Northern Light Venture Capital (NLVC), a leading early-stage technology investor in China, has established its first RMB Qualified Foreign Limited Partner (QFLP) flagship fund in the Dongjiang Free Trade Zone (FTZ) of Tianjin, registering under “Tianjin JiChuang Haiyuan Equity Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership)” with a registered capital of RMB 72.118 million.

This fund represents NLVC's first RMB QFLP fund in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and is also the first foreign equity investment pilot in Dongjiang to pass the “district-level QFLP joint review” in a single round. The approval process, from full submission of materials to issuance of business license, foreign exchange registration, and custodian account setup, was completed in just seven working days—demonstrating a high-efficiency model praised as “Dongjiang Efficiency 2.0” within the industry.

The rapid launch was enabled by Dongjiang's integrated cross-border investment infrastructure, which leverages the Tianjin FTZ Free Trade Account (FT account) system. Foreign investors can open offshore entities with Free Trade Network accounts (FTN accounts) in Dongjiang, allowing for smooth cross-border RMB inflows, competitive overseas exchange rates, and diverse currency management services.

Dongjiang’s policy environment combines multiple instruments—including QFLP, QDLP, cross-border capital pools, integrated onshore-offshore currency management, and Belt & Road asset transfer channels—to create a comprehensive “fund–asset–exit” ecosystem. The area currently hosts over 800 entities across fund management, asset management, leasing, factoring, and securities, managing assets exceeding RMB 2.3 trillion. A three-tier enterprise support system (“experts + concierge + service desk”) ensures responses to queries within 4 hours on average, and processing times of approximately 1.5 working days.

NLVC's “JiChuang Haiyuan” fund aims to deploy RMB 500 million in its initial close, focusing on hard technology, renewable energy, synthetic biology, commercial aerospace, and AI infrastructure within the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. Over the next three years, the fund plans to facilitate at least 10 portfolio companies to establish secondary headquarters or R&D centers in Tianjin, translating capital advantages into regional industrial growth.

With a 15-year track record in early-stage technology investment, NLVC manages dual-currency RMB and USD funds with assets exceeding RMB 30 billion, having invested in over 220 technology companies, including Meituan, BGI Genomics, and GigaDevice. Early-stage IRRs have exceeded 35%.

Dongjiang’s QFLP pilot reflects an increasingly streamlined cross-border investment process for foreign investors, underscoring the FTZ's operational efficiency and broad range of policy instruments. By the end of 2025, the Tianjin JiChuang Zone aims to approve 30 more QFLP/QDLP pilot enterprises, expand fund management scale beyond RMB 100 billion, and launch a “one-stop QFLP” online portal to further accelerate approvals by 50%. Collaborative links with Hong Kong, Singapore, and Dubai aim to establish a full cross-border capital chain—from fundraising to investment and exit—enhancing the region's position in global venture capital operations.