Spring's End Not Yet Come | Z News

Z News is ZhenFund's news column.

April is behind us, so we're looking back at the month's "highlight reel" — inviting you to witness the growth of our portfolio companies and what's new at ZhenFund. Double espresso, served fresh.

ZhenFund early-stage portfolio company AccoTest makes its debut at SEMICON China 2026

On March 25, SEMICON China 2026, the world's premier semiconductor industry event, opened at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre. As a leading domestic provider of semiconductor test equipment, AccoTest showcased its flagship testing equipment and solutions, creating a powerful "technology magnetic field" that drew widespread attention. Industry peers and domain experts stopped by the booth to exchange ideas and discuss cutting-edge IC testing technologies and trends. Read more

ZhenFund angel portfolio company Hygreen Energy presents at International Hydrogen Energy Conference

On March 25, the 2026 China Hydrogen Energy Exhibition and International Hydrogen Energy Conference (CIHC 2026) was held in Beijing. As a key industry platform for hydrogen energy in the opening year of the 15th Five-Year Plan, this year's conference focused on green hydrogen, industrial collaboration, and large-scale development, attracting numerous industry chain enterprises and representatives. During the conference, Du Jia'en, Deputy General Manager of Hygreen Energy, delivered a keynote speech titled "Key Technologies and Industrial Practice for Large-Scale Fluctuating Hydrogen Production," sharing the company's technical insights and project experience on adapting green hydrogen systems to renewable energy fluctuations, cost reduction, and industrial deployment. Read more

ZhenFund early-stage portfolio company Star.ML appears at 2026 Zhongguancun Forum Annual Conference

On March 27, the 2026 Zhongguancun Forum Annual Conference officially opened. Co-hosted by the Ministry of Science and Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the China Association for Science and Technology, and the Beijing Municipal Government, this year's forum took "Deep Integration of Technological and Industrial Innovation" as its theme. Star.ML was invited to participate, showcasing its core achievements including the Starstream series of space-based intelligent solutions, the Sealice space-based computing simulation platform, and its one-stop space experiment solutions — demonstrating the company's technical capabilities and engineering implementation in space-based computing, space situational awareness, on-orbit application verification, and aerospace information services. Read more

ZhenFund early-stage portfolio company Hesai Technology's ATX LiDAR launches with Leapmotor A10

On March 26, Leapmotor officially unveiled the A10, the first global model on its new A platform. The Leapmotor A10 is equipped with 27 high-precision perception sensors, including Hesai's ATX LiDAR. Hesai's compact, high-performance long-range ATX LiDAR combines a small form factor with extreme performance. Since beginning mass production in Q1 2025, it has quickly become a standard safety feature in best-selling production vehicles, with cumulative deliveries exceeding 1 million units. Since establishing strategic cooperation in 2023, Hesai Technology has provided LiDAR products for multiple Leapmotor models including the C10, C11, and B10, jointly witnessing Leapmotor's continued sales growth in new energy vehicles. Going forward, both parties will work together to advance the mass adoption of advanced assisted driving, bringing intelligent, safe, and high-quality mobility experiences to everyday households. Read more

ZhenFund early-stage portfolio company Flexiv showcases new products at ITES 2026

On March 31, the 2026 Shenzhen International Industrial Manufacturing Technology and Equipment Exhibition (ITES) opened. Flexiv appeared under the theme "Humanoid Adaptive Robots Advancing Toward General Intelligence," presenting its new Enlight Chuxin and MICO series products, ecosystem partners, and typical innovative application solutions — systematically demonstrating the company's latest progress on its general intelligent robotics foundation platform. Read more

ZhenFund angel portfolio company Cardinal Operations presents at 2026 China Electronics & Semiconductor Digital Intelligence Summit

On March 26, ESIS 2026 — the 5th China Electronics & Semiconductor Digital Intelligence Summit, guided by the Shanghai Integrated Circuit Industry Association — opened in Shanghai. With the theme "Digital Intelligence Igniting the Chip Domain, Smart Manufacturing Entering a New Era," the summit gathered hundreds of leading enterprise representatives and technical experts from the electronics and semiconductor fields for in-depth discussions on digital transformation pathways and methodologies. Dr. Wang Zizhuo, Co-founder and CTO of Cardinal Operations, was invited to attend and deliver an in-depth speech on how intelligent decision-making technology can solve semiconductor production challenges. Read more

ZhenFund angel portfolio company SpacemiT participates in release of China's first self-developed RISC-V full-stack evaluation tool

On April 9, the National Integrated Circuit Standardization Technical Committee plenary meeting was held in Wuhan, Hubei. Leaders from national regulatory departments and the Hubei Province and Wuhan City governments attended and delivered speeches, while representatives from authoritative industry experts, upstream and downstream enterprises, universities, and research institutes participated. SpacemiT took part in technical sharing, standard discussions, and other activities. Read more

ZhenFund early-stage portfolio company PIMCHIP appears at CITE 2026

From April 9–11, the China Information Technology Expo (CITE 2026) — a national-level electronic information industry exhibition platform co-created by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Shenzhen Municipal Government — concluded successfully at the Shenzhen Convention & Exhibition Center (Futian). With the theme "New Technologies, New Products, New Scenarios," the expo gathered cutting-edge achievements and innovative applications from the global electronic information field, focusing on hot tracks including artificial intelligence, integrated circuits, smart terminals, low-altitude economy, and data storage and computing to comprehensively showcase new trends and opportunities in industrial development. As an innovative enterprise in the processing-in-memory AI chip domain, PIMCHIP showcased its self-developed core chips and edge AI solutions built upon them. With AI local deployment, zero latency, and low-power edge intelligent technology, the company fully demonstrated its technical strength and unlocked more possibilities for AI deployment in smart terminals, garnering extensive attention and recognition from industry peers. Read more

ZhenFund angel portfolio company Chaitin Tech named China unicorn

On March 29, the Zhongguancun Forum released the China Unicorn Enterprise Development Report, with Chaitin Tech officially included. The report covers 116 unicorn enterprises in Beijing, of which 40 are in the AI track. Born from Tsinghua University's "Blue-Lotus" CTF team, Chaitin spent ten years growing from a "dream team of technologists" into an industry unicorn. The company focuses on security in the AI era — both empowering security with AI and safeguarding AI itself — ensuring this transformation proceeds steadily and safely. Read more

ZhenFund angel portfolio company VisionIC named to MIIT "Precision Design" Discovery Program 2025 Annual List

On April 21, the 2nd Precision Design Discovery Program hosted by the Industrial Culture Development Center of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced its annual list. VisionIC's quantum-dot nanosemiconductor-based smart water environment monitoring system was selected as the first case in the electronic information field for "advancing social progress through design innovation." This selection reflects China's independent and controllable capabilities in new materials and intelligent sensing, demonstrating full-chain innovation strength "from original materials innovation to industrial design breakthroughs, industrial scenario deployment, and social value realization" — a typical demonstration of new quality productive forces in smart water services and ecological environmental protection. Read more

ZhenFund angel portfolio company Horizon Robotics reaches strategic cooperation with BICV

On April 22, Horizon Robotics and BeiDou Intelligent Connected Vehicle Technology Co., Ltd. (BICV) formally signed a strategic cooperation agreement. As one of the first strategic partners for Horizon Stellar, China's first cockpit-driving fusion vehicle intelligence chip, both parties will deeply integrate "AI + BeiDou" full-stack technical capabilities with single-chip central computing architecture to jointly create highly integrated, high-performance, and cost-effective next-generation intelligent vehicle solutions, accelerating the evolution of vehicle intelligence toward physical-world AI agents. Read more

ZhenFund wins multiple honors including ChinaVenture's "2025 Top 10 Best Early-Stage VC Firms by Returns"

ZhenFund was named to the "Top 50 Best Early-Stage VC Firms," "Top 10 Best Early-Stage VC Firms by Returns," and "2025 Top 30 Best Investment Firms in China's AI and Big Data Industry." Yuan Liu, Managing Partner at ZhenFund, was named to the "ChinaVenture 2025 NOVA Rising Investors Top 50."

ZhenFund wins multiple honors including FOFWEEKLY's "2026 Top 30 Direct Investment Firms Most Popular Among Young Investors"

On April 28, FOFWEEKLY's Research Center officially released the 2026 40 Under 40 Outstanding Young Investors list based on existing data support and research analysis. ZhenFund was named to the "2026 Top 30 Direct Investment Firms Most Popular Among Young Investors." Yusen Dai and Yuan Liu, Managing Partners at ZhenFund, were named to the "2026 40 Under 40 (40U40) Most Promising Young Direct Investment Fund Investors."

ZhenFund Managing Partner Yuan Liu named to Investment Network's "2026 Best Young Investors"

On April 30, Investment Network and Investment Research Institute released the Investment Network "2026 Best Young Investors" list, with Yuan Liu, Managing Partner at ZhenFund, included.

Text | Menmen Editor | Cindy