Recently, Shanghai United Media Group - StarMarket Daily has formed an alliance with the first batch of 17 science and technology headquarter investment institutions to comprehensively cover the science and technology primary market. The first batch of participating investment institutions cover FoF, hard tech layout funds and other vertical tracks. The alliance includes V Fund, Gaorong Capital, Proxima Venture, Conswall Capital, Fortune Capital, Dingxin Capital, FreeS Fund, Lightspeed China's Partners, BlueRun Ventures, Vitalbridge, NRL Capital, Lime Capital, 5Y Capital, Yunqi Partners, Efung Capital, Casstar, and Loyal Valley Capital.
Science and Technology Ecology in Primary Market
Investors have changed from valuing " pattern innovation " to holding on to " technological innovation ", this trend reflects the information gap in policy, funding, and industry in the shift from betting on the Internet platform-based economy to hard technology high-barrier development.
Industry development faces greater challenges and difficulties. It is difficult to find GPs to raise capital in the primary market. Institutions have changed from financial institutions, home offices and large enterprises to government-guided funds when choosing LPs. In the opinion of a senior IR person in Shenzhen, the sustainability of the state capital and financial capital investment will be a little longer.
The investment strategy of the hard technology industry is very different from that of the Internet. In the Internet era, institutions valued the " pattern innovation" of projects, while at this stage, the primary criterion for institutions to judge the quality of projects is " technology innovation". At the same time, the project also needs to have a clear application scenario and sufficient market demand. Similarly, the high barriers and high threshold have also given rise to new requirements for investors. Investors in the hard technology track must have a deep understanding of the industry and a more focused investment strategy in order to dig out good projects. Star projects are often popular in the market, whereas there are many potential projects, due to a variety of subjective and objective, still have not find matching funding.
The incubation of hard science and technology projects and high-quality transformation of industries have gradually become the direction of industrial parks around the world to make efforts. However, to attract relevant academic leaders, such as: academicians, professors, or high-quality entrepreneurial projects to land and incubate, also puts higher requirements on the operational capacity of industrial parks. There is a persisting information gap between the research achievements of universities and marketable needs.
It can be seen that the information gap is plaguing the rapid development of China's hard technology industry. Information gap exists between LPs and GPs, between projects and capital, between scientific research results and marketable demand, and between urban industrial highlands and labeling.
STAR-EDGE Science and Technology Pioneer Alliance
It is important to smooth out the information gap and let policies, talents, projects and funds flow freely. The first domestic primary market investment institution alliance initiated by official media will soon try to shoulder the responsibility of solving the problem.
In July 2021, StarMarket Daily, which focuses on STAR Market's proposed or listed companies, officially announced its strategic shift forward to focus on startups, investment institutions, industrial parks and city ecology in the six major tracks of hard science and technology. As a result, IP projects such as China Science and Technology Entrepreneur Intelligent Salon, China Science and Technology Company Selection, Company Innovation Evaluation Lab, and China City Science and Technology Innovation Strength Survey were created to deeply cover and serve the primary market of science and technology innovation.
After three months of system sorting and demonstration, the first 17 investment institutions were invited to formally establish the Star-Edge Science and Technology Pioneer Alliance. The alliance is formed by StarMarket Daily and the head hard-tech venture capital institutions, which are close partners covering the primary market of science and innovation, and will give StarMarket Daily professional all-round support in primary market content and branding.
In FY2022, StarMarket Daily will join hands with STAR-EDGE members for in-depth cooperation with key industrial parks nationwide. It is expected that 8-10 key industrial parks will be laid out nationwide, covering most of the country's economic zones, focusing on chip semiconductor, smart manufacturing, new energy, new materials and other industries.
With the joint effort to move forward, the STAR-EDGE Science and Technology Pioneer Alliance will make a modest contribution to promote the development of China's hard technology industry.