Inside Out: Tell a Better Story of Investing in China

Dive into China's next "golden period" of AI with Stella Zhou, Founding Partner at INCE Capital.

With 20 years in VC—including backing Musical.ly (now TikTok) as Qiming's youngest partner—Stella shares her journey from Shanghai roots to leading AI-driven consumer bets like Lovart.ai, the world's first design agent, and Pebble, the revolutionary EV smart trailer.

Discover why AI is igniting a new era of cross-border innovation, her lessons from TikTok's explosive growth, navigating VC challenges as a female leader, and overlooked opportunities in China's talent-rich ecosystem.

From one-man AI startups to global exits, get a front-row seat to where consumer tech is headed. Perfect for AI enthusiasts, investors, and China tech watchers. Listen now!

#AIInnovation #ChinaVC #CrossBorderTech #TikTokOrigins

China Connect 2025 Event

Next-Gen Innovation & Investment Opportunities in China

🗓️ Oct 2, Zurich

👉 Register Here

In Ep 14, we sit down with Xinyue Hou, Lead Portfolio Manager at Bellecapital. She offers a masterclass in navigating the complexities and opportunities of the East from a Western vantage point. Xinyue shares her "neutral and rational" investment philosophy, shaped by her deep roots in China and professional experience in Europe, allowing her to see both the risks and rewards that others often miss.

In this episode:

• The "Uninvestible" Myth: Why Xinyue believes the "China is uninvestible" narrative is a critical misjudgment and where she finds compelling opportunities in semiconductors, innovative drugs, and AI.
• The "China Plus One" Playbook: A deep dive into the massive strategic shift creating powerful growth tailwinds for countries like Vietnam and India.
• A Generational Edge: How a "young mindset" is crucial for identifying the next big consumer trends—from Pop Mart to emotional spending—and adapting to disruptive technologies.
• High-Conviction Stock Picking: Xinyue reveals her three-part framework for identifying quality companies with sustainable growth, moats, and good returns.

From humanoids hitting factory floors to the surprising shift in where robotics innovation happens globally - this special episode brings together four leading investors from Silicon Valley, China, Switzerland, and the Nordics to decode the robotics revolution.

Featuring Karthee Madasamy from MFV Partners (PsiQuantum, Agility Robotics), Wei Cao from Lanchi Ventures (20+ robotics portfolio), Arne Tonning from Alliance VC (1X), and Klea Wenger from Swisscom Ventures (ANYbotics), we explore why 2025 could be robotics' breakout year.

Key insights: Why specialized robots still dominate vs. humanoids, how cross-border partnerships are reshaping the industry, and which regions are winning the intelligence vs. hardware battle. Plus exclusive takes on market adoption, regulatory challenges, and what investors really look for in robotics startups today.

Recorded live from our global robotics investment webinar.

Recorded across three continents (US, Europe, and China), this deep dive with James Zhao—Founder and Managing Partner of LYFE Capital—unpacks how transpacific healthcare buyouts are reshaping biotech and medtech.

A medical doctor turned investor (Monitor Group → Vivo Capital → LYFE), James shares how LYFE scaled to a global platform with USD 2B AUM and five offices, and why the next decade will be defined by a US–East Asia partnership: North America leading innovation; East Asia delivering high‑end, automated biologics and medtech manufacturing at scale.

We cover the “iceberg” under healthcare innovation—CRO/CDMO capacity, advanced manufacturing, and supply chains—plus the realities of exits and governance in China, AI as an execution lever (not just a buzzword), and LYFE’s transpacific value‑creation playbook that connects regulatory, R&D, and manufacturing across borders.

Highlights

• Transpacific thesis: enable innovation in the West with East Asia’s high‑end manufacturing, supply chain depth, and operational excellence—not cost arbitrage.
• Market contrast: US leads innovation and sets global FDA standards; China’s ecosystem enables faster, cost‑effective validation; Europe anchors with long‑cycle healthcare giants.
• East Asia hubs: Singapore, South Korea, and Japan emerging as precision medtech/biologics manufacturing centers; India scaling mid‑ to lower‑value segments and APIs.
• The “iceberg” view: Asia accounts for over 50% of global pharma CRO capacity, nearly 70% of biotech CRO, and ~30% of high‑end CDMO—crucial yet often overlooked.
• China realities: exit/liquidity remains the biggest challenge; M&A market less mature; many first‑time CEOs need governance and cycle-tested scaling support.

• AI in healthcare: practical gains in manufacturing, clinical ops, QC, and diagnostics—execution over foundation-model hype.
• LP takeaway: structural realignment of global healthcare is underway—timing matters as the next cycle of infrastructure gets rebuilt.

China’s economy is shifting from debt-driven, high-speed growth to a new era focused on high-quality, sustainable development. In this episode, we sit down with Hao Yu, Founder and CIO of hedge fund Bamboo Hill Capital, to explore how this transformation is creating one of the world’s richest landscapes for long/short alpha in public equities.

Key topics include:

• How China’s economic transition is creating distinct winners and losers—and why this is a dream setup for hedge fund strategies.
• The real story behind long/short investing in China: trading, timing, and the art of shorting consensus ideas.
• Why policy, not just profits, picks the market’s winners—and how investors can read the signals.
• The overlooked rise of R&D-driven companies in China’s public markets—and how to spot them.
• Lessons from Hao Yu’s journey: from star mutual fund manager to leading one of China’s most adaptive hedge funds.

Whether you’re a global allocator, equity investor, or just curious about China’s next chapter, this episode is packed with actionable insights and fresh perspectives for navigating a market in transition.

Join us for a conversation with Lei Yang, founder of Particle Future Venture Capital and one of China’s pioneering deep tech investors. In this episode, Lei reflects on his journey—from McKinsey, to leading advanced technology investments at NLVC, to launching Particle Future.

We explore the grit and resilience behind China’s HardTech ecosystem, the evolving mindset of founders, and why focus and product-market fit matter more than ever. Lei also shares stories, lessons for entrepreneurs, and his outlook on the future of deep tech, AI, and global innovation from a China perspective.

• The early challenges and strategic bets behind deep tech investing in China
• How “day one” mindset and grit separate exceptional founders from the rest
• Why Lei launched Particle Future venture fund
• Trends shaping China’s HardTech, AI, and IPO landscape today

Join us for an in-depth conversation with Xin Wu, Founder and CEO of Banyan Partners, as we explore the realities of investing in China’s public markets.

We discuss the nuances between public and private markets, and the unique risks and opportunities facing investors today.

Xin breaks down Banyan’s long/short value investing strategy, shares how they identify both long and short positions, and unpacks what sets China’s market apart from the US.

We explore recent surges in China’s tech stocks, the impact of global investor sentiment, and the challenges of evaluating Chinese corporate data. Xin also offers practical advice for Western LPs.

This episode is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.

“You don’t wait for perfect macro to invest in China — you follow the alpha, not the noise.”

New Inside Out episode with Ryan Yin, founder and Chief Investment Officer at Aspoon Capital, a long/short equity hedge fund that focuses on Greater China and invests across TMT, Consumer, and Industrial Sectors.

This one hits hard — no hedge fund fluff, check it out!

Top 4 takeaways：

1. Policy in China is actually not unpredictable

- Ten-year Book has already included how the government wants to change the country, people just ignored it.

- This is a paradigm shift, not policy chaos.

2. AI-related: investment opportunity, competition with the US

- AI in China is still investable. The best opportunities lie in undervalued companies not yet recognized as AI players.

- While China currently trails the U.S. in AI progress, it's a turn-based race — and a catch-up phase is likely in the second half of the year.

3. Decoupling with the US and geopolitical concerns

- Tariffs = forced localization = stronger domestic players.

- Trump might be bullish for China allocations, since geopolitical noise creates mispricings. That’s where we hunt.

4. The time to invest isn’t when it’s cheap— it’s when companies start performing

- Instead of beta-driven gains, today China’s market rewards those who are more alpha-focused.

- The worst time for China market is also probably the best time for new emerging managers to show up.

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.