Optics Valley launches the partners' investment guidance fund on May 18. [Photo/WeChat account of Optics Valley of China]

East Lake High-tech Development Zone (Optics Valley of China) in Wuhan, the capital of Central China's Hubei province, launched the Wuhan Optics Valley partners' investment guidance fund on May 18, according to local media reports.

The fund, with a total value of 1 billion yuan ($155.3 million), will issue 200 million yuan during the first phase, and the application and selection process also began on the same day.

In 2015, Optics Valley utilized its social capital to establish the Optics Valley talent venture fund, providing talents with free funding and equity investment.

Over the past five years, it has invested in 337 companies with a total investment of 427 million yuan, and 34 of these companies have received follow-up financing.

Hailed as an upgraded version of the Optics Valley talent venture fund, the Optics Valley partners' investment guidance fund has an adjusted funding method for talents. It offers continuous funding for high-quality projects based on equity investment obtained by enterprises with entrepreneurial talents.

The fund adopts market-oriented means to guide high-quality investment institutions to pay attention to, invest in and introduce high-level talents.

More than 90 venture capital institutions from Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou and other places participated in the launch event. Also, many well-known investment institutions in the fields of integrated circuits, biomedicine, new consumption and other areas showed their interest in the fund.