EqualOcean Series: China VC Investment List Q1 2022

In the first quarter of 2022, China's startups continue to attract enormous venture funds despite multiple challenges: Uncertainty clouding the macroeconomic outlook, US threat to delist certain Chinese Concept Stocks from its exchanges amid rising bilateral tensions, sporadic Covid-19 outbreaks that disrupt the recovery and plunge many businesses into financial distress, and most importantly, regulatory headwinds that bear down on sectors ranging from e-commerce and online payment to data mining and entertainment. The massive capital flows into China's startup ecosystem attest to the consistent vibrancy of players and their huge potential.

Amid fast-paced changes that fill the business community with excitement, angst and trepidation, EqualOcean will publish a series of roundup articles to document the major fundraising events that took place in Q1 2022 across a spectrum of industries, from automaking and healthcare to intelligent hardware and New Retail, from enterprise services (SaaS) and smart high-end manufacturing to emerging segments such as VR/AR, Metaverse and carbon neutrality-related technologies.

The seven-episode series, dubbed "China VC Investment List Q1 2022," will look at companies from each of the seven aforementioned categories and select the top 20 firms that raised money during this period. The amount raised varies from over USD 100 million to tens of millions of CNY, and the companies spotlighted are of all sizes and at different levels of maturity, consisting of Series D firms to growth-stage startups whose innovations are currently nothing more than a much-hyped concept. We believe that this mix of players, large and small, well-known and obscure, established and incipient, and the investors that throw their weight behind them, presents our readers with a Who's who: It shines a light on the future directions of China's industry and tech evolution. What's more, we hope the EqualOcean series will offer insights for interested investors, entrepreneurs and China-focused observers.