Linear Capital｜Linear Path, Nonlinear Growth

线性资本·January 12, 2024

We strive to be the best Data Intelligence Technology Fund in China.

About Linear

Linear Capital focuses on investing in the space of "frontier technology + industry", that is, frontier technology represented by data intelligence, next-generation infrastructure, next-generation robot technology, and technological transformations of traditional industries such as biomedicine, materials, energy, etc. Frontier technology is applied to various verticals to significantly improve industry productivity, solve the pain points, complete industry upgrading, and achieve attractive returns by substantially increasing industry value. Linear Capital persists in investing in the early stage and continuing to provide support throughout the investment life cycle. At present, Linear Capital is managing ten funds with a total AUM of about US$2 billion. Linear Capital has invested in the early stage of more than 120 entrepreneurial teams including Horizon Robotics, Kujiale, Sensors Data, Tezign, Agile Robots, Thinking Data, Rokid, Guanyuan Data, Tophant, etc. The total valuation of Linear Capital's portfolio companies is estimated to be about US$20 billion.

Harry Wang

CEO/Founder

Facebook's second Chinese engineer and first R&D manager. He used to work on the backend of News Feed and Social Ads, the frontend of virtual currency and the pipeline of payment security & backend. He served as a CEO advisor in Dianping.com, Baixing.com and CSDN. Harry was also the writer of the bestseller, Building up Facebook. Harry owns Stanford's MS&E degree and Zhejiang University's bachelor degree of computer science. Harry is a Fellow of the third class of the China Fellowship Program and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network, and Young Global Leader, Class of 2018, World Economic Forum.

Neil Zeng

Partner

Neil served as Partner at Future Capital Discovery Fund. He has over 15 years of experience in operations, finance, and investments.

Prior to joining, he worked at Goldman Sachs' London office, Bosch Group, and served as the Vice President of ChinaCache (NSDQ: CCIH) responsible for corporate M&A. He received a BA from the Shanghai University of International Business and Economics and earned a Masters' Degree from the University of Surrey. He is fluent in Chinese, English, and Japanese.

Songyan Huang

Partner

Dr. Huang focuses on investments in the areas of data intelligence reconstruction of supply side, robotics, and chips. Reviewer for several top journals of IEEE. He worked at Huawei as a data scientist and was in charge of several advanced research and application development projects. Dr. Huang graduated from Zhejiang University with a background in machine learning research, and got an excellent PhD from Zhejiang University. Songyan was awarded as "36 best investors under age 36" by 36kr, "40 best investors under age 40" by CYzone, and "Top 20 technology investors" by JazzYear.

Can Zheng

Managing Director

As a member of the Accelerated Leadership Program at TCS, Can worked in multiple roles across business development, consulting, and new service introduction. His clients included the largest banks and telecom providers in the US. Can was also a founding member of the China IT team at Morgan Stanley, where he led the development of post-trading platforms for multiple Asian markets. Can holds an MBA from the University of Chicago, a master's degree in Computer Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and a bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Zhejiang University.

Ben Li

CFO/COO

Before joining Linear Capital, Ben was a Senior Manager at Ernst & Young, where he worked for eight years and focused on transaction advisory services, including due diligence, deal structuring, and various tax planning. Ben graduated from the Department of International Finance at Fudan University.

Zeren Bai

Senior Principal

Zeren primarily focuses on the next generation of computation-driven applications and currently invests in the AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) field. He has led Linear Capital's investments in companies such as Baoxiaohao, Aikeno, Woshi, and Baixiniu.

Prior to that, Zeren worked at Tencent's Cloud and Smart Industry Group as a researcher and developer in artificial intelligence. He has extensive project experience applying cutting-edge technologies — including computer vision, natural language processing, big data, and machine learning — across various industries, and holds two AI-related patents in China. Zeren earned a bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering from Tongji University and a master's degree in Applied Analytics from Columbia University, where his team won the IBM Data & Analytics Challenge.

Wei Xin

Principal

Wei Xin focuses on deep tech, especially robotics, smart manufacturing, and the integration of software and hardware. He previously worked at Microsat, an institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, as a lead engineer responsible for satellite attitude and orbit control. Wei Xin holds a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in Mechatronic Engineering from HIT, as well as an MBA from SAIF.

Tianyi Zhou

Principal

Tianyi is deeply passionate about interdisciplinary scientific advances that could dramatically increase productivity in chemistry, new materials, and biology.

Prior to Linear, Tianyi worked at a government-backed VC in Suzhou, focusing on investment opportunities in new materials and biotechnology.

Tianyi graduated from the University of Cambridge with a bachelor's degree with first-class honors in Natural Sciences and conducted research on gold nanoparticles in the Mirkin Group at Northwestern University. He was also awarded an honorary master's degree from the University of Cambridge.

Yifei Li

Principal

Yifei Li

Principal at Linear Capital, focusing on advanced tech in new energy and new materials. Prior to Linear, Yifei worked as a battery expert at NIO, responsible for developing new battery platforms and exploring new materials applications in EVs. Before NIO, he was a principal investigator at a startup, leading R&D, scale-up, and commercialization of aqueous lithium/sodium-ion batteries and related materials for energy storage systems. Yifei also has experience working in the EV cell department at CATL. He holds a bachelor's degree in materials physics from Wuhan University and a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from the University of Houston. He has published more than ten top-tier SCI papers and filed more than 20 patents in related fields.

Zoey Sun

Principal

Zoey Sun

Zoey joined Linear Capital as a Principal focusing on AI infrastructure and applications. Prior to Linear, Zoey spearheaded projects in data pipelines, NLU, and NLG at Google HQ starting in 2018. Later, at Google Shanghai, she refined in-domain machine translation models and transitioned to oversee localization products as a product manager.

Zoey holds a degree in computer science from Smith College and later pursued an MBA at Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, and an MMH at Cornell Nolan School.

Grace Zou

Legal Director

Grace joined Linear Capital as legal manager in 2021. Previously, she spent many years at a leading law firm focusing on private equity and investment funds, as well as capital markets and securities. Grace holds a bachelor's degree in law and a double degree in economics, both from Peking University. She has passed the PRC national judicial examination.

Cherie Qian

Legal Director

Legal Manager at Linear Capital. Responsible for legal matters of the fund. Before joining Linear Capital, Cherie worked at Global Law Office and Shihui Partners for more than five years, focusing on VC/PE, mergers and acquisitions, and general corporate matters. Cherie graduated from the law school of Nanjing University.

Franny Zhong

Finance Manager

Before joining Linear, Franny worked as a finance manager at a subsidiary of CICC Capital, responsible for managing the financial operations of the management company and the funds. She also worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) as a senior auditor, focusing on the audit of private equity funds under PRC and US GAAP.

Franny graduated from the School of Accounting at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.

Kalyn Lu

Senior Finance Specialist

Kalyn joined Linear Capital in 2022. Before Linear, Kalyn worked at YF Capital, responsible for fund financial operations and portfolio valuation. Kalyn also worked as an auditor at Ernst & Young and has experience at PE/VC and securities firms.

Kalyn graduated from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.

Jessica Zhou

Office Manager

Before joining Linear Capital, Xiang served as a meeting specialist at Suning Commerce Group, where she was responsible for coordinating internal executive meetings and shareholders' meetings, as well as planning and arranging reception meetings for all business divisions.

After that, Xiang worked at Wizwork as administrative director, handling project customer file collection, fee collection, customer communication, and maintenance to ensure stable project operations.

Helen He

Vice President

Prior to joining Linear Capital, Helen worked at several well-known companies across the internet and financial industries, including Google China, CICC, Wandoujia, Zhubajie.com, and ZhongAn Insurance. Having experienced the rapid growth phases of some startups, she also served as an HR business partner, helping teams sustain growth at more mature companies. She brings extensive experience in recruiting and team management. Helen graduated from Beijing Language and Culture University. She loves food, travel, and dance.

Ronghui Li

Vice President

Ronghui Li joined Linear Capital in 2020 and oversees branding and PR for both the firm and its portfolio companies. With more than eight years of experience, she previously worked as a content editor at QingMang and as a Silicon Valley-based reporter at YiMagazine, covering technology companies and startups. Ronghui holds a master's degree in journalism from Renmin University of China.

Joseph Zhang

Investor Relations

Before joining Linear Capital, Joseph worked as an investment analyst at DUMAC (Duke University Management Company), investing in private equity and venture capital funds globally. Joseph graduated summa cum laude from Duke University with a double major in economics and statistics. At Duke, he served as president of the Duke University Chinese Students and Scholars Association.

Michael Ling

Managing Director

Michael joined Linear Capital in 2023, focusing on developing the firm's international business and relationships, as well as supporting portfolio companies' global expansion. Previously, he was with Jeneration Group, a leading multi-family office investment platform focused on Asia growth investments and global multi-asset investments. Before that, Michael was with CDH Investments, a leading private equity and alternative investment manager, where he helped build out the multi-asset alternative investment platform. He began his career in New York at Bear Stearns, then moved to JPMorgan's investment banking and private equity divisions, and later joined Guggenheim Partners' principal investment and private equity business before relocating to Asia. Michael graduated with high distinction from Indiana University Bloomington with a Bachelor of Science.

Our LPs

Among our close long-term partners are Asia's top asset managers and professional investment institutions/FoFs, leading sovereign wealth funds, world-class university endowments, leading enterprises across multiple sectors, and founders of successful tech startups from China and around the world, alongside Chinese government guidance funds and other Chinese and international family offices. We leverage our expertise and industry resources to help portfolio companies move fast and break fewer things, pursuing "Linear Path, Nonlinear Growth."

Location

We're headquartered in Shanghai and Beijing, and travel throughout China wherever opportunities arise.

Sectors

Investment Stage

Our initial investments concentrate on angel rounds (~30%), pre-Series A (~60%), and Series A (~10%). We get in early and stay for the long haul. For every dollar we invest initially, we're prepared to follow on over the long term. We make selective, concentrated long-term bets.

Check Size

We can invest $1–10 million USD (or RMB equivalent) as an initial investment. Our sweet spot is $3–8 million USD as a lead investor.

Post-Investment Support

Key Moment Advising: Participating in critical discussions around core product iteration, market expansion, or commercialization — e.g., architecting Dianping's data platform framework, and commercialization guidance for FraudMetrix and Sensors Data.
Key Hire Recruitment: Helping recruit director-level and above positions. For example, we helped Horizon Robotics hire its CTO, Tezign recruit a senior VP of engineering, and Dianping interview and hire an engineering director.
Next-Round Financing: Helping companies close their next 1–2 funding rounds. We've helped GuanData, Sensors Data, FraudMetrix, Tezign, and others complete follow-on rounds with top-tier investors. We maintain close relationships with 30+ leading fund partners in China and actively facilitate subsequent rounds.
Key Client Introductions: Connecting portfolio companies with relevant customer resources to establish and convert into business partnerships. For instance, we organized Linear-Starbucks Day and Linear-Honeywell Tour, helping roughly 10 portfolio companies connect with major enterprises and generating multiple successful POCs and business contracts.
Strategic Brand Building: Leveraging Linear's external channels to help companies build market presence and industry influence through success stories, awards, and media coverage — creating positive momentum for fundraising, business development, and talent recruitment.

Portfolio Companies

Horizon Robotics WeChat: @地平线HorizonRobotics