IDG Bets on Liu Jingkang: A Victory for Doubling Down on Young Founders

"The company was founded 10 years ago, but the VC had already been there for 12 years." By Ren Qian

After a five-year marathon, Insta360 (hereafter "Insta360"), a provider of intelligent imaging equipment, has finally crossed the finish line. Today (June 11), Insta360 Innovation officially listed on the A-share market, becoming the "first intelligent imaging stock."

The opening price on its debut was 182 yuan per share, up 285% from the IPO price, giving it a total market cap exceeding 70 billion yuan. Notably, Insta360's STAR Market listing raised 1.938 billion yuan, ranking third in total fundraising on the Shanghai Stock Exchange (main board + STAR Market) in 2025, and first on the STAR Market.

At the listing ceremony, founder Liu Jingkang — a post-90s entrepreneur — wore a simple graphic tee and rang the bell with an Insta360 panoramic camera in hand, replacing the traditional gavel with a tech product.

Currently there are over 50 post-90s chairmen among A-share listed companies, most of them "second-generation" heirs who inherited family businesses or co-founded companies with relatives. What makes Liu unique: born in 1991, he started his business at Nanjing University at just 23; built from scratch to a STAR Market listing; led a technology-driven company to global success — this combination is virtually one-of-a-kind among post-90s founders in the A-share market.

For the capital markets, it's also a feast long overdue. Since its founding, Insta360 has completed eight funding rounds. According to its prospectus, IDG Capital, with over 13% pre-IPO ownership, became the largest external shareholder. Qiming Venture Partners and Xunlei held 9.4% and 8.7% respectively, ranking second and third.

Most worth telling is IDG Capital's story. As early as 2013, Tong Chen (now an investment partner), then an analyst at IDG Capital, met Liu Jingkang. In 2014, when Liu still had "no revenue, no team, no product," Tong unequivocally expressed investment intent. In 2015, IDG invested several million yuan to become the earliest backer. Only in that same year did Liu formally establish Insta360 Innovation.

The invested company was founded 10 years ago; the VC has been there for 12. Such investment stories are rare.

This is an inevitable victory. A victory of betting on the young.

On the eve of Insta360's listing, Anyong Waves interviewed IDG Capital partner Niu Kuiguang and investment partner Tong Chen about this 11-year investment story. Here are the highlights.

1. Having the guts to spend time and money on young people — this was one of the most correct and boldest decisions IDG made 12 years ago

When IDG found Liu Jingkang in 2013, he was still a tech geek on campus who couldn't even write a business plan. His first software product hadn't officially launched, and his Nanjing office had just six people (mostly part-time). But because Liu demonstrated rare technical talent and product intuition, IDG decided after one meeting. There was basically no internal opposition.

2. The core was "investing in people," but the risk was still enormous. The backstop logic was belief in the inevitability of technological evolution

At the time, IDG's focus on fisheye camera and cinema camera hardware R&D was still in early stages. While the technical concepts were breakthrough, industry maturity and commercialization paths carried significant uncertainty. Investing in Insta360 was more about betting on the company's acute observation of emerging consumer scenarios (such as VR and action cameras) and its advantage as a technology-native generation (skilled at using internet thinking to make hardware).

3. They didn't haggle over valuation at all. The only concern was whether there'd be enough money

When Insta360 pivoted from software to hardware, IDG's initial investment was indeed modest, though they added more in the Series A. Even after starting hardware in the Series A, funds remained extremely tight — this was IDG's biggest worry. Later, IDG not only helped Insta360 complete that round but also resolved equity structural difficulties for the company under the circumstances.

4. Tolerating the cycles of technology R&D and commercialization exploration

IDG discussed early hardware prototypes with Insta360 — whether big boxes or phone-attachable versions — mostly in 2015 and 2016, with 2014 being the pivotal moment of Insta360's software-to-hardware pivot. Finally, 2018 brought a breakthrough: Insta360 launched a milestone consumer product and achieved scaled shipments. In 2018, company revenue reached 258 million yuan with net profit of 18.287 million yuan.

5. Many people were bearish on hardware because consumer electronics is an extremely difficult industry

But IDG always believed Insta360 was previously undervalued. Looking back at Liu Jingkang's starting point, from scratch through twists and turns to a comeback against headwinds — not many A-share listed companies have made this journey.

6. IDG's initial expectation was simply to invest in the best and brightest wave of post-90s young entrepreneurs in China, but they unexpectedly captured a generational dividend

IDG was among the earliest in the industry to study post-90s consumers and their lifestyles, and the first to vigorously support young entrepreneurs. For instance, IDG invested in Bilibili's Series A.

Their reasoning: the evolution of PC internet business models over the previous decade had largely served the needs of those born around 1984–1985; many mobile internet business models would be driven by post-90s demands, and only entrepreneurs from the same generation would truly understand what post-90s consumers wanted. Additionally, founders like Bilibili's Xu Yi, Hey Tea's Nie Yunchen, Lilith Games' Wang Xinwen, and Faceu's Guo Lie were all young entrepreneurial talents they discovered early, with IDG participating in their early rounds.

7. After deciding to act, they established checklists and risk control systems, while also allowing young teams to experiment

IDG made products representing this demographic's lifestyle and preferences an investment priority, and in 2014 allocated a dedicated 100 million USD fund mainly for post-90s entrepreneurs. They also recruited a cohort of post-85s and post-90s investors specifically to evaluate post-90s founders' projects, focusing on university campuses and selecting outstanding young entrepreneurs from undergraduates and graduate students. At the time, IDG spent half a year persuading Bilibili's angel investor Chen Rui — also an internet veteran — to join Bilibili and lead the company toward commercialization.

8. Early stage: invest in "people + technology belief"; growth stage: "inject resources" rather than simply providing capital

In supporting Insta360, beyond funding, IDG focused on three dimensions: talent recruitment, strategic synergy, and capital market path exploration. IDG's ability to provide long-term companionship stems from its investment DNA — built on early-stage investing, with many projects being a company's first funding. As companies grow, PE, M&A, and even secondary market teams step in to support. "Patient capital" refers not just to mindset patience, but more importantly to having problem-solving capabilities matched to different stages of enterprise development.

9. Especially in consumer electronics, getting lucky enough to create one blockbuster product is the happiest thing possible (like the phenomenon-level iPhone), but most startups aren't so fortunate and can only follow the path of breaking through from niche markets and gradually building competitive moats

Take Insta360: its core advantage is built on long-term technical accumulation in imaging vision algorithms, with the key being how to transform that technical reserve into extendable, diversified commercial capabilities. Moreover, blockbuster products often struggle to cover diverse market demands, since market demand ultimately lies in the diversity of consumer preferences.

This means running this business requires continuous capital injection, scaling from tens of millions to hundreds of millions. It demands that VCs have sustained judgment capabilities and capital reserves. Meanwhile, as Insta360's product line covers increasingly broad territory, VCs must also build tolerance for the long cycles of technology commercialization.

10. When investing in Insta360, they didn't deliberately use "globalization" as a label, because Insta360 started merely as a phone accessory — until its first entry into Apple Stores, and later gradual emergence as a standalone product, when IDG became more certain this unique category held major opportunity

But IDG did have sensitivity in global layout — Anker and SHEIN, invested in 2011 and 2015 respectively, took the perspective of meeting global demand with quality Chinese products. Subsequent investments in Ecovacs, Dreame, Bambu Lab, and others are all red-hot companies in the primary market.

11. Migrating the "young entrepreneur radar" to domains dominated by post-00s

In recent years, looking at frontier fields, it's not hard to see that truly breakthrough innovations often come from young teams. IDG currently targets two types of entrepreneurs: one, practitioners with top-tier company/institution backgrounds — the star entrepreneurs everyone knows; the other, fresh forces in universities, including both current PhD students and those who've just worked one or two years, like Liu Jingkang 12 years ago.

Summarizing IDG Capital's underlying investment logic, the institution plays more of a "startup operating system" role rather than merely being a capital provider. Going forward, the VC role should shift more from "hunters" betting on information asymmetries to "farmers" cultivating ecosystems. And young founders × technology/product innovation × global markets × deep post-investment support may be the formula for building VC core competitiveness in the coming decade.

Image source | Company provided

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