Boyu Hu

Boyu Hu is the founder and partner of XVC, a Chinese venture capital firm established in the second half of 2016 that raised nearly $200 million for its debut fund . He built XVC around the idea of independent thinking—the "X" in the name stands for an independent variable —and has steered it through both high-profile wins and painful setbacks.

His most consequential bet has been on Chagee (霸王茶姬), the tea chain founded by Zhang Junjie. XVC's initial investment exceeded 100 million RMB, the firm's largest first check to date, and it subsequently added another round to build a stake approaching 20% . Hu reportedly said that a single Chagee IPO could return roughly twice XVC's entire historical investment outlay . The relationship with Zhang began unusually: on their first meeting, Zhang shared his full childhood story with Hu .

Hu has also been candid about failure. After XVC's investment in the community group-buying startup Dai Luobo (呆萝卜) collapsed during the sector's brutal 2019 price wars, he described the experience as a case of "the snake and the well rope"—one failure shouldn't paralyze future conviction, even if the shock was real . As of October 2023, XVC's portfolio carried a gross IRR of 27.66% on a cost basis of roughly 3.67 billion RMB, though Hu noted that figure had declined from the prior year as most portfolio companies stayed out of the funding market and flat valuations .