Linear Capital wrapped up its UK leg of the April Europe tour, with Germany, Switzerland, France, and Italy still to come.

Last week, the Linear Capital investment team hosted and attended a series of events in London, sharing the firm's story and the purpose of this trip with the Zhejiang University UK Alumni Association, the Oxford University Life Sciences Society, the Oxford University Student Union, and the Cambridge University Student Union. They also exchanged views on frontier technologies and the investment landscape with local startups and institutions working on cutting-edge technology. At the same time, they passed on Linear's lessons learned — the opportunities and challenges they've observed among founders who returned to China after receiving higher education and professional training overseas, as well as their observations on shifts in the tech investment climate — to friends who came to connect.

Harry Wang, Founding Partner and CEO of Linear Capital; Songyan Huang, Partner at Linear Capital; and Wei Xin, Investment Director at Linear Capital, shared who Linear Capital is and why this Europe trip came about: "We hope to connect with more friends engaged in frontier technology research and entrepreneurship, to broaden our horizons. At the same time, we're looking for more outstanding founders to collaborate with in AIGC, new energy and new materials, intelligent manufacturing/robotics, and biotech and healthcare. Several excellent founders among Linear's portfolio companies come from European universities or research institutes, and we will continue to strengthen our engagement and investment in Europe's academic and industrial communities." Beyond their own sharing, Yuanbo Deng, Founder and CEO of Linear portfolio company Riview (PhD from Cambridge University), also spoke as a founder who has been through the journey, sharing his history with Linear Capital and his experience of returning to China to start a company.

(Harry Wang, Founding Partner and CEO of Linear Capital, speaking at the Zhejiang University UK Alumni Association event)

The team gained a great deal from their days in the UK. Visiting institutions like Oxford and Cambridge, even during the Easter holiday, many friends traveled from various places to attend in person — the team is deeply grateful for this support. In these face-to-face exchanges, they saw what the world's most cutting-edge technology research is currently pursuing. While some of it remains at the laboratory stage, for a firm that has always championed original technology, such high-quality discussions not only expanded their horizons and allowed them to see and feel the dedication and spirit of inquiry that local Chinese students, scholars, and researchers bring to original technology — they also strengthened the team's conviction in the future of Chinese tech investment.

(Songyan Huang, Partner at Linear Capital, speaking at the Oxford University Student Union event)

Some moments from the events:

The team also found time during the trip to visit Trinity College, Cambridge (where Newton worked), Stephen Hawking's office at Cambridge, the building where Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, and the Cavendish Laboratory (where Francis Crick and James Watson discovered the double helix structure of DNA). For the team, seeing the offices of these renowned scientists and the birthplaces of landmark achievements in life sciences in person, then reflecting on how such scientific research was historically translated into economic development in industry, reinforced their belief in the value of tech investment: helping ambitious, driven tech founders transform frontier, original technologies into engines for industrial upgrading and development. As they often say: frontier technology, frontier productivity, frontier lifestyle — all for a better society.

(Site of penicillin's discovery)

(Cavendish Laboratory)

The UK leg has concluded. The team is currently in Munich, Germany, and will continue to host and attend events on similar themes in Hanover, Zurich and Lausanne in Switzerland, Lyon in France, and Genoa in Italy. Everyone is welcome to follow along.

About Linear Capital

We are currently hiring for multiple positions on our investment team. For details, please click here.

Linear Capital is an early-stage investment firm focused on "frontier technology + industry," targeting frontier technologies such as data intelligence, digital new infrastructure, next-generation robotics, and technological transformation in traditional domains (such as biotech, materials, and energy), applied across vertical industries to substantially improve efficiency, address pain points, and enable industrial upgrading. The firm aims to generate outsized returns through substantial increases in industrial value. Linear currently manages ten funds with total assets under management of approximately $2 billion.

The firm primarily leads investments from angel to Series A, with typical check sizes of $3 million to $8 million or RMB equivalent.

Linear has made early-stage investments in more than 120 founding teams, including Horizon Robotics, Kujiale, Sensors Data, Tezign, Rokid, Guandata, and Agile Robots. The combined valuation of Linear's portfolio companies is approximately $20 billion.

In the near term, Linear Capital is working to become the premier Data Intelligence Technology Fund, with a long-term goal of building the most influential Frontier Technology Application Fund.