2026 Venture Capital Recruitment Trends: Urgent Hiring for Investment Positions, Post-95s Preferred

Securities Times Reporter Zhuo Yong

The heat of the recruitment market has always been the best barometer of industry prosperity. For the venture capital circle, fundraising data can directly reflect whether the current market is warming up, while large-scale hiring reveals institutions’ expectations and confidence in the market over a longer period.

Since the beginning of the year, the news of the national venture capital guidance fund publicly recruiting has ignited market enthusiasm, with several leading domestic venture capital (VC) institutions also appearing in the recruitment market, offering positions concentrated in investment research analysis, investment, and fundraising roles. Among these, recruitment for dollar and dual-currency funds has been especially active on social media.

“In recent months, I’ve been busy helping clients find talent. The demand for investment positions is the most urgent, and there’s also an increasing demand for investment research and risk control roles,” headhunter Wu Lan shared with the reporter, candidly stating that the recruitment needs on hand are significantly higher than in previous years.

Behind the surge in recruitment demand is an arms race to capture leading enterprises in popular sectors. Less than three months into 2026, continuous news of financing from companies in fields such as artificial intelligence (AI), embodied intelligence, and quantum computing has emerged, intensifying the industry’s “fear of missing out” (FOMO) sentiment. VC institutions urgently need to “increase their troops” to join this “talent snatching war.”

VC/PE urgently hiring for investment positions

“We haven’t hired anyone in the past few years, but we’re urgently looking for an investment director now, as we have several new funds ready to launch, and we need to quickly find projects,” a partner at a small VC institution in Shenzhen told the reporter. In fact, this institution’s fund size is only a few hundred million yuan, and they have few projects, but they have very high quality requirements for their targets and are very precise in their hiring.

If small institutions feel this way, larger institutions are no different. Multiple leading VC institutions have expressed to the reporter that their demand for investment positions is particularly urgent this year. On one hand, the fundraising market warmed up last year, with many institutions successfully raising funds and issuing new funds. According to statistics from Zhizhong ZERONE, in 2025, national institutional limited partners (LPs) made a total of 9,319 investments, a 36% increase compared to 2024. On the other hand, sectors like artificial intelligence and robotics are extremely hot, prompting institutions to go all out to seize quality project opportunities.

Ruan Qingguo, president and managing partner of Chuangdongfang Investment, also mentioned in an interview with the reporter, “This year our recruitment scale is larger than in previous years, with a focus on expanding our investment team. We plan to hire 6-8 senior investment managers or above.” He explained that this year’s adjustment in recruitment strategy is primarily to keep pace with the company’s investment business’s scaling and professionalization, and to enhance overall investment analysis and industrial layout capabilities, focusing recruitment on core business lines and high-quality talent.

From the perspective of institution types, the number of positions released by RMB funds is significantly higher than that of dollar funds, but dollar funds have a stronger presence in recruitment on social platforms. Institutions such as Hillhouse Capital, IDG Capital, Meihua Venture Capital, and Yaotu Capital have recently posted recruitment information, most of which are investment and pre-investment positions.

The trend of younger investors is evident

While venture capital institutions are urgently recruiting, they have also undergone a profound restructuring of their talent standards.

More than a decade ago, the first batch of investors in the venture capital industry mostly came from securities firms, investment banks, and other financial institutions, leveraging their abilities to analyze data, understand financial reports, and execute trades to invest in many early-stage listed companies. However, today, investors without engineering or industrial backgrounds, or who cannot understand technology, are hardly noticed by venture capital institutions.

“Many institutions’ investment positions no longer accept anyone born before 1997; they want experienced young people,” Wu Lan said to the reporter. She mentioned that one of her clients, a VC institution focused on semiconductor investments, requires investment managers to have a background in the industry. The reason is that this wave is investing in AI, embodied intelligence, and next-generation technologies. Those born after 2000 are the true digital natives, and they inherently understand these new technologies.

Liu Zhou, founding partner and chairman of Dacheng Caizhi, also shared new trends in the industry with the reporter: “In the past two or three years, we have invested in over 50 companies in the AI field, and many quality projects have been initiated by young people who graduated just a few years ago.” At Dacheng, many investment managers who can deliver impressive performance are under 35, with even those born in the 1990s beginning to emerge prominently. In his view, the trend of younger investors has become a distinctive feature of the venture capital circle, especially among investors in cutting-edge sectors like AI and robotics, who are increasingly younger.

However, Liu Zhou also admitted that not all sectors have such strict age requirements; for example, the commercial aerospace sector has much more relaxed age criteria for investors. Additionally, positions in risk control and other backend roles do not have absolute age restrictions.

Currently, as AI technology permeates all aspects, many industry insiders believe that AI is merely a tool and will not replace investors; rather, technology will amplify the core value of talent, not substitute for professional judgment and humanistic thinking. Dacheng Caizhi also believes that while AI has significantly improved the efficiency of information processing and data mining, the true determinants of success in investment and fundraising are still the judgment of industry trends, understanding of the essence of business, grasping of human nature and cycles, as well as the ability to link resources and create value over the long term.

Based on this assessment, Chuangdongfang has also clarified its selection criteria for core positions. Ruan Qingguo stated, “For investment positions, the core focuses on two abilities: deep value judgment and full-cycle post-investment empowerment. Candidates must be able to accurately identify technological and industrial trends and help enterprises land resources for long-term empowerment; for fundraising positions, emphasis is placed on building trust and linking institutional resources, requiring an understanding of asset allocation and a long-term service mindset.” Furthermore, both types of positions require candidates to be proficient in using AI tools and possess a full-process risk control awareness.

Empathy with young entrepreneurs

Currently, recruitment in the venture capital circle is almost entirely focused on the AI and hard technology sectors, where “STEM + industry background” has become a hard threshold, with some institutions even directly specifying their intent to recruit talent from companies like Doubao, DeepSeek, and the product lines and laboratories of the “six little tigers of large models.”

Of course, some institutions candidly admit, “We can’t afford to hire people from large firms.” Moreover, in the realm of investment, simply understanding technology is far from sufficient; it’s a multidimensional consideration. “To be frank, we are not deliberately ‘poaching’ from big companies right now. We greatly appreciate the ‘geek spirit’ and dedication to technical implementation in the talents from large firms. This is their natural advantage, and we respect that. However, investment requires a combination of breadth and depth,” stated Dacheng Caizhi. They place greater emphasis on the individual traits of the person. “If you have a background from a large firm but also possess curiosity about the business world, the ability to quickly learn new fields, and a willingness to embrace uncertainty, our doors are wide open. Conversely, if you only have the halo of a large firm, our attitude will be more cautious.”

In the context of accelerated technological iteration and changes in business models, it is important to note that the generational characteristics of entrepreneurs have undergone significant changes. Many outstanding unicorn founders today are from the post-1990s or even younger Generation Z; their growth environments, thinking patterns, and communication contexts are significantly different from those of previous generations of entrepreneurs. This presents new challenges for investors in cutting-edge technologies—not only do they need to understand technology, but they also need to empathize with young entrepreneurs and understand their thoughts and feelings.

“We are currently actively recruiting a group of investment managers who understand the new economy and future industries, capable of resonating with young tech entrepreneurs, and truly understanding founders from the perspectives of technological logic and entrepreneurial philosophy,” Ruan Qingguo stated. Maintaining an equal and companionable attitude with entrepreneurs is key to achieving a mutual fit between capital and entrepreneurial teams.

As young entrepreneurs become mainstream, Dacheng Caizhi has set forth three core “resonance” requirements for the new generation of investors: First, age and mindset resonance—do not adopt a condescending or superior attitude toward entrepreneurs; approach them as learners and companions to understand their dreams and anxieties, maintaining a youthful mindset that can embrace change; second, technical language resonance—develop a composite capability of “industry + investment,” immerse in the industry frontline, continuously study cutting-edge technologies, and be able to comprehend the business logic behind technologies, conversing with entrepreneurs using their “jargon” about products and development to establish professional trust; third, value provision resonance—do not just act as a capital provider; become a long-term partner of entrepreneurs, offering practical post-investment empowerment like linking industry resources and guiding organizational development based on the stage of enterprise development, truly walking alongside entrepreneurs.