CAS Star () is a Chinese

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

firm that focuses on investments in hard tech

startups A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an Entrepreneurship, entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship includes all new businesses including self-employment and businesses tha ...

. It is backed by the

Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS; ) is the national academy for natural sciences and the highest consultancy for science and technology of the People's Republic of China. It is the world's largest research organization, with 106 research i ...

Background

CAS Star was founded in 2013 by Mi Lei, Cao Huitao and Li Hao. Mi and Cao were researchers at the Xi’an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Science while Li was a veteran investor. Initially the firm had difficulties raising capital. Every industry the firm invested in was when it was in its decline and therefore was not popular. Investments were expected to take a long time before there were payoffs. As a result, many investors at the time did not believe in investing in hard tech that could not generate quick returns. In addition it was difficult to know which projects were good as there were many unreliable ones and due to the long investment cycle, it was difficult to determine their value until many years later. CAS Star started out investing in the

photonics Photonics is a branch of optics that involves the application of generation, detection, and manipulation of light in the form of photons through emission, transmission, modulation, signal processing, switching, amplification, and sensing. E ...

sector and gradually expanded its investment scope to include other sectors such as

semiconductor A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator. Its conductivity can be modified by adding impurities (" doping") to its crystal structure. When two regions with different doping level ...

aerospace Aerospace is a term used to collectively refer to the atmosphere and outer space. Aerospace activity is very diverse, with a multitude of commercial, industrial, and military applications. Aerospace engineering consists of aeronautics and astron ...

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

quantum computing A quantum computer is a computer that exploits quantum mechanical phenomena. On small scales, physical matter exhibits properties of wave-particle duality, both particles and waves, and quantum computing takes advantage of this behavior using s ...

and alternative energy. When the

Shanghai Stock Exchange STAR Market The Shanghai Stock Exchange STAR Market, officially known as the Shanghai Stock Exchange Science and Technology Innovation Board, is a Chinese science and technology focused equities market established on July 22, 2019. STAR has been touted as ...

was established, hard tech investments attracted more attention and became more popular. Apart from investing in companies themselves, CAS Star also invested in providing equipment, manpower and guidance to startups. Many startups came from scientists who were involved in

research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in some countries as OKB, experiment and design, is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products. R&D constitutes the first stage ...

with little experience in managing a business or sufficient capital to acquire advance hardware. CAS Star noticed that without proper guidance, many startups would fail in the early stages. CAS Star receives funding from both private and public entities which include China Government Guidance Funds.

References

External links

* {{authority control Chinese companies established in 2013 Companies based in Xi'an Financial services companies established in 2013 Government-owned companies of China Investment management companies of China Venture capital firms of China