Pudong Venture Capital moves AI seed fund upstream: investment on entry, top-ups to 1.5 million yuan

On Sept 22, more than 20 very early-stage startup teams took the stage one after another in a roadshow hall at the Zhangjiang AI Innovation Town. At the closing ceremony, all of them signed with Pudong Venture Capital, confirming the seed support they received during the camp. More than half won follow-on investment of up to 1.5 million yuan. The same day, the third AI training camp opened recruitment worldwide.

Backed by a 2 billion yuan AI seed fund, Pudong Venture Capital has moved its investment entry point upstream to the camp: teams sign on entry and receive a guaranteed 300,000 yuan. After observation during the camp and evaluation at its close, top projects can receive top-ups of up to 1.5 million yuan. The mechanism explicitly carries no valuation-adjustment or buyback clauses. The first two camps drew more than 350 applications; about 40 teams were admitted, and investment intentions cover every admitted team. More than one-third are very early-stage projects that have not raised funding and have no product.

Data facts: camp mechanism and investment coverage

Analysis: moving the investment entry point to the "first mile"

AI startups face a real hurdle: the moment they need money most is often the moment they are least able to prove themselves. The product is still in development, customers have yet to form, and there is no revenue curve to speak of. Traditional investors find it hard to judge the future from a technical concept alone. Pudong Venture Capital's choice is to put investment opportunities in the hands of teams at an earlier stage.

The first camp opened on March 17 this year, when 24 founders entered Zhangjiang AI Innovation Town, and closed in May. The second ran from July and closed in September. Around the 2 billion yuan AI seed fund, Pudong Venture Capital has woven "selecting people, identifying people and investing in people" into the entire camp process. The camp starts with 300,000 yuan in support; after observation and evaluation, top projects can receive up to 1.5 million yuan, and the mechanism explicitly carries no valuation-adjustment or buyback clauses. For teams still refining products and seeking their first customers, the arrangement helps ease early-stage financing pressure.

The arrangement is not an isolated fund. In recent years, Pudong Venture Capital has kept expanding its angel fund of funds, set up a market-oriented angel company, and pushed the seed fund, linked funds and higher-tier Leading Zone industrial funds to form a relay. The goal is to ensure that scientists and young entrepreneurs can find the next leg of support at key stages of commercialization, product validation and market expansion.

Ecosystem support: from "getting the money" to "getting things done"

If startup support were only a check, teams would still have to find customers, partners and industry entry points on their own after receiving the money. That is the gap the Pudong Venture Capital AI training camp aims to close. Positioned around "investment + services + ecosystem," the camp runs across four dimensions: hands-on teaching, in-depth discussion, resource matching and ecosystem support. It offers modules on direction-setting, capital literacy, internal-strength training and practical drills, and invites frontline industry mentors to teach.

Outside the classroom, the camp takes participants into local chain-leader companies and infrastructure partners to look for connections to computing power, customers and application scenarios. Public reports say the visits included companies such as MetaX, Huayuan Computing, Qiniu Cloud and SiliconFlow. Zhangjiang AI Innovation Town offers lower-rent space closer to day-to-day startup life, plus combined support such as computing vouchers, model vouchers and corpus vouchers, helping teams cut startup costs and improve access to key inputs.

At the public closing day, more than 100 representatives of investment institutions and leading companies attended. Projects met capital face to face, and follow-on investment intentions were registered on the spot. A team can meet investors there, and may also find potential customers, technology partners and the starting point for its next collaboration. The camp also links with competitions and incubators to build a training loop in which "competition, camp, investment and incubation" reinforce one another. Public reports say that through all-factor incubation and linkage with Zhangjiang AI Innovation Town, more than 10 quality projects have landed in Pudong, most of them new arrivals.

What to watch: policy relay and replicating the mechanism

During the 2025 World AI Conference, Pudong New Area launched its AI seed fund with an initial 500 million yuan, focused on areas such as vertical models and embodied intelligence. Around the same time, Pudong Angel Venture Capital Management was set up to link the angel fund of funds with the seed fund and support scientists and young teams crossing the "valley of death" in commercialization. In 2026, the district government office issued the Work Plan for Advancing the Construction of Zhangjiang AI Innovation Town in Pudong New Area, which further calls for strengthening the seed fund's "early-stage, small-ticket" investment, giving play to the Leading Zone industrial fund, and improving support for inputs such as computing power, models and corpora.

The third camp's global recruitment means Pudong is not waiting for projects to mature before they settle there, but actively extending its reach upstream. For entrepreneurs, that means a chance to get first support before technology and products are fully formed. For investors, the camp offers a way to keep observing teams and understanding technology roadmaps, and to find projects worth long-term company on a fuller information base. Whether the mechanism can be replicated more widely, and how admitted projects grow and follow-on investment lands, are worth watching.

Pudong Venture Capital said the camp mechanism explicitly carries no valuation-adjustment or buyback clauses, aiming to ease financing pressure on very early-stage teams. (Source: Pudong Venture Capital)