Still Water Lake Venture Partners Research
Overview
Still Water Lake Venture Partners (静水湖创投) is a China-based venture and private equity firm headquartered in Shanghai, with a second office in Wuxi (Jiangsu). Its public site is in Chinese with an English toggle. The firm describes its mission as serving like-minded investors and entrepreneurs, jointly exploring best business practice across science and technology, entrepreneurship, operations management and market integration, and creating long-term value from technology innovation that helps drive technological and industrial change. Contact: [email protected].
Investment Thesis
The firm's stated thesis is long-term value from technology innovation and industrial transformation. Its monthly letters (2026) point to themes such as the AI supercycle, self-controllable domestic AI supply chains, and backing certain, incremental growth tracks. The portfolio is concentrated in hard-tech and industrial technology: embodied intelligence and robotics, energy storage and smart energy, optical components, computer vision, semiconductors and industrial automation, plus some medical devices and consumer hardware.
Stage Focus
The site does not publish a stage mandate. Evidence from news items shows two activities: early-stage lead investing (it describes Reconova as an early lead investment, which went public on the HKEX main board in July 2026, ticker 07656.HK) and a secondary (S) fund strategy. In February 2026 it announced that a new S fund, oversubscribed, completed full paid-in capital and investment closing, and it was named among the most watched S funds in China by 36Kr (Nov 2025). A partner interview in Shanghai Securities News discussed using capital-market tools and institutions to revive stock assets and ease buyback pressure on tech start-ups. Later-stage activity is also visible, for example Tianchuang Robot's over RMB 100M Series D in March 2026 with strategic investment from two listed industrial groups.
Check Size
Not disclosed. No check size is stated on the site, so none is recorded.
Lead Tendency
The firm calls Reconova an early lead investment, but evidence is too thin to classify the firm overall, so lead tendency is left as unknown.
Recent Activity
- Sep 2026: portfolio feature on DAS (industrial automation control, optical communication needles).
- Sep 2026: founding managing partner Zhang Yi named to 36Kr's 2026 industrial investment roster, top 20 new materials and new energy investor.
- Jul 2026: firm named in Zhongzhong China PE excellent returns list and LP CLUB excellent GP list.
- Jul 2026: Reconova listed on HKEX (07656.HK).
- Mar 2026: Tianchuang Robot closed an over RMB 100M Series D.
- Feb 2026: new S fund fully paid in and invested.
- Jun 2026: Zhang Yi spoke at 36Kr WAVES conference on constants and changes in the AI wave.
Portfolio Highlights
The site lists 19 portfolio companies: Alpha ESS (沃太能源, energy storage), Polymaker (3D printing materials), Reconova (visual embodied intelligence, HK-listed), Atom Robot (industrial embodied intelligence), Tianchuang Robot (inspection robots), Sanshiyuan Tech (passive optical components), Daos Energy (原力能源), Tuoshen Tech (current-fingerprint AI for power digitization), Ancsonic (AI plus acoustics), Mushiny (warehouse logistics systems), Nanochap (brain-computer interface and bio-chips), Labpano (panoramic imaging and digital twins), Xlink (enterprise IoT), DAS, Anktech (computer vision imaging), Denfac Medical (dental devices), FTS (civil aviation electronics), Hangtian Shengkai Technology, and NST-IC (钜芯集成). One exit-style milestone is Reconova's IPO.
Team
- 张毅 (Zhang Yi): Founding Managing Partner.
- 李洪明: Partner.
- 罗成文: Partner.
- 陈丽娜: Risk Control Director.
The site gives no backgrounds or LinkedIn links.
Decision Process
Not disclosed; a partnership structure with a dedicated risk control function is implied but not stated.
Founder Preferences
Not stated. The portfolio suggests technical founders in hard-tech, industrial and embodied-AI categories with domestic supply-chain relevance.
Geographic Focus
China, with offices in Shanghai and Wuxi. Several portfolio companies sell internationally (Alpha ESS, Polymaker, Mushiny), but the firm states no geographic mandate beyond this.
Gaps
No check size, AUM, fund size, stage mandate or partner bios are published. Two portfolio entries are marked as website to be added.