Source Code Capital closes fifth RMB fund, raising over 7 billion yuan to back tech innovation and SMEs

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Invest early, invest small, invest in tech

Source Code Capital recently announced the closing of its fifth RMB fund, raising over 7 billion yuan. The fundraising process, from official launch to completion, took just over three months. New limited partners include nearly 10 insurance institutions, as well as national guidance funds such as the National SME Development Fund. Several existing LPs have invested consecutively for multiple years — for instance, OrizaFoFs has backed Source Code Capital for four years running. The fifth RMB fund also continued to attract numerous outstanding corporate investors.

To date, Source Code Capital manages approximately 35 billion yuan across RMB and USD funds combined. Its entrusted capital comes primarily from national guidance funds, local sci-tech innovation funds, financial institutions (insurance companies, banks), market-oriented fund-of-funds, corporate investors, top-tier global sovereign wealth funds, university endowments, charitable foundations, and pension funds.

Yi Cao, founding partner, stated: "We are deeply grateful to our new and existing investors for their trust in Source Code. The closing of our fifth RMB fund gives us greater capacity to support SME development, to keep identifying exceptional entrepreneurs across industries, and to back them from seed stage all the way to becoming industry leaders. We will continue discovering and creating value through investing — backing early-stage, small-scale, and technology-driven ventures — and contribute our part to advancing technological innovation, industrial digitalization, artificial intelligence, robotics, advanced manufacturing, integrated circuits, life sciences, carbon neutrality, and the deep integration of digital and real economies."

Jing Wenna, head of RMB fundraising, said: "The Source Code team has consistently delivered strong returns for investors, and this RMB fund attracted considerable market attention. While partnering with long-term capital and industrial capital to fuel technological innovation, Source Code will also maintain appropriately sized funds, keep prioritizing our LPs' interests, and introduce more high-quality fund products."

Early-Stage, Small-Scale, and Technology-Driven

Since its founding in 2014, Source Code Capital has invested in over 300 startups across areas including technological innovation, SME support, quality-of-life enrichment, and green development. Its portfolio spans industrial digitalization, artificial intelligence, robotics, advanced manufacturing, green development, enterprise software, life sciences, new consumption and brands, and global expansion — with 80% being early-stage ventures.

From its inception, Source Code conducted deep research into industrial digitalization, identifying upgrade opportunities across sectors. At the time, numerous traditional industries were poised for digital transformation, with trends becoming increasingly apparent in textiles, pharmaceuticals, automotive aftermarket, logistics, and fast-moving consumer goods. Source Code invested in and witnessed the growth of several industrial digitalization and industrial internet companies, including Baibu, Xiaoyaoyao, CassTime, RuiGu, YQN Logistics, Yijiupi, Edianyun, and ZNLH.

Over the past three years, Source Code has invested in key technology innovation areas including AI and robotics, infrastructure and application software, integrated circuits, and aerospace technology — backing Cloud Whale, HAI ROBOTICS, Chuxin, Mech-Mind, Keenon Robotics, ONES, HongJi, Gaoding, Pera Corporation Ltd., D5, Taichi Graphics, Biren Technology, Silicon Integrated, GalaxySpace, and Space Transportation.

Additionally, Source Code Capital has accelerated its investments in life sciences, backing healthcare technology companies such as WeiMai, Enhe Biotechnology, Sibionics, Jianhai Technology, METiS Pharmaceuticals, Galixir, and Nutshell Therapeutics. In green development, it has invested in Li Auto and NIU in the new energy vehicle supply chain, as well as carbon neutrality-related companies including Unisun Energy Group, Poweroak, and Yungu in the new energy sector.

If life sciences and green development make people's lives more sustainable and healthy, Source Code's approach in the consumer sector has centered on companies that continuously explore people's aspirations for better living and emphasize technology-driven product and service innovation — including ByteDance, Meituan, KE Holdings, Ziroom, Pagoda, Linji, Blokees, PMPM, moody, WonderLab, and ChaYanYueSe.

Long-Haul Partnership with Entrepreneurs

From day one, Source Code has maintained close relationships with entrepreneurs and steadily increased its investment in post-investment services. This sustained heavy investment in post-investment support was once met with skepticism; some believed systematic post-investment services were impossible to achieve.

Source Code's post-investment team built a systematic, productized service framework around a "demand, supply, and circulation" model. It has rolled out 28 post-investment service products across 10 functional modules: Code Brain courses, public affairs, brand and PR, human capital, organizational development, capital markets, business development, finance/legal/tax, strategic development, and growth marketing. Specific products include Talent Weekly, organizational consulting, industrial policy research, capital markets advisory, early-stage PR, marketing salons, and tea gatherings.

Zhang Junbin, founder and CEO of Cloud Whale, said: "Source Code is more than an investment institution — it plays the role of a co-founder. Beyond financial support, it has helped us tremendously with organization, processes, systems, and external collaboration. Most importantly, Source Code never asked me to abandon my core principles, mission, or vision just because of short-term market volatility."

Liu Deheng, founder and CEO of Silicon Integrated, said: "Entrepreneurship is extremely difficult for founders; every day is filled with anxiety. I frequently chat with Source Code colleagues during the process, and each conversation feels rewarding — they help us tremendously with perspective. Every month I receive books carefully selected by Source Code's post-investment team. Each read feels like an intellectual exchange with the team, a sense of growing together."

Tianlan Shao, founder and CEO of Mech-Mind, said: "We met Source Code Capital shortly after founding our company and stayed in touch throughout our journey. When we reached the right stage, Source Code was our first thought, because our styles are so similar and we had built strong trust. It felt like having an old friend join us in the entrepreneurial journey — that feeling is wonderful."

Dr. Coral Chui, founder and CEO of Bota Bio, said: "Entrepreneurs and investors are like comrades-in-arms, facing many challenges together. Source Code's pursuit of creating lasting, real value deeply resonates with us — it's what we strive for too. Like us, Source Code is a fund that keeps growing; this is a process of mutual companionship. These past few years have been vibrant and driven for all of us, and we deeply cherish witnessing each other's growth."

Creating Lasting, Real Value

From fewer than 10 people at its founding in 2014, Source Code Capital has gradually grown into three pillars — investment, post-investment, and platform — comprising 7 partners and over 100 professionals. It has formed a diverse team unified at the core despite varied backgrounds in investment management, product and technology, entrepreneurship, corporate leadership, and advisory expertise. Its leadership depth and industry expertise continue to strengthen, with offices across Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen.

Over the past five years, Source Code has been exploring the path toward building an "intelligent organization" in the investment industry, practicing the organic collaboration and continuous evolution of sensing, computing, and execution. Questions it continually grapples with include: how to achieve timely, effective, and accurate feedback and review mechanisms; how to fully leverage the respective advantages of "distributed computing" and "centralized computing"; how to design appropriate organizational structures, institutional mechanisms, and process systems as transmission and control units; how to use culture to build consensus and reduce rules; and how to continuously identify and practice the intersection of organizational and individual development to attract top talent. It is precisely these challenges that drive the organization's ongoing "intelligentization," ultimately enabling every team member to fully unleash their "computing power" and continuously iterate their "algorithms" — contributing sustained competitiveness, creativity, and vitality to the organization under shared mission, vision, and strategic goals.

At Source Code Capital's 2021 CEO annual meeting, Yi Cao said: "We want to keep doing hard but right things, innovating and progressing, continuously doing what creates value for entrepreneurs and the industry. Research first, judgment paramount — daring and skilled at investing in 'non-consensus,' investing in 'inflection points,' and investing for the long term. We insist on trusting entrepreneurs, on long-term companionship, on thinking like entrepreneurs, on acting like entrepreneurs. Our partnership philosophy is not to maximize our own short-term interests, but to be a little better to entrepreneurs and partners, hoping the entire industry becomes more fair, sustainable, and big-picture-oriented. This might be the 'entrepreneurial spirit' of our industry — the spirit, philosophy, and actions we continuously cultivate will attract the people we want to attract. I believe that in the next fifteen years, a large number of world-class companies originating from China will emerge, and we hope to play a supporting role in that."

With the closing of its fifth RMB fund, Source Code Capital will remain rooted in China's fertile soil of entrepreneurship and innovation, driving early-stage, small-scale, and technology-focused investments. It will continue defining "today's edge, tomorrow's mainstream" sectors, discovering the most outstanding entrepreneurs, providing valuable assistance to portfolio companies, delivering steady and strong returns to LPs — forming an innovation community to together create lasting, real value.