Focusing on national strategic emerging industries and future industries, and serving global early-stage technology enterprises, the finals of the 2025 Jinji Lake Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition concluded successfully in Suzhou Industrial Park on November 13. After rigorous selection, 20 hard-tech projects competed fiercely, ultimately giving rise to the new first, second, and third prize winners. The launch ceremony of the 15th edition of the competition was also held during the event, continuing to gather global innovation and entrepreneurship talents and persistently boosting the growth of early-stage technology enterprises.

Shen Mi, Member of the Standing Committee of the Suzhou Municipal Party Committee and Secretary of the Party Working Committee of the Industrial Park, attended the event.

Recently, the 2025 Jiangsu Province Artificial Intelligence Innovation Development Conference and the First Artificial Intelligence OPC Conference were held in the Industrial Park, formally introducing the "OPC" (ONE PERSON COMPANY) concept. This competition is an important initiative by the Industrial Park to thoroughly implement the spirit of the OPC Conference and continuously deepen the innovation-driven strategy.

Yang Dajun, Chief Judge of the competition and Chairman and CEO of Ascentage Pharma, shared the growth story of Ascentage Pharma in Suzhou. He noted that Suzhou has become a hub for innovation and a favorable destination for entrepreneurship in China's biopharmaceutical industry. Reflecting on his entrepreneurial journey, he summarized his experience with three key words: first, "vision"—the courage to pioneer in original, unexplored fields; second, "execution"—maintaining intense focus during the entrepreneurial process, especially avoiding reckless expansion in the early stages; and third, "perseverance"—the biopharmaceutical industry requires long-term commitment, demanding at least two decades of patience and resilience to overcome challenges. He also emphasized the importance of finding partners and investors who truly "understand, support, and help" entrepreneurs.

Zhu Xiaohu, Chief Judge of the competition and Managing Partner of GSR Ventures, delivered a keynote speech titled "Seize Opportunities and Charge Ahead at Full Speed." He systematically elaborated on the multiple favorable conditions and strategic opportunities in the current environment, encouraging entrepreneurs to seize the opportunities before them and race toward success at full speed. He emphasized that with rapid iterations in various sectors, the maturing of AI technologies, and the acceleration of commercialization, entrepreneurs must focus on whether their products can gain traction, whether their execution can outpace competitors, and how to build their own barriers. Although consumer AI applications are still in the early stages of explosive growth, they demonstrate disruptive potential in fields such as education, healthcare, finance, and entertainment, offering Chinese entrepreneurs a historic opportunity to leverage supply chain and ecosystem advantages for global market products.

The Jinji Lake Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition is organized by the China Entrepreneurship Talent Investment Center and the Overseas High-level Talent Association. Since its inception in 2012, the competition has been based in Suzhou, serving the nation and reaching out globally. It has expanded its footprint to 31 cities worldwide, attracting over 15,000 technology enterprises to participate. As a benchmark entrepreneurial event in China, known for its early establishment, practical implementation, and broad talent recruitment, it has evolved into an industrial technology innovation platform connecting high-level talents both domestically and internationally.

This year’s competition achieved a new breakthrough in internationalization, with overseas projects accounting for over 55% of the total. For the first time, a special session for overseas young entrepreneurial talents was established, attracting outstanding projects from the United States, the United Kingdom, Belgium, and other regions, igniting the innovative vitality of emerging industrial stars. Additionally, in collaboration with the China Energy Research Society, the competition introduced a Future Energy Artificial Intelligence Special Session to explore innovative applications of large AI models in the energy sector and promote the deep integration of industry, academia, and capital. Furthermore, the competition focused on enhancing innovation sourcing by organizing a series of industry-specific sessions to drive breakthroughs in key technologies across segmented industrial chains.

All projects in this year’s finals were distributed across cutting-edge fields such as artificial intelligence, integrated circuits, photonics, healthcare, new materials, new energy, and high-end equipment, highlighting the competition’s characteristics of "hard tech" and "cutting-edge sophistication." Among the participating projects were the world's first machine language large model and a non-invasive saliva glucose monitoring system, as well as initiatives aimed at solving "bottleneck" challenges, such as high-end electronic paste and next-generation NOR flash memory technology. Industrial projects like quantum dot display materials and special magnesium alloys, which have successfully entered the supply chains of industry giants and achieved mass production, fully demonstrated the competition's strong appeal in gathering hard-core technological prowess.

The finals invited Zhu Xiaohu, Managing Partner of GSR Ventures, and Yang Dajun, Chairman and CEO of Ascentage Pharma, to serve as chief judges, leading a panel of judges and mentors combining "capital + industry." In addition to investors from venture capital institutions such as Lilly Asia Ventures and Green Pine Capital Partners, the panel also included representatives from industry players like InnoLight Technology, Hengtong Group, Ecovacs Robotics, and Triductor Technology. This provided entrepreneurs with market-oriented guidance, helping them clarify strategic directions, solve financing challenges, and connect with upstream and downstream resources.

Leveraging the platform resources of the China Entrepreneurship Talent Investment Center and Sandlake Fund Town, operated and managed by Oriza Holdings, the competition offers post-competition support covering the entire lifecycle of projects through industrial connections, capital linkages, and organizational empowerment systems. This has formed a virtuous cycle mechanism supporting technological innovation.

On one hand, the competition effectively guides capital toward early-stage enterprises. To date, 172 companies from past finals have collectively raised over CNY 20 billion in financing.

On the other hand, the competition focuses on driving enterprises from technological innovation to industrial advancement. It has nurtured listed companies such as Hillstone Networks and Jingtai Technology, as well as industry leaders like Nuofei Nanotechnology, YouiBot, and Cheng Yi Biological.

Seizing the historic opportunities of the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, and continuing to focus on cultivating new quality productive forces, the launch ceremony of the 2026 15th Jinji Lake Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition was held concurrently. With a commitment to "understanding, supporting, and helping" entrepreneurs, the competition will continue to build a more open innovation ecosystem, facilitate the commercialization of scientific and technological achievements, support technology enterprises in overcoming challenges, and contribute even more to accelerating the achievement of high-level technological self-reliance and strength.

Back