“Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily”, May 23 (Reporter Chen Mei) The reporter learned that today, Qiming Venture Capital announced the promotion of Zhou Zhifeng as managing partner. As a result, Qiming Venture Capital formed a team of top management led by a group composed of Kwong Tzi-ping, Liang Yuyu, Hu Xubo, and Chow Chi-fung.

Zhou Zhifeng, the newly promoted managing partner, joined Qiming Venture Capital in 2014. As a trainee, Qiming Venture Capital said that Zhou Zhifeng has become one of the most active investors in the field of cutting-edge technology, especially in the field of artificial intelligence.

A VC industry insider told the “Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily” reporter that this promotion reveals two signals: first, after the new managing partner is determined, Qiming Venture Capital will usher in a new starting point and increase investment in cutting-edge technologies such as AI; second, in the future, Zhou Zhifeng will play a more important investment judgment role within Qiming Venture Capital.

Zhou Zhifeng promoted

When Zhou Zhifeng was promoted this time, what attracted the most attention was his investment in deep technology fields such as AI.

According to Qiming Venture Capital, over the past 10 years, Zhou Zhifeng has participated in or led investment in many well-known technology companies in the fields of artificial intelligence, robotics, semiconductors, new energy vehicles, software, etc., including Stone Technology (688169), Premium Choice (09880.HK), Yunzhisheng, Wall Technology, Luoke Intelligence, Yunying Valley Technology, Spectrum AI, Mecamand Robotics, Aixin Yuanzhi, Haibo Sichuang, DeepWay Shenzhen, etc.

The investment in Smart Spectrum AI, the leading domestic model, came from Zhou Zhifeng. According to CIFA Venture Capital Connect - China data, in 2022, Qiming Venture Capital teamed up with Junlian Capital to participate in Series B financing of Zhipu AI of 200 million yuan; in 2023, Tencent Investment and Alibaba participated in a new round of financing for Zhi Spectrum AI. After the investment, Zhipu AI was valued at more than 1 billion US dollars, making it a unicorn.

Since then, Zhi Spectrum AI has completed multiple rounds of financing. In 2024, the Beijing Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund will add intelligent spectrum AI. Up to now, some data shows that the valuation of Smart Spectrum AI has exceeded 20 billion yuan.

After AI and other deep technologies became a racetrack that cannot be ignored, the new managing partner represented by Zhou Zhifeng undoubtedly assumed the “heavy responsibility” of Qiming Venture Capital's investment in AI and other fields. In the team of former managing partner managers, Kuang Ziping has always focused on information technology, artificial intelligence, automation equipment, etc., and has invested in well-known companies such as Stone Technology (688169), Wenyuan Zhixing, Best Choice (09880.HK), Yunzhisheng, HSAI (NASDAQ: HSAI), Yuntaili Automation, Changting Technology, and Qiniuyun.

In his ten years of joining Kai Ming Venture Capital, Chow Chi-fung said that Kwong Tse-ping was his mentor on the path of venture capital. Zhou Zhifeng told the “Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily” reporter that there is an explanation that venture capital is the last apprenticeship industry in the financial sector. “Because it really takes many years to have a teacher leading you to practice continuously, you can grow, master the skills you need, and gain the necessary experience.”

“This month (May) is exactly my ten years at Qiming Venture Capital. From any perspective, these ten years have been the fastest growing decade in my life.” Zhou Zhifeng said.

Strategic layout for the next 10 years

Judging from the resumes and investment experiences of Kuang Ziping, Liang Yuyu, and Hu Xubo, with the exception of Kuang Ziping, Liang Yuyu and Hu Xubo all focus on the healthcare field and have a strong investment record.

According to the data, Qiming Venture Capital manages 11 US dollar funds and 7 RMB funds, and has raised a total of 9.5 billion US dollars in assets under management. Up to now, Qiming Venture Capital has invested in more than 530 innovative companies, of which more than 200 have gone publi****ted through mergers and acquisitions.

**So, how will Qiming Venture Capital plan in the next ten years?

According to Kwong Tse-ping, the founding managing partner of Qiming Venture Capital, this promotion has two levels of significance: first, it is Qiming Venture Capital's long-term strategic layout; second, finding the “colleague” who is most suitable for this position. **

Kuang Ziping, the founding managing partner of Qiming Venture Capital, told the “Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily” reporter that since its inception, Qiming Venture Capital has adopted an organizational structure with collective leadership. “This mechanism takes a little longer in the decision-making process and reaching consensus on specific events, but it is the best model for the long-term development of an organization. Therefore, the company has always wanted the top-level design to be led by a group of 4-5 people.”

Looking at the strategic layout, Kuang Ziping believes that managing partner is a very important position, and promotion should be in line with the direction of future key layout. “Qiming Venture Capital runs on a 10-year cycle to find colleagues in which direction to take on this position. In the next 10 years, we believe that the 'deep technology' sector in the Chinese investment market will develop very well, and we hope to match corresponding talents in this field.”

How to lay out AI and other deep technology?

Since Zhou Zhifeng's promotion represents the strategic layout direction of Qiming Venture Capital for the next 10 years, how does Qiming Venture Capital understand AI and Shenzhen Technology?

Zhou Zhifeng, the new managing partner, believes that there are three core points in the actual commercialization of AI technology: one is performance, the second is cost, and the third is ease of use.

“In terms of performance, models such as OpenAI and Smart Spectrum AI are constantly iterating and improving performance, making it easier to implement the higher the level of AI intelligence. In terms of cost, the cost of using the world's top model last year was 120 US dollars per million tokens. A week ago, Zhipu AI reduced their GLM-3 model to only 1 yuan per million tokens. The cost reduction of more than 800 times made users very comfortable using the AI big model.”

In terms of ease of use, Zhou Zhifeng said that the core of AI infrastructure technology companies that have already invested in AI infrastructure technology is to maximize the simple and efficient deployment of AI technology, so that users and application developers can easily control large models. “After the AI capabilities on the end side have increased dramatically, the AI application on the end side is also full of expectations.”

Specifically, in terms of investment, when it comes to AI application companies, Zhou Zhifeng said that Qiming Venture Capital is more concerned about two points:

First, is the industry they chose an industry where AI is more likely to be empowered. “In industries where digitalization is sufficient, AI will be implemented as a priority. This stems from the fact that the industry has two advantages: on the one hand, the workflow of the industry is basically digitized and internet-based, and AI models are easy to integrate or reshape; on the other hand, after digitization, a lot of high-quality data can be accumulated to train and fine-tune AI models.”

Second, when evaluating the founding team of an AI application company, we paid particular attention to whether it included members with deep AI technology experience. “As the current AI technology foundation continues to evolve, the founding team must have core people with a deep understanding of AI technology. A lack of thorough understanding of AI technology will lead to an inability to accurately grasp the boundary between big models and AI technology.”

“Furthermore, only when the founding team itself has an AI technology background can it better attract and gather more top AI algorithm engineers and AI researchers to join the company. Shengshu Technology is a typical representative; otherwise, good AI talents will choose to go to big tech companies or big model development companies.”

Regarding investment in the AI field, Kuang Ziping believes that generative AI can definitely generate huge value. “As an investment institution, we should clearly judge and capture investment points generated by value.” At the same time, he firmly believes that startups will play a huge role in this wave, rather than only making wedding dresses for others; in the end, they will all be taken over by big manufacturers.

*In addition to the AI field, Kuang Ziping said that healthcare, corporate overseas, robotics, etc. are also areas that Qiming Venture Capital has always been optimistic about. **