Venture capital fundraising to support innovative enterprises

Casstar, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on key & core technology and based in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, announced on Thursday that its Casstar Pioneer Venture Capital Fund has completed its final close, raising a total of 4.08 billion yuan (approximately $578 million).

The fund will focus on identifying breakthrough "zero-to-one" innovations emerging from laboratories, addressing funding gaps for early-stage key & core projects, and helping advance key & core investment from the primary market to the secondary market.

Mi Lei, the founding partner of Casstar, noted that global consensus in the technology sector is converging, and the next wave of technological revolution is characterized by ultra-microscopic, ultra-macroscopic, ultra-complex, and ultra-extreme-environment technologies. As project funding demands rise sharply and investment cycles grow significantly longer, early-stage hard-tech funds are facing much higher expectations and requirements.

The newly signed Limited Partners in this final close include diversified institutions such as Taibao Private Equity Fund Management Long-term Foundational Fund, Haidian Zhongguancun Science City Science and Technology Growth Fund, Ant Group, Guangzhou Industry Investment Holding Group, Zhuhai Technology Industry Group, Nanjing Innovation Investment Group, Fudan Science and Technology Innovation Fund-of-Funds, and Guolian Minsheng Securities, reflecting top cross-disciplinary investors' strong confidence in the long-term value of key & core technology.

The entry of the Taibao Private Equity Fund Management Long-term Foundational Fund matches the long research and development cycles, high capital demands, slow returns, and extended development timelines typical of the key & core tech sector, helping to close the funding gap for early-stage projects.

The contribution from the Fudan Science and Technology Innovation Fund-of-Funds will help build a direct bridge between the fund and universities such as Fudan University, enabling smoother pathways from scientific research to capital markets and supporting the precise identification of "zero-to-one" breakthrough innovations at the laboratory stage.

On July 16, Casstar Pioneer Venture Capital Fund signed its first round of contracts with 19 Limited Partners, raising 2.62 billion yuan.

The 19 Limited Partners included the China SME Development Fund, Shanghai State-owned Capital Pioneer AI Fund, Shanghai Pudong Venture Investment, Shanghai Future Industry Fund, Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Fund, Ningbo Development & Investment Group, and Taizhou Science and Technology Innovation Group.

Since its first close, the fund has approved 46 investments, with 90 percent  concentrated in the first two rounds. Among these, 32 projects originate directly from technology transfer at research institutes and universities.

By sector, the fund has focused on artificial intelligence and biotechnology, covering areas such as AI chips, TPUs, embodied intelligence, AI for Science, AI hardware, quantum technologies, gene editing, immune cell therapy, viral infection prevention, bio-based pigments, and agricultural microorganisms.

In disruptive technologies, the fund has invested in over ten projects across controlled nuclear fusion, small modular fission reactors, superconductivity, quantum computing, and photonics.

By November, Casstar had completed 88 investments totaling nearly 3 billion yuan, following its strategy of "early bets, small stakes, long-term horizon, hard-tech focus" and capitalizing on opportunities from the latest wave of technological innovation.