Patience Capital Precisely "Nurtures" How Does Zhejiang Deepen the Fertile Ground for Technological Innovation?

China News Hangzhou March 24日电 (Guo Qiyu) From nimble humanoid robots in the palm, to the roaring rocket engines lifting off into the sky—over the past few years, a group of hard-tech “new stars” has risen rapidly in Zhejiang, growing into a backbone force driving industrial transformation.

However, for scientific and technological achievements to move from the laboratory to the broad market, they often need to cross the “valley of death,” full of uncertainty. Who will accompany technology-innovation firms to move from the darkness before dawn to the light of day? With patient capital, Zhejiang provides precise “watering,” nurturing fertile ground for technological innovation.

On March 24, the Zhejiang Venture Capital and Private Equity Industry High-Quality Development Conference was held in Hangzhou. From breaking through institutional barriers to reshaping ecosystems, from fresh capital to full-cycle empowerment, the province uses a profound financial supply-side reform to nourish the flourishing growth of an “innovation rainforest.”

Site of the Zhejiang Venture Capital and Private Equity Industry High-Quality Development Conference. Photo provided by Zhejiang Innovation Investment Group

**　　Crossing the cycle: Defining patient capital with “long-term companionship”**

For a technology-innovation enterprise, from typing the first line of code to producing the first prototype, it often takes several rounds of technical iteration. However, traditional market-oriented capital is constrained by the fund’s lifespan, making it difficult to accompany startups through this “marathon.”

To fill this stretch of “capital vacuum,” Zhejiang, an economic powerhouse, has built a provincial-level government investment fund system, establishing a “main base” for patient capital.

This “patience” first shows in its time horizon. In October 2025, Zhejiang took the lead in setting up a provincial social security fund for science and technology innovation with a scale of 50 billion yuan, with a lifespan of as long as 18 years. It has six sub-special funds, including funds for strategic emerging industries, future industries, and technology-innovation mergers and acquisitions, among others, directing “long money” precisely to “invest early, invest small, and invest in hard technology.”

“Currently, the fund cycle in the market is generally ‘5+2’ or ‘7+2,’ and rarely exceeds 10 years. We hope that with an ultra-long investment cycle and a steady investment philosophy, we can perfectly match the long cycle of hard-tech innovation.” A relevant负责人 of Zhejiang Innovation Investment Group said.

This “patience” is also an attitude of reverence for, and tolerance of, the规律 of enterprise development.

Cao Guoxiong, Chairman of Puhua Capital, which has deep roots in the venture capital field, remarked, “Hard-tech investment is a long-distance race without shortcuts. In areas such as artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, and life and health, risks are high and cycles are long—especially requiring the resolve to sit down and stay focused.”

In his view, the entry of Zhejiang’s social security fund for science and technology innovation injects unprecedented confidence into scientists, entrepreneurs, and investment institutions.

In terms of institutional design, nine departments in Zhejiang jointly issued an action plan, clarifying that the upper limit of the lifespan of government investment funds will be extended to 20 years, and encouraging state-owned capital to “invest boldly,” while establishing a new mechanism for performance evaluation based on the entire fund lifecycle.

From the first move of the 50 billion-yuan social security fund for science and technology innovation to institutional breakthroughs in evaluating with a 20-year long-cycle horizon, Zhejiang is putting the principle “consider big accounts and consider long-term accounts” into practice—enabling government funds to dare to invest early, dare to try and adjust, and dare to provide long-term companionship.

National Venture Capital Guidance Fund Yangtze River Delta Fund (Zhejiang) signing ceremony. Photo provided by Zhejiang Innovation Investment Group

**　　Precise “watering”: Solving the predicament of hard-tech capital**

On Zhejiang’s map of innovation, why has patient capital become a key move? The answer lies in the growth logic of technology-innovation enterprises.

Blue Arrow Aerospace is a pioneer in domestic commercial space. On this “ultra-long track,” it has honed its sword for a decade.

“At the start of our business, we chose the liquid oxygen methane technology route at the forefront. It is clean, efficient, and low-cost—making it an ideal power source for the next generation of reusable rockets. But it also means that from materials and processes to system integration, we essentially have to explore from zero.” Blue Arrow Aerospace’s Chairman Zhang Changwu said plainly.

At a critical moment, patient capital stepped in, turning the stars and seas of private aerospace into reality. In 2021, when the project was still at the blueprint stage, the Zhejiang provincial government investment fund contributed 100 million yuan, bringing various types of capital firmly into the game. In 2024, Zhejiang Innovation Investment Group also helped bring in the 900 million-yuan National Manufacturing Transformation and Upgrading Fund.

“From ‘building foundations’ in the early stage to ‘injecting blood’ in the critical period—this kind of long-term trust and companionship enables us to focus single-mindedly and exchange trial-and-error for small but real breakthroughs in technology.” Zhang Changwu said. Today, Blue Arrow Aerospace already has end-to-end delivery capabilities covering “R&D, manufacturing, testing, and launch.”

Looking at the bigger picture, Zhejiang continues to build patient capital, making it a strategic initiative tailored to frontier hard technologies for the “Fifteenth Five-Year Plan period.”

For example, Zhejiang’s social security fund for science and technology innovation tightly aligns with major national and Zhejiang industrial policy priorities, and systematically constructs a fund matrix covering the full lifecycle of technology-innovation enterprises. Its aim is to enhance Zhejiang’s distinctive advantaged industries, cultivate and grow emerging industries, and proactively plan for future industries.

Qianxun Intelligent, which emerged from Zhejiang University’s laboratories, has risen rapidly on the embodied intelligence track. The company’s founder Han Fengtao said, “From the company’s establishment in 2024 to the latest round of financing, behind it all, there is no separation from the continuous capital injections and full-process support provided by Zhejiang Province’s science and technology innovation mother fund and the fund subsidiaries it holds equity in.”

With patient capital’s companionship, a group of Zhejiang-based enterprises dare to tackle “bottleneck” technologies, dare to invest heavily in R&D with heavy assets, and dare to make long-term industrial plans.

As of now, Zhejiang’s provincial-level government investment funds have helped 101 companies successfully go public. 61 invested companies have won national- or provincial-level awards for science and technology. They have also promoted the incubation and transformation of entrepreneurship projects from more than 40 teams led by scientists, and supported 20 projects involving high-level innovative talent to take root and grow.

Signing ceremony for the “Initiative for Patient Capital to Build Zhejiang’s Innovative Ecosystem.” Photo provided by Zhejiang Innovation Investment Group

**　　Coordinated empowerment: The “innovation rainforest” nourishes the industrial ecosystem**

After patient capital is in place, how can it be invested accurately and well? Zhejiang’s solution is: to build a full-lifecycle fund matrix based on coordination among central and local entities and banks/financial institutions—so that people with expertise do expert work.

Led by an initial fund size of 35.1 billion yuan, Zhejiang’s provincial-level government investment funds have achieved total scale of over 300 billion yuan through recycling investment and amplification leverage. Cumulatively, they have invested in more than 1,800 enterprises within the province. On this basis, Zhejiang has focused on building two major fund groups: the Zhejiang social security fund for science and technology innovation fund cluster and the “4+1” special fund cluster.

Li Jiaqing, General Manager of Junlian Capital, as a representative of the first batch of signing institutions, witnessed the vitality of this ecosystem.

“Guided by a real-economy investment orientation, and meeting professional, market-oriented requirements, the social security science-and-technology fund has strongly guided us to allocate capital to key areas of technological innovation.” Li Jiaqing said. “The fact that Junlian Capital and Hangzhou have jointly pushed the launch of the latest round of comprehensive growth funds is a vivid reflection of ‘government guidance and market operations.’”

A single outline makes ten thousand details stand out. Patient capital not only provides financial support, but also promotes the accelerated clustering and efficient allocation of Zhejiang’s innovation factors.

At the government level, Zhejiang adheres to combining an effective market with an capable government, promoting the handoff between government-guided funds and market-oriented institutions for follow-on investments, thereby providing technology-innovation enterprises with full-spectrum empowerment—from capital to scenarios, and from talent to data.

At the industrial level, Zhejiang relies on a complete industrial tiered cultivation system to provide abundant application scenarios for the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, enabling new technologies, new products, and new models to be piloted and used first.

At the technology-innovation platform level, Zhejiang deepens cooperation with high-level research institutions such as Zhejiang University and the Zhijiang Laboratory, and establishes more than 10 outcome-transformation subsidiary funds, so that research results can leave the laboratory and move toward industrialization.

With patient capital as the pivot, Zhejiang is working to form a world-class innovation ecosystem in which “scientists dare to focus deeply on research, entrepreneurs dare to experiment boldly, and venture capital institutions dare to lay out plans for the long term.”

A relevant负责人 of Zhejiang Innovation Investment Group said it aims to double the fund-cluster scale during the “Fifteenth Five-Year Plan period,” and by 2030 build a modern industrial fund cluster with a total scale of over 500 billion yuan, leveraging various forms of capital to invest in Zhejiang of more than one trillion yuan.

When the sunshine of policy, the nourishment of capital rain, and the soil of innovation deeply integrate, a group of hard-tech enterprises will ultimately break through through patient accumulation—winning growth through the long term.(End)