Linear Capital｜Linear Path, Nonlinear Growth

线性资本·2024年1月12日

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 member of the Accelerated Leadership Program at TCS, Can worked in multiple roles across business development, consulting, and new service introduction. His clients included largest banks and telecom providers in the US. Can was also a founding member of the China IT team at Morgan Stanley. He led the development of post-trading platforms of multiple asian markets for the bank. Can holds an MBA from 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 the Senior Manager of Ernst & Young, where he had worked for 8 years and focused on transaction advisory services, including due diligence, structuring and various tax planning. Ben graduated from the Department of International Finance of 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. Zeren has led Linear Capital's investments in companies such as Baoxiaohao, Aikeno, Woshi, and Baixiniu.

Prior to that, Zeren worked at Cloud and Smart Industry Group of Tencent as a researcher and developer in the field of artificial intelligence. He has rich project experience in application of cutting-edge technology such as Computer Vision, Natural Language Processing, Big Data and Machine Learning in various industries, and has two AI related patents in China. Zeren owns a Bachelor degree in Civil Engineering from Tongji University and a Master degree in Applied Analytics from Columbia University, where his team won the champion of IBM Data & Analytics Challenge.

Wei Xin

Principal

Wei Xin focuses on deep tech, especially in robot, smart manufacturing and the combination of software and hardware. Wei Xin used to work for Microsat, an institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences, as a major engineer, be responsible for the control of satellites' attitude and orbit. Wei Xin owns a Bachelor degree and a Master degree in Mechatronic Engineering from HIT and also holds an MBA degree from SAIF.

Tianyi Zhou

Principal

Tianyi possesses great passion in interdisciplinary scientific advances that could dramatically increase productivity in chemistry, new materials and biology.

Prior to Linear, Tianyi served in a governmental VC in Suzhou focusing on investment opportunities of new materials and biotechnology.

Tianyi graduated from University of Cambridge with a Bachelor's degree with first-class honors in Natural Sciences and carried out research on gold nanoparticles in Mirkin Group, Northwestern University. He has also been awarded an honorary Master's degree from University of Cambridge.

Yifei Li

Principal

Yifei Li

Principle of Linear Capital, focusing on advanced tech on new energy and new materials. Prior to Linear, Yifei worked as the battery expert at NIO, responsible for the development of new battery platform and exploration of new materials application in EV. Before Nio, he was the PI in a startup, leading the R&D, scale up and commercialization for the aqueous lithium/sodium ion batteries and related materials, and their application on ESS. Yifei also has experience working in the EV cell department in CATL. He got Bachelor degree in Materials Physics from Wuhan University, received Ph.D. from the University of Houston majoring in materials science and engineering. He has published more than 10 top SCI papers, filed more than 20 patents in related fields.

Zoey Sun

Principal

Zoey Sun

Zoey joined Linear Capital as Principal focusing on AI infrastructure and application. Prior to Linear, Zoey spearheaded projects in data pipelines, NLU, and NLG since 2018 at Google HQ. 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 from Smith College with degree in Computer Science and later pursued MBA in Guanghua School of Management in Peking University and MMH in Cornell Nolan School.

Grace Zou

Legal Director

Grace joined Linear Capital as legal manager in 2021. Previously, Grace has many years of experience, working at a leading law firm focusing on private equity & investment funds, capital markets/securities. Grace holds a Bachelor Degree in Law and a Double Degree in Economics both from Peking University. Grace has past PRC national judicial examination.

Cherie Qian

Legal Director

Legal Manager of 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 the fields of VC/PE, merger and acquisition and general corporate. Cherie graduated from the law school of Nanjing University.

Franny Zhong

Finance Manager

Before joining Linear, Franny has worked as finance manager in a subsidiary of CICC Capital, being responsible for managing the financial work of the management company and the funds. She also has worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) as a senior auditor, focusing on the audit of private equity funds (PRC/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 in YF Capital, being responsible for fund financial work and portfolio valuation. Kalyn also has worked as an auditor in Ernst & Young, and has experience in PE/VC and securities companies.

Kalyn graduated from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.

Jessica Zhou

Office Manager

Before joining Linear Capital, Xiang served as a meeting specialist in Suning Commerce Group Co.,Ltd, being responsible for the arrangement and coordination of internal executive meetings and shareholders' meetings, as well as the arrangement and layout of reception meetings for all business divisions.

After that, Xiang worked at Wizwork as administrative director, responsible for the collection of project customer files, fee collection, communication with customers, maintenance and other work to ensure the stable operation of the project.

Helen He

Vice President

Prior to joining Linear Capital, Helen worked in a number of well-known companies in the Internet and financial industries such as Google China, China International Capital Corporation Limited(CICC), Wandoujia, Zhubajie.com, and ZhongAn Insurance. Having experienced the rapid growth periods of some start-up companies, Helen also has worked as HRBP to help the teams to get continue growth in mature companies. She is experienced in recruitment and team management work. Helen graduated from Beijing Language and Culture University. She loves food, travel, dance, etc.

Ronghui Li

Vice President

Ronghui Li joined Linear Capital in 2020, responsible for Linear Capital's branding and PR, as well as portfolio branding and PR. Ronghui has more than 8 years of experience, working as Content Editor at QingMang, and Silicon Valley Based Reporter at YiMagazine focusing on stories of technology companies and startups. Ronghui holds a Master 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 Investment Office), investing in private equity and venture capital funds worldwide. Joseph graduated summa cum laude from Duke University with a double major in economics and statistics. At Duke University, Joseph served as the President of Duke University Chinese Student Association.

Michael Ling

Managing Director

Michael joined Linear Capital in 2023, focusing on developing our international business / relationships and supporting portfolio companies' global expansion. Prior to joining Linear Capital, Michael was with Jeneration Group, a leading multi-family office investment platform that focuses on Asia growth investments and multi-asset investments globally. Before that, Michael was with CDH Investments, a leading Private Equity and alternative investment manager, helping build out the multi-asset alternative investment platform. Michael started his career in New York with Bear Stearns and then JPMorgan in its investment banking division and also private equity business, Michael was also with Guggenheim Partners' principal investment and private equity business before moving back to Asia. Michael graduated High Distinction with a Bachelor of Science from Indiana University – Bloomington.

Our LPs

Among the long-term investors we work closely with, there are top asset management companies and professional investment institutions/FoFs in Asia, top sovereign funds, world-class university endowment funds, leading enterprises from multiple business sectors, and founders of developed technology startups in China and all over the world, as well as the Chinese government FoF and other Chinese and foreign family offices. We are using our professional knowledge and industry resources to help our portfolio companies to move fast and break fewer things, pursuing "Linear Path and Nonlinear Growth".

Location

We are based in Shanghai and Beijing, but we also travel around China from time to time, wherever the opportunities are.

Covered Sectors

Investment Stage

Our initial investment stage focuses on Series Angel (~30%), Series Pre-A (~60%) and Series A (~10%). We come in early and support for long. For each single dollar we initially invest, we are well prepared to make follow-on investment in the long run. We make selective long-term heavy bets.

Check Size

We can invest US$1~~10M (or equivalent RMB) as initial investment. Our sweetest spot of check size is at US$3~~8M as lead investor.

Post-investment Service

Key Moment Advising: to participate in key discussions during core product iteration, market expansion, or commercialization, e.g. the construction of Dianping.com's data platform framework, and commercialization suggestions for FraudMetrix and Sensors Data.
Key Position Hiring: to help recruit key positions (Director or above). For example, we help the Horizon Robotics recruit CTO, help Tezign hire senior technology VP, help Dianping.com interview and recruit engineering director, etc.
Key Round Financing: to help companies complete the next 1-2 rounds of financing. E.g., we managed to help GuanData, SensorsData, FraudMetrix, Tezign, etc. complete the subsequent rounds with reputational investors. We maintain close contact with the best 30+ fund partners in China, deeply participate in and facilitate the subsequent rounds.
Key Client Conversion: to help enterprises connect with appropriate customer resources, get to establish and gradually convert into business cooperation. For instance, we organized Linear-Starbucks Day and Linear-Honeywell Tour, and help around 10 portfolio companies to connect with business giants and give rise to several successful POCs and business orders.
Key Moment Branding: to utilize Linear's external channel to help the enterprises establish market branding with industry influence, success stories, award information and etc., so as to create positive impacts in the process of financing, business development, and talent recruitment.

Some Cases

Horizon Robotics Wechat@地平线HorizonRobotics