Wisdom Cultivates the New, Striding Forward on Ten Years | Yunqi Capital 2024 Investor Annual Meeting

When "change" itself becomes the unchanging new normal, how do you seize opportunities and shape the future? As AI technology evolves from isolated breakthroughs to real-world deployment, how do you get ahead in an entirely new era of intelligence? And amid a reshaped global landscape and volatile venture capital environment, how do you adapt to stay relevant?

On December 17, we hosted the 2024 Yunqi Capital Investor Annual Meeting under the theme "Cultivating Intelligence, Igniting Renewal." Over a hundred fund investors, portfolio company executives, and key partners gathered in Shanghai for in-depth discussions on AI technology developments and new application trends, the new wave of globalization, and the evolving VC landscape, along with a systematic review of Yunqi Capital's strategic thinking and investment positioning in AI, industrial technology, and international expansion.

The event also marked Yunqi Capital's tenth anniversary. On site, fund partners and collaborators who had accompanied and witnessed Yunqi's journey joined in celebrating this milestone.

In a new normal defined by uncertainty, where do opportunities and momentum lie? Founding Partner Chengyu Mao shared his observations in his keynote address. Despite multiple challenges at home and abroad that have made the global political and economic landscape increasingly complex, he argued, China's underlying strengths across industrial chains, infrastructure, market scale, and talent have remained fundamentally solid through years of competition and development.

Regardless of cyclical fluctuations, technological innovation remains the constant driving force of social progress. Mao elaborated that technology revolutions led by AI are generating substantial economic growth and industrial upgrading opportunities, while China's accumulated advantages in computing power, data, talent, and energy have cultivated fertile ground for the AI industry. Combined with the resilient strengths long embedded in manufacturing and the entrepreneurial spirit passed down through generations of founders, the momentum for China's continued technological innovation remains robust. Moreover, the significant policy pivot since September has given the market greater confidence in stabilizing expectations, breaking negative loops, and achieving a steady recovery.

"Pressure and motivation叠加, opportunities and challenges并存, strengths and weaknesses交织 — this is the new normal we must confront." Mao believes that in this environment, both investors and entrepreneurs need more comprehensive capabilities to identify and seize opportunities amid growing complexity. As a venture capital firm active in technology, Yunqi Capital will meet this new normal with a continuously evolving team, adaptive organizational configuration, and international perspective.

Founding Partner Chengyu Mao

Cultivating Intelligence: AI Empowerment and Application Deployment

Two years into the generative AI wave, what key advances and trends have emerged in AI technology and software/hardware applications? And what new opportunities do they hold?

Yunqi Capital has been consistently investing in AI since its founding. Drawing on a decade of accumulated methodology and resources, we will continue making systematic bets across software and hardware application layers, targeting cutting-edge opportunities and sharp, leading players in the industry.

Partner Yu Chen elaborated on AI's technological breakthroughs across three dimensions — multimodality, reasoning capability, and generalization — and their application exploration, analyzing several key trends including multimodal advancement, foundation model consolidation, and AI's integration into the physical world. Executive Director Yi Han offered insights into the market landscape of AI software applications at home and abroad, examining investment opportunities from perspectives including "the business model shift from SaaS to AIaaS," "growing demand for vertical AI applications," and "multimodal and other technological iterations." Additionally, Executive Director Ruiting Zheng provided a systematic overview of industrial technology opportunities arising from hardware supply chain upgrades driven by large model demand.

On the critical topic of AI application deployment, Yunqi portfolio company representatives shared their cutting-edge industry experience through keynote presentations and panel discussions.

Junjie Yan, founder of MiniMax — a large model unicorn and Yunqi angel-round portfolio company — joined remotely to share his observations on Chinese large models' competitive advantages and new progress in application deployment.

Cewu Lu, co-founder of Noematrix and Associate Dean of the School of Artificial Intelligence at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, delivered a keynote analyzing the bottlenecks and breakthrough paths for embodied intelligence — the most closely watched AI application form in 2024.

Additionally, Lu, along with Wan Bin (COO of Keenon Robotics), Xuan Liu (VP & Partner at Yunqi Capital — here referring to DeepRoute, note: the terminology table maps 元戎启行 to Yunqi Capital but contextually this appears to be 元戎启行/DeepRoute's VP), and Suibing Zheng (Founder & CEO of RealMan Robotics) — representatives of robotics/embodied intelligence companies Yunqi has backed since 2016 — jointly discussed "A Decade of Robot Evolution" in the context of AI-driven robotics technology and commercialization.

On AI application opportunities and deployment challenges, Jinxiu Zhai (VP at Zhijin Technology/Baibu), Zizhao Xue (VP at MiniMax), Peng Xie (Founder & CEO of Zhongdiao Technology), and Xinqi Ren (Founder & CEO of Yuedian Technology) shared perspectives from their respective practical experiences in a panel on "AI Applications Across a Thousand Industries."

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Igniting Renewal: Embracing the Wave, Adapting to Change

Under new conditions of globalization, how do companies find new growth engines and breakthrough points? And after a decade of transformation in the venture capital industry, what new opportunities and challenges have emerged?

In the new normal, going global has increasingly become a necessary choice for companies seeking growth. In recent years, Yunqi portfolio companies have seized opportunities in the globalization wave, with international footprints spanning Europe and the US, Africa, the Middle East, Japan and Korea, and Southeast Asia. Leveraging its international perspective and resources, the Yunqi team aims to help portfolio companies identify new strategic positioning opportunities amid this global tide.

Managing Director Yao Feng delivered a presentation on the new equilibrium in global industrial chains, the new normal of diversified demand, and the new normal of corporate globalization. She noted that capacity relocation overseas, cross-border e-commerce, brand internationalization, and AI globalization are becoming important forms for Chinese companies to explore new overseas growth drivers.

In the "New Wave of Globalization" session, portfolio partners including Jie Lin (Chairman & CEO of WorldEx), Mingchun Mao (Founder & Chairman of SincoProbe), and Hao Zhu (Co-founder & CTO of Kujiale/Coohom), along with ecosystem partner Ming Jiang (Vice Chairman & President of Daimay Auto Parts), discussed corporate globalization strategies, incremental opportunities, and challenge responses under new global dynamics — drawing from their diverse international businesses and market experiences.

Yunqi Capital's decade coincides with a decade of ups and downs in China's venture capital industry. Beyond its focus on hot sectors, the conference featured a special panel on "Venture Capital: A Decade of Adaptation and Renewal," discussing China's VC turning points and rebirth, as well as future trend responses.

Zhengdong Ni, Founder & Chairman of Zero2IPO Group, who has personally witnessed the growth of China's venture capital industry, was invited to moderate. Before the discussion, he offered a vivid interpretation of the 2024 VC landscape based on first-hand data, then engaged with highly representative fund-of-funds partners in a dialogue about the industry's past decade and future.

Panelists included Yuan An (General Manager of CICC Qiyuan), which manages China's first national guidance fund focused on strategic emerging industries; Jipeng Wang (Senior Partner at OrizaFoFs), China's first market-oriented top-tier fund-of-funds manager; Xiaoyu Feng (Chairman of Changzhou Jinkong Group), a local state-owned investment institution leveraging the new energy industrial advantages of a trillion-RMB GDP city; and Miao He (Deputy General Manager of SDIC Xianfeng), which manages Shanghai's 100-billion-RMB scale guidance funds for three leading industries including artificial intelligence.

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The Yunqi Family Banquet is a standing feature of past annual meetings. With Yunqi marking its tenth anniversary, over a hundred attendees gathered at the banquet to reminisce about warm memories of Yunqi's decade and celebrate this important milestone. Partners and old friends who couldn't attend also sent video greetings.

From a small team of a few people to an institutionalized organization of nearly 40, Yunqi has spent ten years focused on technology-enabled industry, building a portfolio of over 180 innovative companies, and witnessing the growth of unicorns and industry leaders including MiniMax, PingCAP, XTransfer, Kujiale/Coohom, DeepRoute, Keenon Robotics, Zhijin Technology (Baibu), WorldEx, JD Industrial, and Zhaogang Group. This journey would not have been possible without the enduring trust and steadfast support of our fund investors.

Cultivating intelligence, igniting renewal — stepping forward on our "ten." As AI technology iteration and application deployment continue to unfold, Yunqi Capital, dedicated to technology and continuous growth, looks forward to embracing this new era of intelligence alongside more innovative forces to create value together!

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Special thanks to the following portfolio companies for their product support:

MiniMax | Hailuo AI Video Generation Model Keenon Robotics | Food Delivery Robots, Heavy-Duty Transport Robots RealMan Robotics | Ultra-Lightweight Humanoid Robotic Arm Zhijin Technology (Baibu) | Fabric Matching Robot Triastek | Digital Dosage Form Structure Design Hive Box Technology | Jiehuan AI Audio Glasses Hohem | AI Smartphone Gimbal Aiper | Pool Cleaning Robot