Since its establishment, Mobvoi has received investments from multiple VCs/PEs and industry players, including ZhenFund, Sequoia China, SIG Asia, Google, Goertek, and YM Optoelectronic.

ZhenFund has been accompanying Mobvoi for 12 years since participating in its angel round of funding in 2012.

Anna Fang, Founding Partner and CEO of ZhenFund, recalled that she first met Zhifei Li (founder and chairman of Mobvoi) in Silicon Valley when Li was still working at Google. "Zhifei Li proactively participated in ZhenFund's pitch day in the Bay Area, and during subsequent interactions, we discovered that he was one of the first entrepreneurs to focus on and introduce NLP," Anna said.

Anna further pointed out that upon meeting Zhifei Li, she immediately labeled him with three attributes: a scientist's temperament, deep industry expertise, and strong personal charm, which perfectly aligned with her "three principles for evaluating people". Therefore, even though Mobvoi was just a demo app at that time, Anna decided to invest. Zhifei Li also became the first Google entrepreneur invested by ZhenFund.

"An interesting anecdote: Zhifei Li recruited many of our ZhenResidence overseas student trainees and interns to join Mobvoi, so you could say Mobvoi was a gathering place for overseas students back then. Zhifei Li is also a senior industry figure that many Google and Bay Area returnee entrepreneurs must visit," Anna added. "It was also Zhifei Li who introduced many people to NLP—my first awareness of NLP was during that pitch day when I heard Zhifei Li's sharing. Later on, ZhenFund's Managing Partner Yusen Dai and Partner Yuan Liu also met closely with Zhifei Li several times over a few weeks, learning from each other and gaining much inspiration."

Regarding Mobvoi's successful listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange today, Anna Fang said, "Congratulations to Mobvoi on its successful listing! Along the way, ZhenFund has witnessed Zhifei Li's journey from returning to China to start a business, moving from Silicon Valley to Shanghai, then to Beijing, and finally going global. We have also witnessed Mobvoi's achievements from a voice assistant to smart hardware, and now to generative AI and large models, culminating in today's successful listing. The era of AIGC has arrived, and we are excited that Mobvoi has successfully navigated the AI cycle!"

In fact, ZhenFund has been layouting the AI sector since 2012, covering AI large models, AIGC, GPU/AI chip industry, AI pharmaceuticals, autonomous driving, and AI vertical applications, successively angel investing in numerous star projects.

In the autonomous driving sector, ZhenFund has angel invested in Momenta, Nuro, AutoX, UISEE, and Hesai Tech, among others.

In AI large model-related frameworks and applications, ZhenFund has angel invested in Intellifusion and Luchen Technology, among others.

In the domestic GPU/AI chip industry, ZhenFund has angel invested in MetaX, Enflame, Vastai Technologies, and Horizon Robotics, among others.

In the AI pharmaceutical sector, ZhenFund has angel invested in XtalPi, Accutar Biotech, and neoX Biotech, among others.

In AI vertical industry applications, ZhenFund has angel invested in Aibee, Synyi AI, SmartMore, Data Grand, Recurrent AI, CreditX, Laiye Technology, and AI Rudder, among others.

Especially when the new round of AI technological revolution arrived, ZhenFund was the first to release an AI hero call and joined forces with multiple platforms and developer communities to launch hackathon competitions, committed to discovering a new generation of entrepreneurs with passion and technological ideas at the earliest stage.

Furthermore, ZhenFund continuously conducts and organizes a series of activities specifically designed for young entrepreneurs to continuously uncover early-stage entrepreneurs from excellent universities and research institutions. This includes, but is not limited to, the campus series "ZhenCampus" held at various universities, the cutting-edge tech startup camp "Zhen Planet" for tech enthusiasts, the startup preparation camp "ZhenResidence" for young people at home and abroad, and the "Zhen Summer Grant" for young people with innovative ideas.

Anna Fang emphasized that ZhenFund always adheres to the investment philosophy of "investing in people" and the investment strategy of "tech angels", deeply layouting technological innovation, high-end manufacturing, biopharmaceuticals, new consumption, and carbon neutrality at the earliest stages. "We believe that more 'imaginative' entrepreneurs will resonate with ZhenFund in the future, and more warm-hearted technological innovation companies will accompany ZhenFund along the way."