"You're only 36. You can be anyone you want to be."

Produced by | 36Kr Venture Capital Research Institute

Research | Zhuxi Huang, Yunxiao Guo, Yi Zhang

Editor | Jing Liu

One December afternoon in 2017, the first cohort of 36 "36Under36" investors — all under 36 years old — from China's venture capital industry took the stage at 36Kr.

They were just beginning to make their mark. The fund founded by Yi Cao, Huai Wang, and Wei Liu was still a young player in the VC world; Anna Fang had not yet fully taken the reins at ZhenFund; Xi Cao was still three years away from founding Monolith Management. It felt like the first ten minutes of a film: uncertain, yet brimming with anticipation.

The following year, a list of 36 founders was released. Topping the rankings was Yiming Zhang, then just 35, whose ByteDance was valued at a mere $75 billion; Yang Meng's Anker Innovations was just gaining traction overseas with a USB charging cable bearing the "Anker" brand; and Xiaohongshu, co-founded by Fang Qu and Wenchao Mao, had just surpassed 50 million users.

Over the next five years, the 36Under36 roster would grow considerably: to date, it has included 432 founders and 108 investors. In many ways, the successive Under36 lists have become a kind of commercial Along the River During the Qingming Festival — a scroll painting with symptomatic weight for its era. Here, you can see the topography of China's most dynamic business frontiers, and the temperature of different sectors.

Most of these individuals are still making their mark today.

In 2023, 36Kr once again launched its 36Under36 nomination process. After initial screening and final review of over 500 founder applicants and over 200 investor applicants, we identified the new class of 36Under36 — 120 founders and 36 investors in total.

The 120 founders on this year's list span more than ten sectors, including frontier technology, advanced manufacturing, smart hardware, new energy, industrial upgrading, enterprise services, healthcare, and local lifestyle. "Research and technology" is their most prominent label this time around: among the Under36 founders, 41 hold degrees from overseas top-tier universities; 34% hold PhDs or higher, 35% hold master's degrees, and only 2 have less than a bachelor's degree; 64% are working on broadly tech-focused projects, and 59% lead companies where "R&D staff account for over 60%."

The post-2000 generation has arrived on the scene. Although the average age of listed founders is 32.9, the youngest among them is Yuanzhi Pan, born in 2001, founder and CEO of Jinzuan Technology, a semiconductor packaging materials developer and manufacturer. His resume is equally remarkable: a student of Xi'an Jiaotong University's youth talent program, currently pursuing a PhD at its School of Future Technology.

36Under36 Founder Age Distribution

For founders, "entrepreneurship" is no longer a single-track goal of "becoming CEO." The roles among honorees have grown more diverse and specialized, with co-founders appearing in various C-suite configurations: CTO, COO, CMO, CSO, CDO, CGO. The night before our list went live, Guangyao Liu, founder of Bosie, announced his resignation as CEO to "fully dedicate himself to a new internal venture."

36Under36 Founder Role Distribution

Geographically, Beijing (39), Shanghai (30), and Guangdong Province (30) are evenly distributed as the main entrepreneurial hubs, followed by Zhejiang Province (20) and Jiangsu Province (10) in fourth and fifth place.

In evaluating founders, to ensure greater credibility, we invited partners from 33 investment firms overseeing technology, consumer, and healthcare sectors — encompassing nearly all of China's top-tier generalist funds and the most authoritative sector-specific firms — to score founders on their personal track records, business models, and technological innovation. Our invited judges completed their scoring with professionalism and fairness, and the final list was compiled by the 36Kr Venture Capital Research Institute. Our thanks to every judge (full list below)!

For investors, we largely continued our previous evaluation criteria: investment track record and peer review. Past performance accounted for 80%, with the remaining 20% determined by mutual voting among shortlisted candidates. Among 105 candidates who passed initial screening, 96 valid votes were cast. The top vote-getter was Rui Han, partner at Gaorong Capital, selected by 39 fellow investors. Those receiving over 30 votes were, in order: Penglan Zhao of BAI Capital, Yin Yue of ZhenFund, and Ruodi Hu of Hongshan.

36Under36 Investor Peer Review Top 12

The 36 selected investors average 34 years old, consistent with previous years.

At a time when investment themes are generally unfocused, most listed investors cast a wide net rather than confining themselves to a single sector. Technology innovation, frontier tech, advanced manufacturing broken down into AI (AIGC), hardware, robotics, and more all fall within their range; some industry-focused investors deeply rooted in local markets center their investments on themes like military-civil fusion, domestic substitution, independent innovation, and emerging industries.

Much like today's scattered investment themes, the listed individuals cover all twelve zodiac signs, with slight concentrations evenly distributed among earth-sign Capricorn (6), air-sign Gemini (6), and water-sign Scorpio (6).

36Under36 Investor Zodiac Distribution

> 36Under36 and Waves In 2023, building on 36Under36, we launched an upgraded summit IP: the Waves Conference. Taken literally, Waves means exactly that — waves. The inspiration comes from the French New Wave cinema movement, symbolizing the younger generation's dissatisfaction with the status quo and their spirit of bold exploration and creation. The slogan for WAVES is: Waves favor the young.

This also echoes our original intention in launching the 36Under36 series: to find the younger generation in the business world. We aim to build Waves into China's most influential and compelling offline brand for a new generation of venture capital forces.

This year's 36Under36 awards ceremony will also be held at the inaugural Waves Conference's outdoor venue on Bibo Island at Jinhai Lake in Beijing. For event details, click Read More at the end of this article.

Trust us — it will be worth the wait.

So first, meet the full 36Kr 2023 36Under36 list:

**> **36Under36 Founder Judge List

Image Source | IC Photo

Layout | Yunxiao Guo