Yu He

Yu He (何愚) is the founder and managing partner of Black Ant Capital (黑蚁资本), a China-focused consumer investment firm he established in February 2016 after leaving ByteDance . He built the fund during a difficult 18-month fundraising period that he later described as a "blessing in disguise," giving his team time to observe and track companies before deploying capital .

He is best known for his early and persistent backing of Pop Mart founder Wang Ning, acquiring shares through secondary transactions starting in late 2017 and adding through four rounds before and after the company's IPO . As 暗涌Waves reported, Yu's investment thesis for Pop Mart centered on Wang Ning's insight that IP companies could function as platforms rather than relying solely on individual content properties .

In 2021–2022, Yu led Black Ant's systematic research into China's county-level markets, with the team visiting 495 counties; this work informed later bets including snack retail chain Mingming Henmang (鸣鸣很忙) and Yuanji Yunjiao (袁记云饺) . He has described his approach as "research-driven investment" and emphasized that fieldwork must be done by investors themselves rather than delegated to separate research teams . Looking ahead, Yu told 暗涌Waves in April 2025 that he aims to make "more concise and accurate investments" while accepting that progress may come in three-year steps rather than annual leaps .