This article is reprinted from: Dongsi Shijiao Capital, Author: Lu Zhigao; Editor: Wang Qingwu. Lieyun Network has been authorized.
A Chengdu Star Company Rushes to the Hong Kong Stock Market.
Under the leadership of Chen Lijuan, a 61-year-old female entrepreneur, Zenitar, which has garnered attention from Qiming Venture Partners, Gaorong Capital, Wu Yuan Capital, Tencent, BlueRun Ventures, Chengdu Science and Technology Investment, Sichuan Investment Group, Ceyuan Capital, Guizhou Bailing Group Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Fund, and funds under the Danming Capital Group, has recently arrived at the doorstep of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Looking in the direction she's heading, more female entrepreneurs are lining up to rush towards IPOs.
Including Zenitar, within a short period of about a month, the star companies they have built, such as Qian大妈, ImmVira, 文石信息, 迦智科技, and 爱芯元智, have also embarked on the IPO journey, allowing people to deeply feel the "She Power."
She Leads the Team, a Star Company is Born in Chengdu
The birth of Zenitar stems from the transformation of scientific and technological achievements at West China Hospital of Sichuan University.
Back in 2018, at the request of the National Health Commission, Sichuan University’s West China Hospital, as a pilot unit, undertook the exploration task of establishing an "in-house policy system for incentivizing the transfer and transformation of scientific and technological achievements," and introduced a new series of incentive policies for the transformation of achievements, paving the way for the establishment of Zenitar.
At that time, in the view of Chen Lijuan, the then deputy director of the State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy at Sichuan University, this incentive policy addressed the long-standing vacuum in regulations regarding the ownership distribution between individuals and institutions in the transfer of achievements. It provided policy assurance for all parties when it came to external transformation of results, personal shareholding, and establishing companies.
In order to explore and develop an early-stage research project, Chen Lijuan chose to establish Zenitar in Chengdu in April 2019. At the time of the company's establishment, she and Huaxi Health, an affiliate of Sichuan University’s West China Hospital, contributed proprietary technology as capital, and brought in Guizhou Bailing Group Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. as a founding shareholder.
According to their statement, the main reason for establishing Zenitar is to promote the clinical transformation of innovative drugs at the laboratory stage, breaking through the "translational barriers" between basic research and drug development, allowing promising early-stage scientific research results to truly move towards clinical application, ultimately benefiting a wide range of patients.
Based on the real-world data pool and multidisciplinary clinical collaboration network constructed by West China Hospital of Sichuan University, which handles an annual outpatient volume of over ten million visits, along with its 32 National Key Clinical Specialties and the National Precision Medicine Industry Innovation Center, Zenitar has chosen to focus on small molecule therapies. The company is dedicated to addressing medical needs in the fields of hematological diseases, oncology, central nervous system disorders, and immune/inflammatory diseases.
For the FM product (Flunotinib Maleate) targeting the treatment of myelofibrosis, they opted to conduct a head-to-head study with Ruxolitinib during the Phase 2b clinical trial stage, successfully advancing it to Phase III clinical trials. As for the PM product (Purinostat Mesylate) used to treat relapsed/refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, it has already received conditional marketing approval.
Due to the product not yet being marketed and sold, combined with factors such as ongoing R&D investment, Zenitar is currently still in a loss-making state. According to the prospectus, their net loss exceeded 91 million yuan in 2024 and reached nearly 120 million yuan in the first nine months of 2025. During the same period, the company's cumulative R&D investment surpassed 160 million yuan.
The emphasis on research and development has also enabled them to successfully enter the fast lane of growth. After nearly seven years of development, Zenitar has not only established a drug research and development process based on scientific logic and data-driven methods but also built a pipeline consisting of eight proprietary assets, eventually becoming a typical case of a laboratory project transitioning into industrialization.
Tencent and Qiming Venture Capital Invest, Valuation Exceeds 3.4 Billion Yuan
Along the way, Zenitar has cumulatively raised over 1.1 billion yuan.
After receiving initial investment from Guizhou Bailing in its early stages, this company completed its Series A round of financing in November 2021. The investors included Chuan Development Hongke, Chengdu Pengzhe, Sichuan Academician Fund, Chuan Venture Capital, Guosheng Capital, and Xinheng Lida.
With the completion of patient enrollment for FM's Phase 1/2a clinical trial and PM's Phase 2a clinical trial, along with the expansion of PM’s indications to include multiple myeloma and advanced solid tumors, Zenitar successfully closed its Series B financing round in November 2023.
After securing 192 million yuan from investors such as Chengdu Science and Technology Investment, Sichuan Venture Capital, Huajin Capital, Ceyuan Capital, Shengzhong Investment, and Baihui Medical Management, the company has begun to accelerate the advancement of its core technology sectors and research pipelines.
In the view of Huajin Capital, Zenitar's drug molecular design is significantly differentiated, with multiple pipelines having entered the mid-to-late stages of clinical trials, showing excellent clinical data.
Ceyuan Capital believes that Chen Lijuan has rich experience in new drug R&D, solid R&D foundation, and strong execution ability. The company's multiple pipelines have achieved excellent clinical data.
Seeing that FM has demonstrated good safety and significant efficacy in Phase 1/2a clinical trials, and PM has shown excellent clinical outcomes in the Phase 2b trial for relapsed/refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, more investors have chosen to invest in this company.
With the support of Qiming Venture Partners, Gaorong Capital, Unity Ventures, 5Y Capital, Zhongyuan Investment, and Sichuan Development Hongke, Zenitar completed the first closing of its Series B+ round in February 2025 and the second closing of this round five months later.
"Zenitar, relying on its full-chain innovative drug platform, has successfully promoted the efficient clinical transformation of multiple new drugs and demonstrated exciting clinical efficacy in various therapeutic fields." Chen Kan, partner of Qiming Venture Partners and co-head of the healthcare innovation industry, judged that with the simultaneous launch of overseas clinical trials, Zenitar will make a name for itself on the global innovative drug stage.
While making significant progress in the pipeline products, this company completed its Series C financing in November 2025, led by Temasek's indirectly wholly-owned fund under Temming Capital Group and Qiming Venture Partners. Tencent, Sichuan Academician Fund, Chengdu Zenitar, FiveSource Capital, Guosheng Capital, Huajin Capital, New Alliance Capital, BlueRun Ventures, C&D Emerging Investment, and Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Fund participated as follow-up investors. The final valuation exceeded 3.4 billion yuan.
At that time, based on their recognition of Zenitar, investors such as Tencent, Qiming Venture Partners, and 5Y Capital also started purchasing existing shares. Feeling the enthusiasm from the investors, Chen Lijuan and Huaxi Health respectively sold part of their existing shares for transaction amounts of 85 million yuan and approximately 48 million yuan.
Before the IPO, Chen Lijuan held approximately 25.6% of the company's voting rights. Based on a rough calculation using a valuation of 3.4 billion yuan, Chen Lijuan’s personal wealth has reached several hundred million yuan, while the value of shares held by Guizhou Bailing Group Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Qiming Venture Capital, and Tencent will exceed 500 million yuan, 400 million yuan, and 150 million yuan, respectively.
They, Queuing for IPO
Under the leadership of Chen Lijuan, Zenitar embarked on its IPO journey on January 13. Following in her footsteps, more female entrepreneurs are lining up to head towards their own IPOs.
The day before Zenitar submitted its prospectus, Qian大妈, the leading community chain fresh food company created by Feng Weihua, began to advance its listing in Hong Kong. After more than a decade of development, Qian大妈 has opened over 2,900 stores and provides fresh products through the approach of "no overnight meat," with an annual GMV as high as 14.8 billion yuan.
With the support of investors such as Qiyuan Capital, Gaorong Venture Capital, Taikang Life Insurance, Cornerstone Capital, Hejun Capital, and Hezhi Investment, Qianmadam has successfully raised funds up to Series E. According to the "Hurun Global Unicorn Index 2025" released by the Hurun Research Institute, the valuation of Qianmadam, headquartered in Guangzhou, has reached 13 billion yuan.
On January 14, ImmVira, a company focused on novel oncolytic immunotherapy and engineered exosome therapy, applied for a listing in Hong Kong. Guoying Zhou, 61, is the founder of this Suzhou-based biotech company and has gained significant industry recognition for discovering the cancer-selective targeting mechanism of herpes simplex virus type 1.
After seven rounds of financing, ImmVira has attracted investors such as Hillhouse Ventures, TC Capital, Orbimed, Huagai Capital, Mifang Health Fund, Greater Bay Area Homeland Development Fund, Lanting Capital, and WuZhong Biopharmaceutical Industry Development Fund, with its valuation reaching 4.85 billion US dollars (approximately 3.372 billion yuan).
Two days later, Onyx Information, the owner of the Onyx BOOX brand, surged towards the Hong Kong stock market. This Guangzhou-based company was founded by Dan Yuting, now 61, and specializes in the BOOX series of e-readers. It currently serves customers in over 100 countries and regions, generates an annual revenue exceeding 1 billion yuan, and has shareholders such as Rongjie Group, Legend Capital, and Chuangqi Optoelectronics.
On January 23, Jiazhikeji, a Hangzhou-based general intelligent robot company founded by Xiong Rong, a "post-70s" female professor at Zhejiang University, arrived at the doorstep of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Since its establishment in 2016, the company has completed nine rounds of financing, receiving investments from ByteDance, Legend Capital, Gingko Valley Capital, Xianghe Capital, Shenzhen Capital Group, Red Cedar Capital, and Ankong Technology, with a valuation reaching 2.13 billion yuan.
Immediately following this, Axera Technology went public on February 10, becoming the first Chinese edge AI chip company to do so. As the founder of this company, Xiaoshen Qiu has served as Chief Scientist at AT&T Bell Labs in the United States, Vice President at Broadcom Corporation, and Chief Technology Officer at Unisoc.
After gaining the favor of many investors such as Legend Star, GGV Capital, Oriza Holdings, Qiming Venture Partners, Tencent, Meituan, Glory Ventures, Liangjiang Capital, and Yufu High-Quality Industry Fund, Axera has grown into a star unicorn headquartered in Ningbo with a valuation exceeding 10 billion yuan.
These outstanding female entrepreneurs have made people profoundly feel the "She Power." With the continuous progress of society and the rapid development of the economy, an increasing number of excellent female entrepreneurs are quickly standing out in various industries, continuously creating one star IPO after another.