Ex-Alibaba Qwen engineer launches new AI startup in Shanghai

Lin Junyang, a former senior technical expert on Alibaba Group's Qwen artificial intelligence team, has launched a new AI startup in Shanghai, about five months after leaving the Chinese technology giant, joining a growing wave of top AI researchers turning to entrepreneurship.

Lin, who was once Alibaba's youngest employee to reach its P10 senior technical rank, said on social media early on Wednesday that he had founded Pragmatik Labs to develop next-generation AI agents capable of operating across both digital and physical worlds.

Pragmatik Labs has secured angel funding co-led by venture capital firms Gaorong Ventures and HSG, formerly Sequoia China, with backing from Tencent and the Shanghai Future Industry Fund, underscoring investors' appetite for startups founded by researchers from China's leading large-language-model teams.

Pragmatik Labs said its research would focus on next-generation intelligent agents for both the digital and physical worlds, pointing to ambitions that could extend from software-based agents to systems capable of interacting with real-world environments.

Corporate registry data from Tianyancha shows that the startup's main domestic operating entity, Yuyong (Shanghai) Technology Co Ltd, was incorporated on May 13, 2026.

Its registered capital was increased to 1.25 million yuan ($174,000) from 250,000 yuan, according to the filing. Lin serves as the company's legal representative, and the company currently has 10 shareholders.