“Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily”, April 18 (Reporter Chen Mei) At a time when overall LP funding tends to be cautious, another college LP is coming. Recently, Tiankai Jiu'an Haihe Begonia Science and Technology Innovation Parent Fund (abbreviation, Science and Innovation Parent Fund) was officially registered and established, with a scale of 5 billion yuan.

The “Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily” reporter learned that this is a 985 university parent fund, and the funder has surfaced the founder of Jiu'an Medical, an alumni of Tianjin University and Tianjin University. Relevant sources told the “Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily” reporter that in recent years, Tianjin University has continued to make efforts to transform scientific and technological achievements, spending 4 billion yuan per year for scientific research.

According to reports, the Tiankai Jiu'an Haihe Begonia Science and Technology Innovation Parent Fund will allocate funds in the form of a parent fund to form a fund matrix at different stages such as seeds, angels, and growth. “If these scientific research projects are selected and invested and incubated using funds, the future will be very impressive, both in terms of investment income and industrial layout.” The relevant person mentioned above said.

Tianjin University participated in funding to set up a 5 billion university fund

According to the disclosure, Tiankai Jiu'an Haihe Begonia Science and Technology Innovation Parent Fund was jointly established by Jiu'an Medical, Tiankai Group, Haihe Industrial Foundation, Tianjin University Beiyang Education Development Foundation, and Beiyang Begonia Foundation.

Among them, the Tianjin University Beiyang Education Development Fund was established in 1995 and is an investment fund initiated by Tianjin University. In terms of investment ratio, Jiu'an Medical plans to invest 3.5 billion yuan, accounting for 70%; Tianjin University Beiyang Education Foundation joined forces with Haihe Industrial Fund, Tiankai Group, and Beiyang Begitang Fund to invest 1.5 billion yuan.

The Beiyang Begonia Foundation was also co-founded by well-known alumni entrepreneurs of Tianjin University. Currently, it has invested in more than 40 entrepreneurial projects, mainly Tianda University alumni, directly investing and driving investment of nearly 2 billion yuan.

As one of the funders of Jiu'an Healthcare, a relevant person from its director and secretary told the “Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily” reporter that the fund will focus on investing in new technologies and applications such as hard technology, healthcare, artificial intelligence, biomantry, and new energy materials. “We hope to fully tap the resources of universities such as Tianjin University and Nankai University to find high-quality entrepreneurial teams and projects to promote the transformation of scientific and technological achievements.”

The “Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily” reporter learned that up to now, the first phase of the Tiankai Jiu'an Haihe Begonia Fund has been pledged. In terms of scale, the initial fund will not exceed 1,251 billion yuan. Jiu'an Medical and Begitang Venture Capital's initial joint investment is expected to be no more than 350 million yuan. Subsequent capital payments will continue within 4 years.

The Beiyang Begonia Fund is active as an alumni fund of Tianjin University and has invested in 97 projects involving renewable energy, gene biosynthesis, medical device equipment, new cellular drugs, semiconductor devices, etc., according to CIFA Venture Capital Connect - China data.

Since this year, the Beiyang Begonia Fund's latest investment is CIMC Gene, which has participated in its pre-A round of financing of tens of millions of yuan. Also involved with the Beiyang Begonia Foundation are Shang Shi Capital, Lenovo Venture Capital, and Renai Group.

An early-stage investor told the “Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily” reporter that compared with other universities, Tianjin University is relatively strong in the fields of chemicals, materials, machinery, and biomedicine. “Especially in the field of biomedicine, some new drugs involve chemicals.”

Recently, the School of Pharmacy at Tianjin University has been spreading good news one after another: relevant teams have made new progress and new treatment paths in glycine radical enzymes (GRE) and probiotics to relieve insulin resistance. In March of this year, Tianjin University also participated in joint research and development of nanomedicines specific to women with Alzheimer's disease.

Tianjin University has gone through multiple IPOs and unicorns

While incubating early science and innovation projects, Tianjin University also launched IPOs and unicorns one by one.

In October 2023, Deep Blue Ocean Technology Co., Ltd. (abbreviation: Deep Blue) underwent counseling registration with the Tianjin Securities Regulatory Bureau and plans to be listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board. CICC is the listing guidance agency.

The “Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily” reporter's inquiry revealed that Wei Jiancang, the head of Shen Zhilan, graduated from Tianjin University with a bachelor's degree. He was the university's first national defense student, and later obtained a master's degree from the National University of Defense Technology. Wei Jiancang founded Deep Blue in Tianjin after going to the sea to explore the mysterious underwater world.

In November of last year, Easyway, another alumni company of Tianjin University, launched IPO counseling. The counseling agency was Anxin Securities. According to CIFA Venture Capital Connect - Central data, Easy Thinking is an alumni company founded by the Tianjin University startup team.

In June 2016, Guo Yin, who graduated from Tianjin University with a PhD, founded Easyway (Tianjin) Technology Co., Ltd. The core members of the company's startup team are all from Tianjin University, from the State Key Laboratory of Precision Testing Technology and Instruments.

Up to now, this industrial intelligent vision company has become the preferred supplier for automakers and parts factories such as SAIC Volkswagen, FAW-Volkswagen, GAC, and Tesla.

Furthermore, in 2022, Jingfeng Medical, which focuses on surgical robots, submitted a listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The founders co-founded it by a post-80s PhD couple returning home from studying abroad. While studying for his master's degree, the founder studied at Tianjin University and studied under Professor Wang Shuxin, a well-known robotics expert in China, a pioneer in robotics research in endoscopic surgery in China, and vice president of Tianjin University.

Founder Wang Jianchen once said, “Professor Wang has led me step by step to the international frontier of surgical robotics research, which has had a great impact on the exploration and improvement of my scientific research capabilities.”

According to data from the Financial Services Association Venture Capital Connect - China, there have been 37 investment and financing incidents involving Tianjin since this year, of which 4 are in the seed and angel phase, namely hydrogen alcohol ecology, Tianan Borui Technology, Giessen Finance and Taxation, and Noho Technology.

“Linking universities is one way to develop the Tianjin Seaside New Area.” Early investors interviewed by the “Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily” reporter mentioned above said that before, Tianjin Binhai New Area has cooperated with Tianjin University, covering fields such as intelligent medicine and clinical medicine. Judging from the effects of university collaboration, apart from the companies and unicorns that have applied for IPOs mentioned above, Cansino, the first “A+H” vaccine stock on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, also came from another local university in Tianjin, Nankai University.

The investor believes that collaboration between colleges and universities can enhance the resources of Binhai New Area alumni and expand the Binhai New Area's “circle of friends.” The projects invested by Tiankai Jiu'an Haihe Begonia Science and Technology Innovation Parent Fund will all land in Tiankai Park. “In terms of spatial and functional positioning, Tiankaiyuan will provide an ecosystem for R&D, incubation, transformation, and industrialization for high-quality scientific research projects, and this scientific and technological achievement transformation park is a vigorous construction project in Tianjin's Binhai New Area.”