On-site survey

"With capital and equipment secured, vaccine R&D is underway." On January 9, within Tianfu Life Science Park in Chengdu Hi-tech Zone, Chen Dexiang, General Manager of Chengdu Maxhealth LLC, was directing his staff in commissioning newly arrived equipment, "I'm visiting the new site together with the team of Sichuan Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fund."

Settling down in Chengdu in last September, Maxhealth is expected to roll out the first batch of vaccine in the second half of this year. It took less than one year for the project to settle down and put into operation, thanks to the strong support of Sichuan Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fund. The provincial guidance fund is designed to serve Sichuan's key industries.

 A

Taking initiative to make investments and offer services

During the some 30 years of working in US' vaccine industry, Chen Deixiang had led and participated in the development of 20-plus kinds of infectious disease vaccine, entered cooperation with 40-odd global vaccine factories, and kept close contact with 100-plus biotechnology companies and institutions of higher learning. Though a native of Shandong Province, he chose to start a business in Chengdu for a simple reason, "Sichuan Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fund contacted me and made equity investment to become a shareholder, working to be part of the company's success story and offer all-round support and services."

The Fund has ejected two sums of capital totaling RMB 12 million to Maxhealth, enabling the company to take off quickly. While ejecting fund to incubate potential enterprises at their early stage and realize its guidance function, the Fund also offers other services to those being invested, such as corporate governance structure adjustment, recruitment, and subsequent financing, said the relevant responsible person of the investment team of Sichuan Innovation Development Investment Management Co., Ltd., the managing contractor of the Fund.

 B

Matchmaking. Guiding capital flow to support enterprises and drive industries


The investment team of Sichuan Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fund follows closely the development trend of emerging industries. At this point, it is engaging with an enterprise owning fintech platform and products.

"Industry guiding fund should bring in enterprises with fintech strength and rich industrial resources to drive the industrial development of Sichuan Province," said Liu Jia, Chairman of Sichuan Venture Capital.  

The two-year-old Sichuan Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fund has raised fund RMB 7.74 billion, magnifying provincial financial contribution by some 19 times. It has set up five regional sub-funds, 11 industrial sub-funds, and invested 45 projects, involving RMB 1.31 billion.

"Among our industrial sub-funds, most of them were established through cooperation with Kunwu JD Capital, Harvest Capital, and other domestic top investment agencies. Centering around Sichuan's industrial layout, they pay attention to enterprises pursuing independent innovation, and emerging fields like biomedicine, TMT and intelligent manufacturing." Sichuan Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fund seeks to drive the whole industrial development in Sichuan Province by supporting individual enterprises, said Liu Jia.

As a government guidance fund, on one hand, Sichuan Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fund has enhanced the credit of projects and enterprises, making projects more capable of attracting advantageous resources; on the other hand, "For some industries with growth potential, we can enter at their budding stage to empower them." By entering the "short links" of some markets, provincial guidance fund can complement the market, and serve as a bridge between the market and government by sending such a signal to market: the government is planning to do something in this field, said Liu Jia.