· Asia’s first student-led investment fund launched by Chinese high schoolers.
· Eight finalist teams from China, US, UK, and Hong Kong pitched impact-driven startups.
· Winning projects received angel funding and mentorship from top VCs and industry leaders.
In a pioneering effort, Chinese secondary school students have set up Asia's first student-managed investment fund, the China High School Students' Social Impact Fund (CHSSI), and wrapped up its inaugural National High School Student Social Entrepreneurship Competition on July 6, 2025, in Shanghai.
Hosted on the WLSA campus, the event was led by CHSSI founder Sophia Fu, who started fundraising for the fund three years ago in Grade 9. "Today demonstrates that young people don't have to wait until they become adults to address real-world issues," she said in her keynote speech. The fund started with a whopping RMB 100,000 and seeks to grow 10–30 times in the next five years.
CHSSI is China's sole non-profit educational organization that is entirely operated by high school students, aiming to mimic real-world entrepreneurship and investment practices with an emphasis on social responsibility. Inspired by US and European university-controlled funds, CHSSI introduces a robust impact element that incentives students to create sustainable, mission-based businesses.
The competition had eight rounds of finalist teams from China, Hong Kong SAR, the US, and UK, chosen from more than 100 applications. The top teams presented creative projects to a judging panel comprising venture capitalists, Ivy League alumni, and social entrepreneurs, as well as intensive training in pitching, financial planning, and impact measurement.
Projects varied from the "Dianhong Plan" that identified difficulties in expanding youth-led projects to the "Yi Shu Plan" that reimagined volunteer teaching with compassion and structural creativity. Teams pitched to judges at the "Demo Day" pitch event, where the top three entries were awarded angel funding to implement their projects.
Aside from the competition, CHSSI has already funded four significant student-led projects like C&C anti-body shame wear, ReMatter, a platform for upcycled designer products, and APCSA, a free coding-learning tool. In the future, CHSSI will launch simulated secondary market investing (for learning) and further incubator programs.
"Student-led investment has been a long tradition in the West. CHSSI is leading that culture to Asia," Fu said. "It's not only capital it's about trust, responsibility, and impact. And this is just the tip of the iceberg."
In three years, CHSSI will have multinational branches, empowering high schoolers all over the world to be change-makers in their communities through finance and innovation.
