July is coming to an end, and Xiniu Data's 10th anniversary celebration is also drawing to a close.

Over the past decade, China's primary market has undergone a shift from consumer internet to hard technology, and from market-driven funds to state-owned capital dominance.

During these ten years, Xiniu Data has witnessed the real ups and downs experienced by China's venture capital industry, every investor, and every entrepreneur.

Therefore, at this ten-year milestone, Xiniu Data has compiled a "Ten-Year Review Report on the Venture Capital Industry."

Using solid data combined with the industry's most authentic sentiments, it reconstructs the complete turbulence and fluctuations of the primary market over the past decade.

Do you still remember the once-glorious Mobike and ofo?

Over the past decade, many annual financing champions that were once in the spotlight have seen their subsequent development fall short of expectations.

ofo Bike ranked 6th in 2017 with 8.085 billion RMB, but it never appeared on the list again—becoming a tear of the era due to broken capital chains and deposit controversies.

Yuanfudao was the financing champion in 2020, raising 24.6 billion RMB throughout the year, enjoying unparalleled glory. However, just one year later, the implementation of the 'Double Reduction' policy wiped out the entire track.

Xingsheng Youxuan secured a single financing round of 23.1 billion RMB in 2021, marking the peak of the community group-buying cash-burning war, betting on capturing the trillion-level local life service entry point.

In the 2025 rankings, the embodied intelligence track saw multiple entries at once—robots, world models, and large models collectively made the list, as capital poured in like crazy.

The era of throwing money around hasn't ended; it's just that the protagonists have shifted from community group buying to machines that can walk and think.

Three Types of Investment Logic Have Completely Disappeared

Of the top five tracks by financing events in 2016, three had been replaced by 2025.

This is not a normal rotation of industry cycles.

What completely disappeared over the ten years are three types of investment logic—

1. The model of burning cash for scale

2. Businesses relying on regulatory arbitrage

3. Purely traffic-driven gameplay

Replaced by three new directions—

1. Technologies solving "chokehold" problems

2. Hard technology reconstructing the energy system

3. AI-driven infrastructure upgrades

A Decade of Deep Cultivation and Adjustment

On the financing side, there were 22,000 financing events in the primary market in 2016, representing the peak of the "mass entrepreneurship" era in the last ten years. By 2025, this number had halved to 12,000.

More critically, the market ecosystem has shrunk:

In 2016, 70% were first-round financings, with newcomers, new projects, and new opportunities emerging endlessly.

Now, the proportion of first-round financings is less than 50%, and the vitality of early-stage innovation is visibly declining.

The industry reshuffle has also fallen upon every investment institution.

Over Half of GPs Stopped Investing Over the Decade

Among the active investment institutions in 2016, only 45% were still making investments after ten years.

After ten years of great waves washing away the sand, more than half of the institutions have exited.

The market structure is also being reshaped, with market-driven funds receding significantly and state-owned capital entering comprehensively.

The Venture Capital Landscape is Also Quietly Reconstructing

Ten years ago, Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen accounted for half of the national financing, serving as the absolute core arenas.

Now, the financing share of these three cities has dropped to less than one-third.

Venture capital power is sinking down, with Hangzhou, Suzhou, Hefei, and Chengdu rising rapidly, each city slowly growing its own venture capital story.

Hangzhou

Driven by both digital economy and hard technology, DeepSeek, Unitree Robotics, and the "Hangzhou Six Little Dragons" have exploded densely.

Suzhou

Advanced manufacturing and biopharmaceutical industrial parks have formed clusters, becoming an innovation highland in the Yangtze River Delta.

Hefei

BOE, Nio, and CXMT serve as benchmarks, bringing the "Hefei Model" into the spotlight.

Chengdu

Gaming, chips, and low-altitude economy form the basic pillars of three tracks.

A Ten-Year Cycle

Some enter the game, while others leave.

Being able to accompany throughout the entire journey is Xiniu's luck, and we also thank every user and fan.

Ten years is not the end, but a new starting point.

In the future, Xiniu will continue to iterate, evolving from data tools to AI agents, continuously empowering the industry.