LinkX Capital Research
Overview
LinkX Capital (星连资本, also "Z Fund") is a Beijing-based early-stage venture firm focused on artificial intelligence. It was founded in 2021 by a Tsinghua-affiliated team and registered with AMAC in April 2022. The manager is Beijing Xinglian Zhaoji Private Equity Fund Management Co., Ltd. (北京星连肇基), headquartered at the Zhongguancun Science and Innovation Building. The firm calls itself a "researcher fund": it backs researcher-founders who turn original work into products. Its website could only be partly read directly; the portfolio, team and insights pages were read, and fund history comes from public reporting (Baidu Baike, 36Kr, 21 Jingji, Tmtpost), which should be treated as secondary.
Investment Thesis
The firm invests along the technology stack and application scenarios of the general-intelligence era. The portfolio page groups companies into six categories: foundation models and learning paradigms, chips, AI infrastructure, AI-native applications, embodied intelligence, and AI for science. Its team pages stress judgment about what is worth believing in before answers are obvious, and a research-led approach: an in-house research team tracks model capability, product behavior and real-world adoption, and publishes essays on its Insights page (for example "What Comes Next for AI?" from the Tsinghua AI Research Exchange, October 2026). Managing Partner Alex Zhang has described a pattern of cautious early entry and larger follow-on investment once academia has solved most of a problem's hard parts.
Stage Focus
The firm invests from pre-seed and seed through Series A and later rounds. Fund structure reflects this: an RMB Fund III focused on early stage had its first close in April 2026, an RMB Growth Fund I had its first close in August 2026, and USD Fund I had its first close in October 2026, giving a dual-currency structure. Recent deals include participation in a USD 105M seed round in Wuyuan Technology (November 2026), Huixi Intelligence's Series B (October 2026), MetaCircle's seed (October 2026) and a co-led Pre-A in Qujing Technology (May 2026).
Check Size
No check-size range is published. Assets under management across funds were reported as above RMB 3 billion, roughly USD 420M. Fund I put about 40% of its capital into Zhipu, which shows willingness to concentrate and to reinvest across rounds.
Lead Tendency
Mixed. It led Baseflow Technology's financing and co-led Qujing Technology's Pre-A, but also participates as a follow-on investor in rounds led by others, such as MetaCircle's seed led by Shunwei Capital.
Recent Activity
- March 2026: Established the RMB 652M Tianjin Haihe Venture Capital Fund, a Jing-Jin-Ji Fund sub-fund focused on AI.
- January 2026: Portfolio company Zhipu (Z.AI) listed on HKEX.
- April, August, October 2026: First closes of RMB Fund III, Growth Fund I and USD Fund I.
- August 2026: Hosted the Link-X Demo Day with the Huaqing Puzhi AI Incubator in Beijing.
Portfolio Highlights
The portfolio page lists 55 companies. Notable names are Zhipu AI (HKEX-listed), Shengshu Technology, ModelBest, SiliconFlow, Infinigence AI, Baseflow (Infrawaves), Huixi Intelligence, Polar Bear Tech, RealAI, AIPher and BioGeometry. Public reporting says the firm has invested in more than 30 companies from its first fund, with about one third of Fund I's projects in the IPO process, and more than 100 cumulatively across vehicles. Zhipu AI is also a limited partner in the firm and its founding partner Wenjue Li serves as a vice president at Zhipu.
Team
- Alex Zhang, Managing Partner: Tsinghua automation degrees; Google, Product Director at Tencent, Ceyuan Ventures, Partner at Redpoint Ventures.
- Elliott Wang, Partner: Investment Director at Ceyuan Ventures, Managing Director at Hanfor Capital, Director at Tencent.
- Wenjue Li, Partner: Investment Director at Casstar and the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence; early investor in Zhipu.
- Leo Wang, Partner: Meituan strategy and investment, Kuaishou investment development, CSO of SHAREit Group.
- Chris Lu, Managing Director: early-stage investing at Redpoint China and Sequoia China.
- Emily Guan, Managing Director: engineering and product roles at Huarui Wind Power and ABB, then Redpoint Ventures China.
Decision Process
A partnership of six investors; no formal committee process is published. Warm introductions through the Tsinghua and research community appear to matter, but this is not stated by the firm.
Founder Preferences
Researcher-founders and technical founders converting original research into products, often from the Tsinghua alumni and academic network. The firm co-runs the Huaqing Puzhi AI Incubator (T-ONE Innovation Lab) with Tsinghua University and a Fellowship program for young scientists and entrepreneurs.
Geographic Focus
China, with Beijing as the hub and a Tianjin fund extending into the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. The new USD fund suggests growing interest from international capital.
Gaps
Check size, ownership targets, decision timeline and warm-intro requirements are not published. The site root did not load through the reading tools, so the About page was not read directly.