"One-Person Fund" Closes Tens of Millions in First Close — Will the Era of VC Army Groups End? | Entering the Game
Solo, AI, globalization.
"Solo, AI, Globalization."
"Entering the Game" is a standing column of Waves, born from our observation that once-reliable operating models are facing new challenges, and industry rules inherited from west to east have been shattered. People urgently need new maps and new orders for innovation and capital. And "entering the game" is the most precious posture of all.
"Entering the Game" was born amid transformation. To summarize the column's subject in one sentence: we hope to find new players and new playbooks better adapted to changing environments. This is the sixteenth article in the series.
By Qian Ren
Edited by Zhiyan Chen
AI is restructuring the organizational form of every industry. From software development to content creation, the "super-individual" revolution has sparked a global OPC (one-person company) wave.
This shockwave has also hit the venture capital industry. In 2025, Silicon Valley investor Elad Gil's independently managed fund netted $130 billion. Amid a global VC fundraising winter, he single-handedly raised $3 billion for his fourth fund — three times the size of his 2023 third fund, surpassing even many Mega Funds from the previous year. Since its founding in 2020, the fund has had no team; Gil makes all decisions alone. Yet it has produced category-defining infrastructure companies like Instacart and Figma.
As former VP of Corporate Strategy at Twitter, former Google PM, and co-founder of Color Genomics, Gil has built multi-billion-dollar tech companies from scratch. He was never a nobody. But from another angle, his experiment raises a question: with extremely high individual cognitive density, multiplied by AI leverage and flat decision-making, can de-institutionalized VC truly be created at scale?
China's primary market has seen scattered Solo VC attempts in recent years. Recently, Waves exclusively learned that veteran investor Fei Ruan has established a "one-person fund" focused on global investment — Captain Vanguard Capital. Captain Vanguard is a day-one dual-currency, solo GP VC firm. Its RMB fund has completed a first close of tens of millions of yuan, while a USD fund targeting tens of millions of dollars is being raised simultaneously.
Ruan holds dual degrees in Electronics and International Relations from Peking University, plus a graduate degree in Physical Electronics. He has spent over a decade in VC, particularly cross-border global investment, serving as Investment Director at Sinovation Ventures, Senior Investment Director at Fosun RZ Capital, and Head of International Business at Rìchū Capital.
For the past decade, Ruan has focused on almost nothing but Chinese companies going global. From experiencing the wild early days of the "Bantian Five Tigers," to delivering packages at midnight in Bangalore for due diligence, to surviving the darkest moments of Amazon's account suspension wave, he has lived through the complete cycle: from mobile internet tool apps going overseas, to cross-border e-commerce, DTC brands, smart hardware, and AI globalization. His investments include Zhongli Machinery (SH603194), Uniuni, Dreo (Hesheng Innovation), Aiper (Yunding Intelligence), WINIT overseas warehousing, Snaptube, Velotric, and Voila. He has worked, researched, and lived in India, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and the US, investing over RMB 400 million in the going-global sector with exits exceeding RMB 500 million and remaining book value showing several times return on principal.
Going forward, Captain Vanguard will focus on going-global and globalization sectors, primarily targeting brand and service investment opportunities in high-spending markets like Europe and the US. Ruan told Waves that he is more interested in how traditional "basic needs" — clothing, food, housing, transportation — are being transformed by new technology. His investment direction centers on "AI's connection to the physical world + globalization."
For Ruan today, choosing the Solo VC format is more metaphor than convenience: a self-directed evolution by a veteran global investor. Using a decade of accumulated vertical market knowledge to capture structural opportunities is the ideal testing ground for the OPC model — the going-global chain is extremely long and requires deep localized knowledge, naturally suiting "cognition-intensive" super-individuals rather than "capital-intensive" large battalions.
Waves recently sat down with Ruan at his new starting line to discuss the cycles he has traversed and the unconventional future he sees.
The following is Ruan's account, edited for clarity —
Part 01
Traditional VC Is Failing
Looking back from 2026, China's venture capital industry has traveled 34 years. If the 2015 "mass entrepreneurship and innovation" wave was the starting point of explosive growth, traditional VC has now reached a crossroads where it must answer the question of survival.
Before choosing to establish a "one-person fund," I repeatedly asked myself: Are today's venture capital firms actually more advanced than a convenience store?
The answer was depressing. The vast majority of existing VC funds are managed worse than convenience stores. In a convenience store, essentials are always at the back, high-margin items (cigarettes, gum) always at the register, with automated inventory and revenue-sharing systems. Our VC firms still manage projects in Excel spreadsheets, with severe information silos and exorbitant management costs under wolf-pack, human-wave tactics.
The deeper crisis is that the traditional "large battalion" model is generating enormous internal friction.
Management Fees vs. Carry
For a normal venture capital model, revenue comes from two sources:
First, management fees — typically 2% of fund size annually, covering operational costs. Second, carried interest on excess returns. Under mainstream domestic practice, after the fund exceeds a fixed annualized return, 20% of excess returns go to the GP and 80% to LPs.
Fund lifespans stretch 8 to 12 years; Carry often isn't visible for five years. This creates two paths: one, scale aggressively to capture 2% management fees and sustain massive team overhead; two, be selective and earn Carry.
In hot markets, large funds could use management fees to hire talent at high salaries, maintaining visibility through survivor bias. But when markets turn down, performance weakens and reverse-investment pressure mounts, large funds fall into mediocrity.
GPs and LPs, once aligned in interest, have become paradoxical.
"Polishing a Turd" Is Meaningless
In traditional VC structures, those who know projects best lack decision-making power, while decision-makers are rarely on the front lines.
This turns countless investment managers into "internal FAs" — to prove a project worthy, they spend enormous energy producing polished reports, what I call "polishing a turd." Beyond self-justification, this contributes nothing to ultimate investment returns. And with AI's spread, this work is being perfectly automated.
Worse is the broken incentive structure. With high turnover, non-partners rarely stay until exit to receive Carry. Their income is essentially salary plus bonus. This leads many to simply "get the deal done" — if it succeeds, it goes on the resume for a job hop; if it fails, they walk away unscathed.
The Long-Term Trap of "Large Blind Pools"
Beyond AI, the market lacks the kind of to-C investment direction that mobile internet provided — one that could absorb massive deal flow. So traditional Mega Funds built on mobile internet's rise must continuously stack new sectors to maintain deal volume for their fund size.
As projects become increasingly "hard tech," required vertical knowledge grows dramatically. Pan-category large fund portfolios trend toward mediocrity and herd-following. Originally, venture capital earned money on cognitive asymmetry. The mass mediocrity of cognition inevitably drives returns toward mediocrity.
So I believe VC needs thorough reform — not just in what it invests in, but in organizational form itself.
Part 02
Solo Decision-Making, AI Assistance, Globalization Focus
I decided to create a testing ground: Captain Vanguard Capital. Its core formula is: Solo VC + AI Management + Globalization.
This was no impulse, but a judgment on productivity transformation.
In the past, management fees had to sustain teams of dozens or even hundreds, because information gathering, data organization, and portfolio reporting required human-wave tactics. Now, except for the two ends — facing entrepreneurs and LPs, which are hard to replace — everything in between can be reconstructed.
I have developed my own "portfolio management assistant" and "portfolio war room." Through AI Agents, I can organize portfolio company materials in specified formats, generate professional reports, even deconstruct next-round BP narratives. What once took a team, I now handle entirely. Decisions are simple, efficient, and directly accountable to performance.
Twenty years ago, one could become a "mobile internet expert" and capture era-defining returns. Today, no one can be a "pan-category expert."
I choose to focus on only one thing: "Chinese companies going global." The going-global chain is extremely long, involving cognitive gaps and resource integration across different countries — naturally suited to "cognition-intensive" super-individuals, not "capital-intensive" large battalions.
Entrepreneurs don't need a first- or second-year investment manager playing telephone. They need a veteran who can actually solve localization pain points. I hope through my media IP and professional writing, friends in the going-global industry will know me as an investor who "helps without adding trouble."
Specifically, how do I plan to execute? Primary market investment is fundamentally a game of probability and payoff — seeking the maximum of the probability × payoff function across stages and sectors. Based on this, Captain Vanguard focuses on two zones in the going-global sector:
1. Early stage (seeking payoff): Preferably first round, valuation under RMB 300 million. I'm even willing to co-create ideas with founders, leveraging my decade of going-global experience for full-spectrum empowerment. This portion seeks excess return potential.
2. Mature stage (ensuring probability): Projects with scaled revenue and profits, valued on PE. This is the fund's bedrock — steady growth through category and market expansion.
From an asset allocation perspective, single projects cannot avoid risk. But a fund with diversified holdings and well-designed top-level architecture — with clear thinking on both bedrock and high-risk/high-return positions — can potentially reduce fund loss risk significantly through vertical-sector portfolio construction.
I don't chase market heat. When a project's valuation soars but the product isn't out, payoff is shrinking while probability hasn't improved — I'd rather miss it.
In specific directions, I devote 70% of energy to brands, 30% to infrastructure.
In the AI era, I focus on how new technology satisfies humanity's most fundamental, ancient needs — "clothing, food, housing, transportation" — and value more how AI connects with the physical world.
For example, my recent investment in RIC Construction Robotics. The US faces massive construction worker shortages; $30/hour still can't attract labor. RIC uses AI and 3D printing not just to improve efficiency, but directly solve labor scarcity. They have already been validated in Walmart warehouse construction.
Here are my three defined directions:
1. Helping humans understand themselves: Through more sensors and data monitoring, helping people better understand their health, behavior, and other data — accumulating that data and processing it through continuously improving AI capabilities;
2. Helping humans improve work efficiency: As tools that enhance human productivity, or as machines that reduce required human labor;
3. Helping humans live more enjoyably: The AI era will bring long-term explosive productivity growth. Humans will spend more time "lying flat" and enjoying life — whether in companionship, entertainment, or daily consumption of basic needs.
Part 03
Go Global, Now
Many ask me: with such a complex macro environment, why still go all-in on going global?
In 2025, China's trade surplus reached a historic $1.2 trillion. Behind this lies the powerful resilience of Chinese supply chains. But we must soberly recognize: the 25-year era of "goods export" built on demographic dividend and cheap manufacturing has ended. With per capita GDP reaching $13,500, our cost advantage is disappearing; we must find new growth points.
This means we must complete two transformations:
1. From "selling goods" to "building brands": Capturing greater profit premium.
2. From "low-end manufacturing" to "tech going global": Leveraging our engineer dividend to export technology-embedded products.
For 30 years, the world's greatest opportunity was "Invest China," with China's economy averaging astonishing 13.6% annual growth. But today, we need dual circulation — internally, improving productivity through indigenous innovation; externally, steadfastly pursuing globalization, converting excess production capacity into global dividends.
Ocean conquest means expansion, and trade based on "comparative advantage" benefits global welfare. From Spain and Holland to Britain and America, the transfer of maritime dominance follows historical规律. The next thirty years are Chinese companies' "Great Voyage Era." When everyone is singing globalization's decline, China can only unite more development-seeking nations through globalization, forging its own path.
Reflecting on my decade-plus — delivering packages in Bangalore's pre-dawn cold, finding solutions amid account suspension anxiety — I've increasingly realized that venture capital is fundamentally a process of striving alongside people like yourself.
The entrepreneurs I favor must be upright (the foundation of cooperation), must have extremely long vertical strengths, must possess global organizational cohesion, and must have the capacity to accommodate others' opinions.
The establishment of a "one-person fund" is my self-directed evolution. It is a metaphor: in this era of variables, only extreme focus and reverence for technology can capture true structural opportunities.
Going global and globalization are games for the brave, and the lifelong mission of our generation — even the next. We either succeed or fail, but we absolutely cannot abstain. After all, this Great Voyage has only just begun.
Layout by Nan Yao | Image source: Unsplash
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