Sinovation Ventures

Sinovation Ventures (Chinese: 创新工场; pinyin: Chuàngxīn Gōngchǎng) is a Beijing-based venture capital firm founded in 2009.^[2] The firm focuses on investing in startups that use artificial intelligence technology.^[3] It was one of the first Chinese venture capital firms to establish a presence in the United States.^[2]

Sinovation Ventures

Native name	创新工场
Formerly	Innovation Works
Type	Private
Industry	Venture Capital
Founded	7 September 2009; 14 years ago (2009-09-07)
Founders	Kai-Fu Lee Hua Wang
Headquarters	Beijing, China
Products	Investments
AUM	US$3 billion (2022)
Website	sinovationventures.com
Footnotes / references ^[1]

Background

Kai-Fu Lee was President of Google China from July 2005 to September 4, 2009.^[2][4][5][6] A few days after resigning from his post, on September 7, 2009, he announced he would be starting a $115m venture capital fund called "Innovation Works".^[2][5][6][7] His colleague, Hua Wang who was previously Head of Business Development in Google China joined him as a co-founder.^[8]

In 2013, an office was opened in Silicon Valley to invest in US startups.^[9][10]

In 2016, the firm rebranded from "Innovation Works" to "Sinovation Ventures".^[7]

In 2019, the firm closed its Silicon Valley office citing the China–United States trade war making it difficult to get into US deals.^[9][10]

Funds

Fund^[11]	Vintage Year	Committed Capital ($m)
Sinovation Fund I	2011	USD 180
Sinovation Fund II	2012	USD 275
RMB Fund I	2012	USD 48.5
Sinovation Fund III	2016	USD 207
RMB Fund II	2016	USD 380
Sinovation Fund IV	2018	USD 500
Artificial intelligence fund^[12]	2018	USD 391
RMB Fund III^[13]	2019	USD 361
Sinovation Fund V^[14]	2022	USD 203

Notable Investments

• AdMob^[15]
• Bitmain^[9]
• Insilico Medicine
• Megvii^[9]
• MeituPic^[7]
• Mobike^[9]
• Momenta
• Niu Technologies
• Planetary Resources
• Securly
• TuSimple
• VIPKID^[9]
• WeRide
• Wonder Workshop^[9]
• Zhihu

References

1. "Sinovation Ventures". Sinovation Ventures.
2. "Chinese economy resilient thanks to its diversity, says top tech venture capitalist". South China Morning Post. 2018-12-05. Retrieved 2022-12-18.
3. Yuan, Li (24 August 2016). "China Gears Up in Artificial-Intelligence Race". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2022-12-18.
4. Sandoval, Greg. "Microsoft settles with Google over executive hire". CNET. Retrieved 2022-12-18.
5. . 2009-09-08. Archived from the original on 2009-09-08. Retrieved 2022-12-18.
6. . Reuters. 2009-09-10. Archived from the original on 2009-09-10. Retrieved 2022-12-18.
7. Yuan, Li (12 September 2016). "Sinovation Ventures Raises $675 Million in Fresh Capital". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2022-12-18.
8. "Hua Wang, Sinovation Ventures: Profile and Biography". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2022-12-18.
9. Levy, Ari (14 May 2019). "Google's former China head Kai-Fu Lee retreats from US investing amid trade dispute". CNBC. Retrieved 2022-12-18.
10. Kaye, Kate (2022-11-07). "Kai-Fu Lee tried to teach the US about Chinese AI and got a rivalry". Protocol. Retrieved 2022-12-18.
11. "Sinovation Ventures | Palico". www.palico.com. Retrieved 2022-12-18.
12. Wu, Yimian (2018-05-25). "Sinovation Ventures Establishes $391M AI Fund In Guangzhou". China Money Network. Retrieved 2022-12-18.
13. Wang, Eudora (2019-06-05). "Former Google China Head-Led Sinovation Ventures Closes Third RMB Fund At $361M". China Money Network. Retrieved 2022-12-18.
14. "Sinovation Ventures raises $203m so far for fifth flagship venture fund". DealStreetAsia. Retrieved 2022-12-18.
15. Gobry, Pascal-Emmanuel. "The Guy Who Ran Microsoft And Google In China Clones US Startups". Business Insider. Retrieved 2022-12-18.

External links

• Official website