The man who built Qwen has a new lab, and the Shanghai government is an investor
The researcher who led Alibaba’s Qwen models has started his own company. Junyang Lin announced Pragmatik Labs on X on Tuesday evening, five months after walking out of Alibaba.
The lab is based in Shanghai and works on what Lin calls next-generation agents across digital and physical worlds. Gaorong Ventures and HSG, the firm formerly known as Sequoia China, co-led the round.
Tencent invested too. So did one more backer, and it is the one nobody else reported.
The investor everyone missed
Lin thanked the Shanghai Engine Fund, giving its Chinese name in the same breath. That name translates as the Shanghai Future Industries Fund.
It is not a private firm. The fund runs to 10 billion yuan, roughly $1.4bn, and is financed entirely by the Shanghai government.
Shanghai unveiled it in September 2024 with a 15-year horizon, extendable by three more. It targets six areas the city has designated...
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