Part01
As technology goes deeper into the industry,
capital needs to demonstrate skills beyond just money.
The shareholders of a startup company can also be its first batch of customers.
In 2025, industry forces like Meituan, BYD, and TCL appeared on the financing list of embodied intelligence companies. As we enter the first year of the "14th Five-Year Plan," the technological competition in fields like artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, and semiconductors continues to push into the depths of the industry. Startups need funding, as well as a production line that can prototype, a group of clients willing to test new products, and the first order after the technology leaves the laboratory.
The weight of industrial capital is exactly manifested in these specific links.
By 2026, China's most influential industrial investment institutions outline a capital map with a solid industrial depth. Behind BAIC Industrial Investment, GAC Capital, and Geely Capital lies the manufacturing system accumulated by the automotive industry; Lenovo Venture Capital, Haier Capital, and Xiaomi Industrial Investment connect with a vast array of terminals and supply chains; institutions like SMIC and Chiplink Capital are close to the core of the semiconductor industry. Tencent Investment, miHoYo, and 37 Interactive Entertainment's venture capital funds are also among them, and the sources of industrial capital are far richer than just "manufacturing money."
On this list, there is also the A Plan of Zhiyuan Venture Capital. A still-growing robotics industry has begun to provide capital for the next generation of technology. Companies that were once targets for financing now have the opportunity to become organizers of a new wave of innovation.
Compared to purely providing funds, these investors are closer to the actual use of technology. Whether robots can work continuously on the production line, whether chips can be validated by clients, and whether new materials can be delivered with stable yields often depend on what happens within the value chain. Entering this scene not only helps enterprises shorten the path to commercialization but also provides investment judgments with bases beyond financial statements.
Of course, having industrial resources is just the starting point. Whether the resources can be opened to the invested companies, whether cooperation can translate into continuous orders, and whether companies can maintain their own technological paths while serving large clients also tests the capabilities of investors. Industrial synergy is valuable but requires balance.
Thus, patience is no longer just a virtue; it is a capability—one that needs to be genuinely supported by organizational structure, decision-making mechanisms, and assessment cycles.
What supports this patience is not just on the industrial capital side.
As technology moves from the laboratory to the production line, from prototypes to mass delivery, the structure of funding is also changing. National Investment and Development Corporation, Guoxin Fund, and other state-level and municipal-level guiding funds together form the ballast of the LP camp, anchored by policy objectives to leverage social capital into strategic emerging industries, providing more patience in long-cycle tracks like quantum computing, nuclear fusion, and biomedicine.
Moreover, local state-owned platforms such as Yizhuang National Investment Master Fund, Xiong'an Fund, and Chengdu Industrial Investment have entered the arena with land, factories, orders, and industrial policies, becoming the first "industrial interfaces" for startups on the ground.
The return of large insurance firms like Ping An Insurance, Pacific Insurance, and Taikang Insurance, along with continued empowerment from market-oriented master funds like China International Capital Corporation and Yuanhe Chenkun, injects massive, patient long-term capital into the primary market, indicating that the LP side's selection criteria for GP are shifting from "chasing high returns" to "stable allocation."
As the fund's lifespan approaches and LP demands for liquidity strengthen, the emergence of S Funds provides a liquidity outlet for the primary market. It allows patient capital to have a more flexible rhythm and gives startups more breathing space between financing rounds.
These forces together constitute the current capital ecosystem of China's primary market, interweaving and balancing each other.
On the other end connecting technology and capital, boutique investment banks are also undergoing tests of industrial capability. Source Capital, Gao Gu Capital, and Multi-Dimensional Capital rank among the top three on the industrial influence charts, while IO Capital, Yundao Capital, and Camel Peak Capital rank among the top three in industrial growth power. For FA, understanding technological routes, matching capital demands, and advancing transactions constitute the basics of serving the industry.
This roster records those who have institutionalized this process. Based on fundraising, investment, management, and exit data, combined with industrial implementation, technological empowerment, and exit performance, 36Kr Venture Capital Research Institute officially releasesthe "2026 Annual Industrial Investment Series Roster." This roster focuses on what capital leaves behind after entering the industry.
Part02
Answers within one track
are increasingly hidden in another track.
The two TOP30 lists of artificial intelligence and embodied intelligence have 19 overlapping institutions.
With over 60% overlap, it indicates a technological path that is beginning to connect. Large models extend into the physical world, requiring robots to undertake perception and action, along with support from chips, materials, and precision manufacturing. A seemingly independent new track is often connected to the accumulation of multiple industries. The research radius of investors also crosses the original industry boundaries.
Among these 19 institutions, there are familiar names like Sequoia China, Hillhouse Capital, and IDG Capital. An investment memorandum on robotics must address both model and data questions as well as issues of manufacturing costs, supply chains, and client procurement. The threshold for research exists precisely at these knowledge connections.
However, ten tracks do not share the same commercialization timetable.
Artificial intelligence and embodied intelligence face rapidly evolving technological choices; semiconductors, new materials, and advanced manufacturing need to cross customer validation and scale delivery; new energy must find profit margins amidst efficiency, cost, and competition; life sciences, aerospace, and frontier technologies often require longer R&D cycles. New consumption directly puts the question before users: Can products achieve continuous purchasing, and can growth leave a profit?
Placing these industries into the same growth template easily leads to misjudging a company's value. R&D cycles and customer demands vary greatly, while validation methods differ; popular directions may quickly form consensus, but specific projects must still face testing within their respective industries.
The boundaries of technology are changing, but professional accumulation has not lost its effectiveness. The backbone of industrial depth is not always comprised of the most famous names. Monolith Capital, Lin Ge Venture Capital, and Yunsi Capital in embodied intelligence; Fengyuan Capital, Huixin Investment, and Zhangjiang Haoheng in semiconductors; Futeng Capital and Heda Investment in life sciences... Their management scale may not be leading within the track, but they are indispensable entities along their respective segments of the value chain.
Opportunism rewards agility, while professionalism rewards long-term accumulation.This selection relied on online surveys and offline visits, using objective data on fundraising, investment, management, and exits, combined with industrial implementation, technological empowerment, and exit performance, to observe investment practices across different tracks. The scale and number of projects form part of the record; the ability of institutions to understand the industry’s specific challenges equally impacts the quality of investments.
36Kr Venture Capital Research Instituteofficially releasesthe "2026 Annual Top Ten Track Industrial Investment Institutions Series Roster." Technology is reconnecting with industry,and this list records the capital power involved, the investors behind it, and the depth they have achieved.
Part03
The speed of technological iteration
is rewriting the weight of qualifications.
They have no past, so they bear no burdens.
In this list, the oldest founder was born in 2000. All ten entrants are from the post-2000 generation, with nine born between 2000 and 2001. Seven companies they founded or co-founded were established in 2025 or later. They experience education, R&D, fundraising, and team building all within the same phase of life. Some young people are still in school while their companies are already operational.
The sources of talent also have a distinct technological background. Four entrants have studied or researched at Tsinghua University, and the list includes youth from universities such as Beijing Institute of Technology, Stanford University, and the University of California, Berkeley. Some continue to pursue PhDs, while others choose to start businesses before completing their studies. The knowledge accumulated in universities is beginning to face the test of industrial issues directly.
According to track classification on the list, five are engaged in embodied intelligence and smart hardware, while the other five are distributed across artificial intelligence and its intersections with new consumption and cultural entertainment. Looking further down the projects, young entrepreneurs are already entering quite detailed technical segments: Liu Songming's LiberAI focuses on physical world modeling, Qin Shentao's Yuancheng Taiyi taps into robotic action data collection, and Hu Yucheng's Qianjie Technology integrates touch into the embodied base model.
These choices point to the foundational capabilities yet to be fulfilled in new industries. In uncharted technological domains, research accumulation can precede years of industry experience, becoming a starting point for entrepreneurship. Consequently, the opportunities that young people gain delve into the definitions of technology routes and product forms.
Another batch of opportunities comes from their familiar lives. Li Wenxuan's ThetaWave AI builds products around student learning and exam preparation, Cen Rongkang's PulsePixel AI connects overseas consumer demand with China's supply chain, and Liu Pincun's Silver Bird Studio explores interaction and emotional experiences through original games. Understanding specific users, alongside technological training, also constitutes the starting point for entrepreneurship.
We also wish to maintain some clarity.
The term "little genius" can contain expectations, but it cannot encompass all the challenges of running a company. Most of the entrants have yet to experience a complete cycle: they may have never seen what it is like when funding windows close, may have never dealt with a true production line ramp-up, and may have never navigated between orders and cash flow. Technological leadership can cause a company to be born, but the capability required to sustain it is entirely different.
This roster does not confer crowns; it simply records:In 2026, a batch of young people in China focused on what to pursue, and the market responded with real money.
36Kr Venture Capital Research Institute officially releasesthe "2026 Annual Top 10 Most Investable Young Founders in China,"marking the moment when this group of young individuals began to independently define technology and products.
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