Venture capital, a reliable source of new investment in China for years, has been under pressure amid slower economic growth and friction between Washington and Beijing. Yet at the same time, global competition in technology areas often funded by VCs such as AI is raging.
A new fund being raised in China is taking a creative approach to get tech-savvy scholars more involved in entrepreneurship by attracting them as early stage investors. The fund, known as the iCANX Fund, brings together InnoLink, a Beijing investment company and Haixia (Alice) Zhang, a professor of integrated circuits at China’s prestigious Peking University as general partners. Zhang is also a founder of the iCANX Association and International Contest of Innovation (iCAN), which attracts 20,000 participants from more than 20 countries annually. To date, the new fund has raised about 50 million yuan, or $ from approximately 15 scholars.
Scholars are at the cutting edge of technology but tend to focus on abstract ideas, Zhongguancun Zhiyou Research Institute dean Wang Tianmao told a press conference on June 26, according to a fund press release. They need to “step out of the laboratory and explore a new journey of high-tech entrepreneurship,” said Wang, who is a member of the fund’s investment committee and also an honorary director of the Robotics Institute of Beihang University in Beijing. “To help bring about faster applications, they will benefit by getting closer to investment decisions,” he said.
“Sometimes, we need to seek truth and iterate based on belief instead of waiting until all problems are clearly thought out before acting,” Wang said.
The efforts come amid expectations that changes in resulting from AI will shake up global economic competitiveness. Last week, the World Artificial Intelligence Conference Shanghai was held in the Chinese commercial hub to size up future prospects. Speakers included Baidu CEO Robin Li.
China, buoyed by the performance of social media and healthcare companies, accounted for 16 members of the 2024 Forbes Midas List, an increase of one from a year ago. However, it lost the top spot and had two investors fall out of the top 10.
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