At present, commercial aerospace is no longer a simple “national mission”, but a “super gamble” composed of national strategic will, local industrial ambitions, the ecology of technology giants, and market-oriented capital. In this bet, although the “betters” have different betting logic, chips, and expected returns, they jointly support the investment ecology of my country’s commercial aerospace industry.
1. National funds
The main representatives of national funds are the National Manufacturing Transformation and Upgrading Fund and the National Military-Civil Integration Industrial Investment Fund. Among them, the National Manufacturing Transformation and Upgrading Fund directly invested in Blue Arrow Aerospace, and the sub-fund (CDB Manufacturing Transformation and Upgrading Fund) led the investment in Shanghai Yuanxin and Yixin Aerospace, and invested in Lingkong Tianxing, Shanghai Gesi, etc. The National Military-Civil Integration Industry Investment Fund has invested in China Science and Technology Aerospace, China Science and Technology Satellite, Aerospace Yuxing, Science and Technology Rockets, etc. The style of this type of funding has very distinct “national team” characteristics. It does not cast a net on early-stage projects, but exclusively bets on those industry leaders with proven technical routes and large-scale manufacturing capabilities. Moreover, most of the invested companies have clear plans to go public (such as Blue Arrow Aerospace and Yixin Aerospace). This type of funds enter the market. After entering, it can not only provide financial support to the invested enterprises, but more importantly, it provides the enterprises with national-level “strategic endorsement”, which is crucial for the IPO of the invested enterprises, and it also facilitates this type of funds to achieve the dual goals of maintaining and increasing the value of state-owned capital and industrial guidance. From the investment field, taking the National Manufacturing Transformation and Upgrading Fund as an example, several of its invested companies have formed a complete closed business loop from satellite manufacturing to constellation operation: Shanghai Yuanxin (Qianfan Constellation) → Shanghai Gesi (star making) → Blue Arrow Aerospace (launch) → Yixin Aerospace (measurement and control) → Shanghai Yuanxin (operation). Within these companies, Shanghai Gesi has already won satellite orders from Shanghai Yuanxin, and Blue Arrow Aerospace has also won the bid for Shanghai Yuanxin’s “18 satellites in one rocket” launch service order.
2. Local state-owned assets platform
Among local state-owned assets, Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Sichuan and other places are the most active. In addition, state-owned assets platforms in Guangdong, Hainan, Zhejiang, Shandong, Hubei, Shaanxi, Anhui and other places are also actively arranging commercial aerospace investment projects.
Capital in Beijing is mainly divided into two camps, the municipal level and the district level. The municipal platform is represented by Beijing State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission and its affiliated funds (Jingguorui, Shunxi Fund, Beijing Commercial Aerospace Fund, Beijing New Materials Industry Investment Fund, etc.), while the district-level platform is centered on Yizhuang Industrial Investment. Together, they build the state-owned investment ecology of Beijing’s commercial aerospace industry. Investment projects mainly include Blue Arrow. Aerospace (Yizhuang Industrial Investment), Galaxy Power (Yizhuang Industrial Investment led the D round of financing), Galaxy Aerospace (Jing Guorui, Shunxi Fund, Yizhuang Industrial Investment), Lingkong Tianxing (Beijing Commercial Aerospace Fund, Beijing New Materials Industry Investment Fund), Micro-Nano Starry Sky (Beijing Commercial Aerospace Fund led the D round of financing), China Science and Technology Deep Chain (Yizhuang Industrial Investment), Aurora Star Communication (Jing Guorui), etc.
The state-owned assets invested in commercial aerospace in Shanghai mainly focus on joint investment (investment in Shanghai Yuanxin + Shanghai Gesi), combined with Shanghai Xin Investment, Guosheng Capital, Lingang Group, Shanghai Aerospace Industry Fund, etc. for multi-platform collaboration to jointly promote the upstream and downstream linkage of the industrial chain. The main investment projects include Shanghai Yuanxin, Shanghai Gesi, Aerospace Science and Technology Group Shanghuo Company, Qingshen Technology, Zhongke Tiansuan, etc.
Jiangsu’s capital is centered on Jiangsu Hi-tech Investment, Wuxi State-owned Assets (Xi Venture Capital/Guolian/Huishan/Liangxi), Suzhou High-tech, Lianyungang State-owned Assets, etc., forming a three-level linkage pattern of “province + city + district”. When investing, it is often the existing provincial and municipal funds. Capital, as well as district-level territorial state-owned assets, show obvious characteristics of “leading through investment”. Through this “investment + industrial implementation” approach, Jiangsu not only provides financial empowerment for invested enterprises, but also introduces high-quality aerospace industry projects to the local area. The invested companies mainly include Tianji Yida, Yixin Aerospace, Fuchang Space, Micro-Nano Starry Sky, Tianbing Technology, National Star Aerospace, Blue Arrow Aerospace, Deep Blue Aerospace, Oriental Space, Galaxy Aerospace, etc. By continuously betting on commercial aerospace, Jiangsu has won a number of high-quality commercial aerospace industry projects. In 2020, Galaxy Aerospace will launch the satellite smart factory project in Nantong Development Zone; in September 2023, Blue Arrow Aerospace signed a contract with Huishan District, Wuxi, and plans to invest 3 billion yuan to build high-end intelligent manufacturing of rockets. Industrial base project; in December 2023, MicroStar signed a contract to invest 1 billion yuan in a commercial satellite manufacturing base project and landed in Wuxi Economic Development Zone; in January 2025, Juntian Aerospace signed a contract with Wuxi Huishan High-tech Zone, planning to invest 1 billion yuan to build a SAR satellite R&D and production base and data center. In addition, Oriental Space’s aerospace power headquarters (Wuxi) and Deep Blue Aerospace’s liquid rocket assembly base (Wuxi) have also landed in Jiangsu.
Sichuan’s state-owned assets are also very active in the commercial aerospace market. Like Jiangsu, Sichuan basically adopts the idea of ”combination of investment and introduction”, establishing an investment matrix through multi-level linkage at the provincial, municipal and district levels to lay out the commercial aerospace track. At the same time, Sichuan has a strong national defense and military industry foundation in Chengdu, Mianyang and other places, which also provides an industrial foundation for the development of the commercial aerospace industry in Sichuan. Another characteristic of Sichuan’s state-owned assets is that it mainly invests in “chain owner” companies, hoping that through investment in chain owner companies, it will gradually transform from traditional “supporting services” to “chain owner-led”. In 2023, Ziyang Heavy Industry Fund led the investment in Galaxy Power’s C and C+ rounds of financing. In the same year, Galaxy Power’s Ziyang base started construction. In December 2024, the first “Made in Sichuan” Ceres 1 solid rocket rolled off the production line in Ziyang. In addition, Sichuan Industrial Revitalization Fund (under its Manufacturing Collaboration Fund, Regional Collaboration Fund), Chengdu New Economy Industry Fund, Sichuan Business Fund and other provincial and municipal state-owned assets platforms have also invested in Galaxy Power. In 2025, Chengdu Major Industrialization Project Phase II Equity Investment Fund Co., Ltd., a fund under Chengdu Advanced Capital, led the D+ round of financing for Star Glory. Funds under Chengdu Airport Innovation and Venture Capital Co., Ltd. and funds under Chengdu Yingyuan Private Equity Management Co., Ltd. jointly followed the investment. In November of the same year, the construction of the Interstellar Glory reusable liquid launch vehicle production headquarters base started in Chengdu Shuangliu Economic Development Zone. In addition, Sichuan’s state-owned assets have also invested in Jiuzhou Yunjian, Guoxing Aerospace, Aotian Technology, Microna Starry Sky, Ziwei Technology, etc.
3. Industrial Capital
Industrial capital mainly includes industrial capital from central enterprises/military industry, CVC from industry leaders, industrial capital from securities companies, etc. Taking the industrial capital of the brokerage industry as an example, the two funds of which CICC Capital is an executive partner, CICC Zhanxin and CICC Chuanhe, directly hold about 0.42% and 0.25% of the shares of Blue Arrow Aerospace respectively. CICC also serves as the IPO guidance agency and underwriter of Blue Arrow Aerospace; Cathay Haitong Securities, Western Securities, CITIC Construction Investment, China Merchants Securities, Kaiyuan Securities, and SDIC Securities have all invested in China Science and Technology Aerospace directly or indirectly. Among them, China Tai Haitong Securities has the highest indirect shareholding ratio, about 0.14%. Cathay Haitong also serves as China Science and Technology Aerospace’s IPO guidance agency; CITIC Construction Investment led the C+ round of financing of Tianbing Technology and also served as the sponsor for Tianbing Technology’s listing. This type of funds embodies the distinctive characteristics of “investment + investment banking” and deeply binds capital with investment banking business. As for other industrial capitals, they are either buying future technology tickets, locking in supply chain security, or looking for a second growth curve for their core businesses.
4. VC/PE institutions
VC/PE institutions are the core financial investors in the early and growth stages of commercial aerospace, mainly including Yuanhang Capital, China Science and Technology Star, Sequoia China, Matrix Partners, IDG Capital, Legend Capital, UAV Capital, Binfu Capital, Cornerstone Capital, Lushi Investment, and Tongchuangwei Industry, Gaorong Capital, Source Code Capital, Qiming Venture Partners, Wuyuan Capital, CDH Investment, Yonghua Investment, Songhe Capital, Yida Capital, Oriental Fuhai, Zhen Fund, Legend Star, Inno Angel Fund, Mingshi Capital, Xianfeng Evergreen, etc. (in no particular order), these funds There are leading comprehensive institutions in the financial industry, which have large amounts of funds and cover a wide range of stages. They usually play leading or important follow-up roles in the company’s B-round and subsequent large-scale financing, aiming to bet on future industry unicorns; there are also early-stage “hunter” VCs who dare to Betting in the technology verification period (0-1 stage) is the “first money” for many commercial aerospace start-ups; there are also “professional” VCs in vertical fields. Their investment tracks are very focused, they have strong industry knowledge, and they can identify early-stage technologies with great potential. Some of this money is betting on technical routes, and some money is betting on mass production capabilities and order fulfillment, but they all jointly support the investment ecology of my country’s commercial aerospace industry.
