The China Round is a weekly report tracking venture and strategic investment activity across China’s core technology sectors: AI, robotics, semiconductors, new energy and materials, aerospace and defense, and frontier tech.
The China Round is free, published every Friday, and written for investors, operators, and founders tracking where China’s tech capital is moving and why it matters.
About the author: Dermot McGrath is Irish, based in Shanghai, a decade in China’s tech and investment ecosystem, fluent Mandarin. Co-founded a VC fund scaled to nine-figure AUM. Now running ZenGen Labs, a cross-border strategy studio covering AI, robotics, and deep tech.
Happy Friday. China’s first unified outbound investment regulation took effect on July 1, restricting how technology can leave the country. The same week, 141 deals closed across seven sectors. More on those rules below.
Where the Money Went
141 deals across seven sectors. 24 disclosed exact amounts, totaling $2.2 billion (~¥15.6B), with most of the capital concentrated in a satellite mega-round and several hundred-million-dollar AI raises.
🧠 AI (26 deals)
Shengshu Technology (生数科技) closed a $500 million (~¥3.6B) B+ round for Vidu, its AI video platform. Tripo AI raised $150 million (~¥1.08B) in an A+ round for AI-generated 3D assets, its third raise in four months. DeepCtrls (深度智控) pulled in hundreds of millions of RMB with Jinko Solar as a strategic investor (covered below). MindRank (德睿智药) raised $52 million (~¥374M) for AI drug discovery, with its lead candidate now in Phase III (covered below). Below the growth rounds, a cluster of Pudong-backed seed and angel deals continued Shanghai’s pattern of systematic early-stage deployment.
⚡ New Energy & Materials (23 deals)
Starchens (星辰新能) led the sector with a ¥500 million (~$69M) B round backed by CITIC Securities Capital, ICBC Capital, and East Money, a lineup of securities and bank-affiliated investors more typical of pre-IPO rounds. The rest split between battery materials, hydrogen, energy storage, and specialty chemicals, with state-linked capital from Hefei, Nanjing, and Jiangsu backing early- and growth-stage rounds.
🔬 Semiconductors (22 deals)
Twenty-two deals, nearly all with undisclosed amounts. Sicreat (新美光) closed a ¥1 billion (~$139M) C+ round for CMP (chemical-mechanical planarization) polishing pads, a key semiconductor consumable (more below). EDA (chip design software), chiplet packaging, and optoelectronic chips each drew a handful of deals. Several semiconductor materials companies are raising in Suzhou, continuing that city’s emergence as a vertically integrated chip-materials cluster.
🤖 Robotics (18 deals)
RobotEra (星动纪元) closed a ¥1 billion (~$139M) B round led by Chengtong, a fund under SASAC (China’s state-asset regulator), part of ¥2.5 billion (~$347M) raised across three rounds in roughly 60 days. Morphi (墨奇智能) pulled in hundreds of millions of RMB in what is reportedly one of the largest disclosed angel rounds in China’s embodied-AI sector (AI designed to operate physical hardware like robots), with Alibaba and Tencent co-anchoring for a six-month-old company. Motorevo (泉智博) completed its seventh round in 18 months for humanoid robot joint modules.
💡 Frontier Tech (8 deals)
Two brain-computer interface companies raised in the same week: Gestala (格式塔科技), a non-invasive ultrasound BCI startup, closed a ¥442 million (~$61M) angel+ round (covered below), while NeuroXess (脑虎科技) raised an A+ round as it began Class III clinical trials at Huashan Hospital. QBoson (玻色量子) closed a Pre-IPO round and filed for IPO coaching (the formal process of engaging an underwriter to prepare a company for listing) three days later. SynMetabio (贻如生物), a synthetic biology company making cultivated leather for luxury brands, closed its A round with Ordos Group co-leading (covered below).
🚀 Aerospace & Defense (16 deals)
Changguang Satellite (长光卫星) dominated with a ¥5 billion (~$694M) strategic round, the largest single raise in the sector this week. The company operates 161 satellites, the world’s largest sub-meter-resolution commercial remote-sensing constellation. Space Pioneer (天兵科技) added ¥200 million (~$28M) in strategic capital. Kaipu Dynamics (开普动能), an eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) electric propulsion startup founded by a former Rolls-Royce division director, raised an angel round (covered below). Most of the remaining deals were seed and angel rounds for early-stage space-tech and low-altitude economy startups, including Ruiqi Deep Space (瑞启深空), a four-month-old constellation startup that raised ¥220 million (~$31M) at a ¥1.1 billion (~$153M) valuation from Suzhou state funds.
⚙️ Other Adv. Manufacturing (28 deals)
Snapmaker (快造科技) raised ¥1 billion (~$139M) in a C round for consumer 3D printing (covered below). CLAWLAB (浪爪智能) raised hundreds of millions of RMB with miHoYo leading (covered below). Thinkhead (上海星合), a 17-year-old bootstrapped machine-tool manufacturer, took its first outside capital. Coffee robot maker InSpace/XBOT (影智科技) closed a B round. The rest spanned optics, precision measurement, industrial equipment, and microfluidics (tiny channels etched into chips to manipulate fluids for medical diagnostics and lab work).
Spotlight
Gestala (格式塔科技)
Angel+, ¥442M (~$61M), Valued at ¥4.2B (~$583M)
Non-invasive ultrasound brain-computer interface.