Investor Profile: Sinovation Ventures — Thesis, Cheque Size & How to Apply

Any founder working in artificial intelligence knows the name. Understanding how to get funding from Sinovation Ventures starts with its founder: Dr. Kai-Fu Lee, the former President of Google China, who founded the firm in 2009 with his Google China colleague Hua Wang. Headquartered in Beijing, Sinovation manages US$3 billion across dual-currency USD and RMB funds, runs its own AI Institute, and has backed more than 400 companies.

Investment thesis: the TECH VC

Sinovation calls itself a "TECH VC" — a venture firm built around deep technical understanding, enhanced by the Sinovation Ventures Artificial Intelligence Institute led by Dr. Lee. The thesis is to nurture the next wave of deep-tech entrepreneurs building China's next generation of high-tech companies, with AI as the anchor. Funds are raised in parallel USD and RMB vehicles, giving founders currency options. (The firm was founded as Innovation Works and rebranded to Sinovation Ventures in 2016.)

Sectors and stages for Sinovation Ventures funding

Sector focus: artificial intelligence, healthcare technology, robotics and automation, semiconductors, enterprise software and digital lifestyle. The firm concentrates on seed and Series A stages and is strongest in the Chinese market, with offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. (It opened a Silicon Valley office in 2013 and closed it in 2019 as US–China trade tensions made American deals harder to access.)

Fund size and cheque size

Sinovation states it manages US$3 billion across ten USD and RMB funds (the firm's own 2022 figure). Reported fund history includes Sinovation Fund IV at $500 million USD (closed 2018, alongside a parallel 2.5 billion yuan RMB raise), a $391 million AI-focused fund (2018) and Sinovation Fund V at $203 million (2022). Individual cheque sizes are not publicly disclosed.

Notable portfolio companies

Landmark investments include Meitu (Hong Kong IPO), Mobike (the bike-sharing startup sold to Meituan), Face++ (facial-recognition AI), VIPKid (online English-language learning) and Bitmain (crypto-mining hardware) — all cited in the firm's own fund announcements. Kai-Fu Lee personally founded 01.AI in 2023, the Chinese large-language-model company behind the Yi model series.

Partners

Chairman and CEO Dr. Kai-Fu Lee — former President of Google China, founder of Microsoft Research Asia, author of the New York Times bestseller AI Superpowers, and Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum's Artificial Intelligence Council — alongside co-founder Hua Wang, formerly Head of Business Development at Google China. Lee also serves as President of the firm's AI Institute.

Programs run

Sinovation's "programme" is its Artificial Intelligence Institute, which functions as a technology platform and talent engine for the portfolio — the institutional version of a founder fellowship, giving companies access to frontier AI research and engineering talent.

How to apply for funding

Sinovation Ventures' site carries contact routes at sinovationventures.com. The firm is strongest in China and backs Chinese-market deep-tech teams, so founders elsewhere should consider whether their market fit is genuinely China-facing. Warm introductions through portfolio founders, the AI Institute's network or co-investors carry the most weight. Come armed with technical depth — this is a fund led by an AI pioneer, and it underwrites accordingly.