Gaorong Capital
高榕创投
Gaorong Capital is a Chinese venture capital fund founded in 2014 by three former IDG Capital partners—Zhang Zhen, Gao Xiang, and Yue Bin—who resigned from IDG in September 2013 after a celebrated dinner at a Beijing tavern . Positioned as China's "Founders' Fund," it belongs to the so-called VC 2.0 generation of firms spun off from established institutions .
The firm's reputation rests heavily on an early and decisive bet on Pinduoduo. At a 2014 hotpot gathering, Zhang Zhen sized up Colin Huang in under fifteen minutes and offered a $60 million valuation; later, during Pinduoduo's difficult B-round transition from Pinhaohuo, Gaorong put in "rescue money" that 暗涌Waves estimated would yield over $7 billion in returns . More recently, Gaorong has invested in Moonshot AI and LiblibAI, among others . Partner Han Rui, who joined the firm and was voted top of his cohort by 39 peers in a 2023 36Under36 poll, has described Gaorong's AI push as "just the beginning" .
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Coverage
2026 VC Promotion Roundup
Universal celebration.
elsewhere别处发生·The Fundraising Stories of China's "Six Little Tigers": Six Paths, Six Lives
If Kimi ever goes public, will the bell-ringing photo look very different?
elsewhere别处发生·I think the sun will shine bright tomorrow morning | Opening Remarks
Maybe wrong, always fun.
elsewhere别处发生·Exclusive | LiblibAI Raises $130 Million, Led by Hongshan and CMC
Go big or go home.
暗涌Waves·A Conversation with Thailand's First Unicorn Founder: From Orphan to $3 Billion CEO --- When Kavin Bhumikittikul was six years old, he watched his mother walk out the door and never come back. His father, a gambling addict, had accumulated crushing debts. The family shattered. Kavin and his siblings were sent to separate orphanages across Bangkok. Forty years later, he is the founder and CEO of Agoda, the online travel platform valued at roughly $3 billion — Thailand's first unicorn, and one of Southeast Asia's most consequential tech companies. I met Kavin at Agoda's Bangkok headquarters, a sleek glass tower overlooking the Chao Phraya River. He arrived without an entourage, wearing a company polo shirt and carrying his own laptop bag. The contrast between his current stature and his origins is almost too stark to process. Yet he speaks about both with the same even, analytical tone — as if describing data points in a business case rather than his own life. --- **"I learned to sell before I learned to read properly"** Kavin's earliest memory of commerce is selling candy to other children at his orphanage, age seven. He would buy bulk packs with his meager allowance
The fiercer the storm, the more powerful the lightning.
暗涌Waves·A Year Later, When Kimi and MiniMax Investors Sat Down Together Again
The wildest possibility may be that humans won't be the only intelligent species on this planet.
暗涌Waves·China's USD Funds Won't Disappear
Live long enough to long China.
暗涌Waves·We invested in large language models, AI applications, and embodied intelligence, but BlueRun Ventures still feels it hasn't FOMO'd hard enough.
The more optimistic doers.
暗涌Waves·The VC 2.0 generation celebrated its tenth birthday in early autumn.
What about the next decade?
暗涌Waves·When Moonshot AI's investors sat down with MiniMax's investors
Five individuals and two companies.
暗涌Waves·Exclusive | Moonshot AI's valuation reaches $3 billion in new round; Tencent joins after Alibaba
A full list of Moonshot AI's investors to date.
暗涌Waves·Sam Gao and Xiaoyu Ma of Gaorong Capital: AI + Hardware, China's Opportunity in a World of Upheaval
You can't just gild the lily on the giants' extensions.
暗涌Waves·Goodbye to a Decade of Venture Capital | Waves' Second Anniversary
Keep moving forward. Don't look back.
暗涌Waves·The Investor Who Made the Most Money Off Pinduoduo
"Though millions may oppose me, I will go."
暗涌Waves·"These 130 unfamiliar faces look exactly like the masters of the future."
Notes from a conference where you can add 130 important contacts.
暗涌Waves·Li Guofei's 10,000-Word Interview: Seeking Wisdom Is About Constantly Breaking the Prison of the Mind
Two worlds that seem to have nothing to do with each other may, at their foundations, arrive at the same destination by different paths.
暗涌Waves·How 28 Young People Spent 33 Hours on an Island
A celebration means something when it's shared.
暗涌Waves·"You're only 36. You can be anyone you want to be."
Never stop moving forward.
暗涌Waves·Silicon Valley Bank, a fixture in venture capital for four decades, couldn't survive 40 hours of market panic.
China's venture capital world had a night of shock and panic.
暗涌Waves·Conversations with 29 Tech Investors: There Are Treasures, But No Treasure Map
Investing in tech is definitely the right call, but consensus remains scarce.
暗涌Waves·From the Big League to the Niche: The Glory Days of a Generation of Chinese VCs
How they will rethink fame, cycles, and investment.
暗涌Waves·Two Decades of RMB Funds: Between Life and Death
Are USD Funds in Trouble? Is It the RMB Funds' Turn to Make a Move?
暗涌Waves·On the first day of August, we spoke with 23 investors about "confidence."
And, what are the things that are hard but right, and what are the things that are hard but wrong.
暗涌Waves·Forced Exit: The End of China's VC "Tool Man" Era
Behind a rumor about fund staff cuts lies a fundamental shift in China's venture capital model.
暗涌Waves·Spring Comes Quietly to Guomao
For China's investment industry at this moment, the eerily quiet Guomao feels like a metaphor.
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