What does it take to back China’s next generation of global tech founders?

Patrick Kavanagh—operator, investor, and founder of Old Friendship Capital—shares his journey from Robinhood to investing in China’s most ambitious startups.

Patrick breaks down the opportunities, challenges, and strategies for navigating China’s fast-changing VC landscape.

Key Points:

• Insider stories behind Manus AI - the Chinese AI agent startup recently backed by Benchmark
• Why Patrick is bullish on Chinese founders building for global markets, especially in AI and hardware
• The importance of cross-cultural insight and on-the-ground research for foreign investors
• How volatility in US-China relations can create unique investment opportunities

• Advice for foreign investors who plan to allocate in China venture capital

🚀 From Li Auto to AGI: What’s Next for China’s Innovation Wave?

Future Capital backed Li Auto pre-product. It’s now a $30B company.It also invested in MiniMax—8 months before ChatGPT launched.

These were more than bets—they were signals of where the future is headed.

🔋 1. The EV Revolution: From Hardware to Embodied AI

Three phases have already unfolded:

Phase 1: Electrification → solid-state batteries, perovskite

Phase 2: Automation → lidar, autonomous driving

Next: AI-native vehicles

The battleground has shifted. It’s no longer hardware—it’s intelligence.

🧠 2. China's “Six Tigers” (LLMs) & the Post-DeepSeek Landscape

Baichuan pivoted to verticals like healthcare

01.AI’s model team got absorbed into Alibaba

The rest? Still in the AGI race—but compute + capital are massive bottlenecks

Then there’s MiniMax

Only 2–3 LLMs will survive. The rest? They’ll evolve into specialized agents.

🌏 3. From ‘China for China’ to ‘China for the World’

This is a new wave of builders—born local, building global.

In this captivating episode, we sit down with Marko Bjelonic, CEO & Co-Founder of RIVR (formerly Swiss-Mile), whose groundbreaking wheeled-quadruped robots are transforming last-mile delivery.

From his early days as a PhD researcher at ETH Zurich to securing backing from Jeff Bezos and establishing partnerships with Chinese robotics companies, Marko shares his journey of building a global robotics company from Switzerland. We explore how his immigrant background shaped his entrepreneurial vision, the technological innovations behind RIVR's robots, and how the company navigates the complex dynamics between Western and Chinese robotics ecosystems.

Key Topics:

• From PhD Project to Jeff Bezos Backing: How a Swiss startup captured the attention of the world's top investors
• Robots with the Best of Both Worlds: The engineering breakthrough of combining wheels and legs in quadruped robots
• East Meets West: Navigating the diplomatic dance of Chinese partnerships while maintaining global ambitions
• The Switzerland of Robotics: Leveraging European neutrality to build bridges in an increasingly divided tech world
• Beyond the Last Mile: RIVR's vision for advancing physical AI across industries and continents

🚀 How Lalamove ("Uber for Truck") Became a $10B Logistics Powerhouse While Uber Struggled in China

🚀 How Chinese Companies Are Expanding Overseas and Becoming Global Leaders.

🚀 Why Betting on SEA & India As The "Next China" Might Be Missing the Bigger Picture

We had an incredible conversation with Ian Goh, Managing Partner at 01VC, diving into the reality of venture investing in China and Southeast Asia, global expansion, and supply chain investment landscape.

Here’s what we covered:

🚛 Lalamove’s $10B Playbook: We break down how Lalamove scaled across 350+ cities in China while Uber struggled and failed. The secret sauce of Lalamove’s success and practical tips for companies expanding into China.

🌏 China’s "Go Global" Playbook (出海 Chuhai): From robotics to digital solutions, we explore how Chinese companies are expanding overseas and becoming global leaders.

💰Why SEA & India Are NOT the "Next China"

🔍 A Chinese Investor’s Take on Europe’s Push for Supply Chain Transparency and Traceability

In this explosive episode, we dive deep into the DeepSeek phenomenon with Linear Capital's Harry Wang, exploring how this Chinese AI startup shook the global tech landscape. From DeepSeek's unconventional founding story to its groundbreaking R1, we unpack why the market initially missed this AI dark horse and what it means for the future of global artificial intelligence. The conversation expands beyond DeepSeek to examine China's evolving AI and robotics landscape.

Key Topics:

• The Deepseek R1 Model: Why it’s a game-changer in AI and how it’s impacting the global market and AI hardware landscape, including Huawei’s role.
• China’s VC Response: Why no major Chinese investors backed Deepseek and what this means for the venture ecosystem.
• Linear Capital’s AI Investment Shift: How Linear is adapting its thesis to focus on consumer AI applications and robotics.
• Chinese VC Internationalization: Linear Capital’s European expansion and the opportunities and challenges of going global.

In our second episode, we sit down with Boyu Hu, founder of XVC. Boyu shares his unique investment philosophy, emphasizing independent thinking and emotionless decision-making, and spotting unconventional opportunities in China’s rapidly evolving consumer market.

Key Topics Include:

Join us for an in-depth analysis of how independent thinking and emotionless decision-making can unlock extraordinary value in China's consumer market.

In our first episode, we sit down with Herry Han, founding partner of Soul Capital and a seasoned veteran in China’s VC scene. Herry takes us through his remarkable 20-year journey in VC, sharing his investment philosophy in electric vehicles (EVs) and artificial intelligence (AI), as well as his bold vision for the future of Chinese tech.

Key topics include:

Join us for an insightful conversation about how technology and culture shape the world, and why Herry believes the ultimate goal is a global handshake of humanity.

The one podcast for everything about Venture Capital in China, co-hosted by Danchun and Wuhao.

We talk to the brightest investors and most visionary founders in the VC space, sharing exclusive insights for global GPs and LPs.

Let’s tell a better China venture story!