integrated circuits, biomedicine, and artificial intelligence. In the investment market, AI remains a focus of attention, with JD investing nearly 200 million yuan in the home cooking robot Xianglu Technology; Baichuan Intelligent, a star company in the big model industry, has received additional financing by introducing state-owned industrial funds such as the Beijing Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund and the Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund.
Xiaomi Intelligent Manufacturing Fund raises 10 billion yuan
Recently, Kingsoft announced that its subsidiary Wuhan Kingsoft has entered into a new partnership agreement with Xiaomi Beijing, Xiaomi Wuhan, and other limited partners to establish the Beijing Xiaomi Smart Manufacturing Equity Investment Fund (hereinafter referred to as the Xiaomi Smart Manufacturing Fund). According to the agreement, Wuhan Jinshan's subscribed capital for Xiaomi Intelligent Manufacturing Fund remains unchanged at RMB 500 million, and the total subscribed capital for the fund will increase from RMB 9.03 billion to RMB 10 billion. The newly added subscribed capital of RMB 970 million will be made by several original limited partners and new limited partners. Lei Jun will serve as the chairman of the new fund investment committee to further promote the investment decision-making and operation of the fund.
Xiaomi Intelligent Manufacturing Fund mainly invests in integrated circuits and related upstream and downstream fields, covering new generation information technology, intelligent manufacturing, new materials, artificial intelligence, displays and display devices, automotive electronics, etc. The fund's LP includes domestic investment platforms such as Beijing Guiding Fund and Yizhuang Guotou, as well as well-known industrial capital such as Joyful Era and Di'ao Micro. Previously, Xiaomi Intelligent Manufacturing Fund had invested in companies such as Hongyixin, Bingling Technology, Stande Robotics, and Zhufeng Automotive.
Shanghai's 100 billion yuan parent fund officially signs contract
Recently, three leading industry parent funds in Shanghai signed contracts, with a scale of 100 billion yuan, including integrated circuits, biomedicine, and artificial intelligence parent funds.
Specifically, the total scale of the integrated circuit industry parent fund is 45.001 billion yuan, with a focus on investing in areas such as integrated circuit design, manufacturing and testing, equipment materials, and components; The parent fund of the biopharmaceutical industry, with a total scale of 21.501 billion yuan, focuses on investing in innovative drugs and high-end preparations, high-end medical devices, biotechnology, high-end pharmaceutical equipment and other fields; The total scale of the artificial intelligence industry parent fund is 22.501 billion yuan, with a focus on investing in fields such as intelligent chips, intelligent software, autonomous driving, and intelligent robots.
Public information shows that the executive partners of the three leading industry parent funds in Shanghai are all Shanghai Guotou Pioneer Private Equity Fund Management Co., Ltd., which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Shanghai State owned Capital Investment Co., Ltd. The actual controller is the Shanghai State owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. In March of this year, Shanghai released the 2024 "Invest in Shanghai" policy package, which for the first time mentioned: focusing on the three leading industries of integrated circuits, biomedicine, and artificial intelligence, the Shanghai State owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission will promote the establishment of a total scale of 100 billion yuan industrial investment mother fund to play the functions of "early investment and small investment", industrial investment, merger and acquisition integration, and strengthening the chain. Afterwards, the three leading industry parent funds were registered and established.
Super LP is going to invest again
Recently, the National Development Fund for Small and Medium sized Enterprises announced that it will publicly select the seventh batch of sub fund management institutions for the society. According to the "Application Guidelines", the subscribed capital scale for a single sub fund should generally not be less than 300 million yuan, and funds registered and established in the central and western regions should be given priority support under the same conditions.
In terms of investment direction of the fund, the "Application Guidelines" have been adjusted, proposing that the proportion of funds invested by sub funds in seed stage and start-up stage growth oriented small and medium-sized enterprises should not be less than 60% of the total investable scale, and strive to reach the excellent line of 67%. Previously, this regulation was "not less than 60% of the total investable scale".
For the historical investment performance of the management institution, requirements have also been made: among the fund products managed cumulatively that have the same nature as the sub fund: ① for those that have been liquidated, the weighted average DPI shall not be less than 100%; ② For those in the exit period, the weighted average DPI (holding IPO market value as investment income) shall not be less than 60%; ③ For those in the investment period, the weighted average DPI (holding IPO market value as investment income) shall not be less than 10%.
The National Development Fund for Small and Medium sized Enterprises is one of the most active national level parent funds in the venture capital circle in the past two years. Since its establishment, it has invested in 42 sub funds with a sub fund size exceeding 100 billion yuan. In the current difficult fundraising environment, it has brought rare vitality to the venture capital market.
JD.com has invested in a stir fry robot
Recently, according to media reports, the cooking robot company Xianglu Technology announced that it has received nearly 200 million yuan in strategic investment from JD.com and reached a strategic cooperation. This is JD's second investment in Xianglu Technology. In December 2023, Xianglu Technology announced that it had received tens of millions of yuan in financing from JD Group.
Public information shows that Xianglu Technology was founded in 2021 and has since received funding from Source Code Capital. Yang Jiancheng, co-founder of Xianglu Technology, believes that the greatest value of Chinese AI stir fry robots lies in doing things that "most people cannot do well and most people are unwilling to do". Through standardized automation, it reduces the difficulty of replicating recipes and recruiting and managing chefs in catering enterprises, lowers kitchen costs, and helps catering enterprises expand rapidly. According to Oak Technology, it will focus on the application of vision, sensor detection and other technologies in cooking robots. The globally leading new generation AI cooking robot based on vision will be officially launched in 2025.
Baichuan Intelligent has raised funds again
Last week, the big model star company Baichuan Intelligence announced that it has received additional financing. It is reported that the total financing amount of Series A financing reached 5 billion yuan. In 2023, Baichuan Intelligent announced the completion of Series A1 financing, with multiple technology giants such as Alibaba, Tencent, and Xiaomi among the investors. In this round of financing announced, Baichuan Intelligent has received investments from state-owned industry funds such as the Beijing Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund and the Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund.
Baichuan Intelligent was founded in 2023 by former Sogou CEO Wang Xiaochuan. In the competition of big models, Baichuan Intelligent has chosen the AI medical direction. Wang Xiaochuan has repeatedly stated in public that healthcare is the jewel in the crown of the big model. During the 2024 World Artificial Intelligence Conference, Baichuan Intelligent showcased an internal testing version of its medical application AI health consultant, which can continuously communicate with users, collect sufficient disease information, and provide diagnostic results and medication recommendations.
Since the beginning of this year, there have been continuous news of financing for domestic big model "unicorns", with top companies raising their valuations to 20 billion yuan. Both Zhipu AI and Moon Dark Side have announced new rounds of financing this year.