Written by | Han Shuangyu
Edit | Jane
Shenzhen-listed Mingyang Circuit (300739) recently announced that it intends to invest 3.6 million yuan to subscribe for the partnership share of Xi'an "Xi'an Jiaotong 1896" Science and Technology Innovation Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership).
It's a small number, but it's full of novelty.
Because Zhang Peike, chairman of Mingyang Circuit, has been studying and working at Xi'an Jiaotong University for 12 years, it can be classified as "alumni economy". But the bigger change is that the way that "alumni returning to Shaanxi" was over-manifested as "donating money and materials and investing in building factories", but today it is enriched by "joining hands with venture capital".
01
Zhang Peike: 12 years of Jiaotong University career
Zhang Peike, a native of Chengdu, Sichuan Province, completed his undergraduate studies in the Mechanical Department of Xi'an Jiaotong University from 1981 to 1985, stayed in the department from 1985 to 1987, obtained a master's degree from 1987 to 1990, and taught in the Micro Technology Teaching and Research Department of Xi'an Jiaotong University from 1990 to 1992.
This shows that Zhang Peike, who was born in 1963, spent his youth from the age of 18 to 29 at Xi'an Jiaotong University.
After 1992, Zhang Peike went to Shenzhen, and in 2018, he pushed Mingyang Technology to the ChiNext Board, raising 687 million yuan at the time of the IPO. And today's Mingyang Circuit, thanks to Zhang Peike's three transformations of "jumping out of the comfort zone".
(Photo: Zhang Peike)
The first time: Zhang Peike gave up the "golden rice bowl" of teaching university teachers, chose to go south, and began to enter a new stage of life as a "PCB quality engineer". Please note that this is the 1992 year of the "Southern Tour Speech".
The second time: After following the American boss to "go it alone", because the boss returned to China, Zhang Peike was forced to take over the management affairs and contract the factory, realizing the transformation from an engineer to a manager, and worked for 7 years.
The third time: In 2001, Zhang Peike founded his own company, mainly engaged in high-volume business in the low-end market, and then found that the high-end customization of overseas customers was the direction, and then decisively transformed into small batches at the expense of loss.
This "small batch" may be the secret of their success, because printed circuit boards (PCBs) are a competitive industry, and the difference play of "customization and high-grade" can obtain higher profit margins.
Let's look at the details:
1: Product positioning: mainly used in communication equipment, industrial control medical, aerospace, national defense and other emerging high-end fields, the degree of customization is higher.
2: Sales model: overseas market accounted for a very high proportion, in 2020 the proportion of main business income exports reached 88.08%, thanks to the establishment of sales centers in Hong Kong, the United States and Germany.
3: The pursuit of environmental protection: printed circuit board production is a water pollution industry, they plan to optimize through 3D printing and additive manufacturing technology, globally there are the United States and Israel has carried out research.
In this fierce industry, Mingyang Circuit has also done a relatively stable job, maintaining a net profit of more than 100 million yuan every year, and the current market value of the company is close to 5 billion yuan, while Zhang Peike holds nearly 60% of the shares and is worth about 3 billion yuan.
After the success of the business, Zhang Peike also actively gave back to Xi'an Jiaotong University. For example, in 2016, he donated 200,000 yuan to set up a talent training fund for the School of Mechanical Engineering to reward teachers with excellent performance in teaching and scientific research in the School of Mechanical Engineering; in 2021, he was elected as the president of the Alumni Association of Shenzhen Xi'an Jiaotong University, and donated 300,000 yuan to the School of Mechanical Engineering at the 125th anniversary.
02
1896: The characteristics of the University of Dedication are obvious
Let's take a look at the subscription fund, which was just established in July this year, and the information available is not much for the time being, and it will mainly invest in a new generation of information technology, high-end equipment manufacturing, new materials, new energy vehicles, biomedicine, energy conservation and environmental protection. The two GPs are Xi'an XJCC 1896 Capital Management Co., Ltd. and XI'an XJCC 1896 (Xi'an) Innovation Service Co., Ltd., which can be seen from the equity penetration chart and both are invested by Xi'an XJCC 1896 Incubator Co., Ltd.
(Figure: GP equity penetration chart)
The reason why the GP was named "1896" is because in 1896, nanyang public school, the predecessor of Jiaotong University, was established. Since its inception, the 1896 Incubator has taken "universities + alumni" and "professors + entrepreneurs" as the core model, and currently operates three innovative service carriers in Xi'an, namely "Xi'an Jiaotong University 1896 Science and Technology Double Innovation Base", "1896 Maker Space" and "Global Alumni Collaborative Innovation Center of Jiaotong University".
The focus here is on the double innovation base, which was jointly initiated by the outstanding alumni group of Jiaotong University, and the Xi'an Jiaotong University 1896 Science and Technology Double Innovation Base was launched in April 2017, setting up the Xi'an Jiaotong Science and Technology Innovation Fund and the Xi'an Jiaotong 1896 Seed Fund.
1: Xi'an Jiaotong Science and Technology Innovation Fund: jointly initiated by Xi'an Jiaotong University, Western Securities, Shaanxi Science and Technology Holding Group, Concord Assets, Dongling Group, Shaanxi Mindong and other units.
2: XJTLU 1896 Seed Fund: With the investment of Jiaotong University alumni as the cornerstone, it will be jointly funded by Xitou Holdings, Xigao Investment and social capital, and 10% of the proceeds will be donated to Xi'an Jiaotong University to support the transfer and transformation of scientific and technological achievements of the alma mater.
(Photo: Historical Investment in 1896)
Based on public information, we sorted out the historical investment projects of the venture capital sector of the 1896 incubator and found that its investment has the following characteristics.
1: Pay attention to XJTLU related enterprises: successively invested in the founders from XJTLU Shuize Power, Zhongyue Technology, Paper Gui Technology, Youai Zhihe and so on.
2: Investment in hard technology industry: concentrated in intelligent manufacturing, artificial intelligence, new materials, new energy, information technology, biomedicine and other fields, once awarded the "Xi'an High-tech Zone 2020 hard science and technology innovation demonstration unit".
3: Insist on early investment and small investment: From the establishment date and financing date of the invested enterprises in the above table, it can be seen that many of them are seed rounds, angel rounds, and A round investments.
In terms of investment performance, the invested companies Youai Zhihe, Lingxi Micro light, Mizusawa Power, Leishen Intelligent Equipment, etc. appeared in the follow-up or follow-up financing list of SoftBank Asia, Sequoia Capital, Haina Asia, Zhongke Innovation, Tuspark Star and other well-known investment institutions, in 2017, the Science and Technology Innovation Fund passed the Shaanxi Gold Material Fund, and also invested in the 2020 Science and Technology Innovation Board listed company Meichang Shares (300861).
03
Why do the two sides work together in this way?
Mingyang Circuit announced: It aims to strengthen the forward-looking layout through project investment, promote the transformation of industry-university-research technology achievements, extend the industrial chain, promote the company's expansion of investment areas, serve the company's long-term strategic development goals, and further enhance the company's core competitiveness.
From this point of view, in the fierce competition, Mingyang Circuit realized that technology is the place of decisive battle. Through the cooperation with 1896, in addition to better tapping the research and development resources of the "Jiaotong University" system, we speculate that the listed companies are more interested in the possibility of "mergers and acquisitions and cooperation", that is, the GP will find a good "technology-based target" to empower the listed company.
We believe that this is a new label for "alumni economic transformation" to bid farewell to donations and donations and invest in factories. In fact, the "alumni department" GP has gradually emerged in the country and Xi'an.
(Photo: Tsinghua Department GP)
From a national perspective:
1: Tsinghua University: There are 9 investment institutions in the "Alumni Department", of which the Mizuki Tsinghua Alumni Fund is the first entrepreneurial fund fund funded by alumni and all used for current students and young alumni. Among the LPs, there are Chinese Online Tong Zhilei, NetEase Youdao Zhou Feng, Sogou Wang Xiaochuan, Xianghe Capital Tang and Song and other Tsinghua alumni.
2: Peking University: For example, "1898 Venture Capital" focuses on health care, TMT and consumption upgrading, and the first batch of initiators include Sun Taoran, Lacala Venture Capital, Chen Pei, Songhe Capital Li Wei, Hongtai Fund Yu Minhong, Sharing Investment Bai Wentao and other Peking University alumni.
From Xi'an:
1: Northwestern Polytechnical University: "Shaanxi Xigong University Science and Technology Seed Fund" was jointly initiated by the Alumni Foundation of Xigong University and the Institute of Aerospace Science and Space, with 40% of the provincial government guidance fund, 30% of the management committee of the high-tech zone, and 30% of the alumni foundation. Focus on supporting the development of seed stage and angel stage projects in the field of aerospace engines, and promote the rapid development of high-quality projects.
2: Xidian University: "Xidian Tianlang Venture Capital" is the first venture capital fund formed by Xidian alumni, investors gathered a group of well-known alumni enterprises of Xidian, including Xidian Tianlang Holdings, Gaoxin, Yuanwanggu, Tolls, Tongyu Communications, Tianrui Instrument, Cybernaut Investment and Juzhuo Capital.
We have always believed that Xi'an's biggest resource is "people", especially "science and engineering men", in the context of innovation-driven, especially "Qin Chuangyuan" to solve the first kilometer of foreshadowing, Xi'an is expected to explosively activate a large number of research and development advantages that were once "buried", so that the city's endogenous development can get a real outlet.
Returning to today's main perspective, "economic appeal" occupies "emotional appeal" is the real "deepening version" of the alumni economy, the alumni economy will definitely bid farewell to the donations and donations of "old classmates", and the "development concept" built on the feelings of everyone will definitely occupy the mainstream. We look forward to more new signals "based on market-oriented demand" flashing in the future, and look forward to more Zhang Peike joining the "Shaanxi Alumni Department GP" funder camp.