Ex-Google China head's venture celebrates one year

Editor's note: Kai-Fu Lee, former head of Google China, quit Google and launched a venture business platform called Innovation Works a year ago. Now his team expanded to about 200 people and moved to a new building. At the one-year anniversary celebration, Lee talked about the latest development of Innovation Works and the future plans.

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Ex-Google China head's venture celebrates one year 

Innovation Works, former head of Google China Kai-Fu Lee's own venture platform company, has invested $4 million in a dozen projects covering areas of mobile Internet, Internet consumption, e-commerce and cloud computing, Lee said at his company's one-year anniversary celebration in Beijing on Wednesday.

At the new site, where his 200-person team planned to move, Lee unveiled five projects, which included a smart phone operating system based on Android for Chinese users, a software assistant for Android phones, an analytics tool for mobile developers in China, a photo processing tool for mobile phones and an SNS and Web-based games publishing tool targeting the global market.

Lee emphasized that mobile Internet would still be the priority. "We put 75 percent of our energy on mobile computing, as this is the top priority, which also contains the biggest opportunities. Fifteen percent of our energy will be put into e-commerce and 10 percent for cloud computing," he said.

Instead of generating ideas internally and investing in external projects, Innovation Works plans to put more emphasis on seeking external projects as it would be more efficient, Lee said when summarizing the gains of the past year and his aims for the future. [Full story]

A tour to Innovation Works' new working site

Lee talks about his company and China's Internet

Kai-Fu Lee sees fast growth in mobile Internet, e-commerce

E-commerce and mobile Internet will enter a pace of fast development in the next few years in China, Kai-Fu Lee, the chairman and CEO of Innovation Works said in Beijing on May 31.

Lee, who quit Google and launched a venture business platform called Innovation Works in September, revealed at the TMT China 2010 Internet & Mobile Forum that his company had already funded nine projects in the areas of E-commerce and mobile Internet, and some of them would be ready this year.

"We are putting much more emphasis on mobile computing. Seven of the nine projects are in mobile computing; two are in e-commerce," he said later in an exclusive interview with chinadaily.com.cn.

"Mobile Internet and e-commerce are growing so rapidly... If we do not act quickly, we may miss out," he added. [Full story]

Exclusive interview: Kai-Fu Lee's Innovation Works (Q&A)

Kai-Fu Lee, the chairman and CEO of Innovation Works, explained the latest development of his Innovation Works in an exclusive interview with chinadaily.com.cn after giving a keynote speech at the TMT China 2010 Internet & Mobile Forum held in Beijing on May 31.

Q: Could you briefly introduce the latest development at Innovation Works?

A: We've built a very strong team and we've brought in 100 engineers. They are very topnotch, new graduates from industry. We funded nine companies. Some were internally generating ideas, others were entrepreneurs approaching us. The nine companies and 100 engineers are getting started in building interesting products.  [Full story]

Earlier reports about Lee's venture 

Kai-Fu Lee is looking for people who want to grow information technology in China. His fledgling company, Innovation Works (IW), will back businesses it believes show promise.

One of IW's stated aims is to help enterprises become viable enough to be spun off. Lee stepped down as president of Google China to launch IW in September. The company has gotten off to a strong start. "We're busy recruiting," Lee said. "We've just gone on a campus recruiting tour, and found some really great people." [Full story]

Kai-Fu Lee floats 800m yuan fund

Google's departing China head, Kai-Fu Lee, said on Sept 7 that he plans to form an 800 million yuan fund to invest in hi-tech startups.

Young Chinese entrepreneurs would be able to obtain "angel funding" to develop their ventures, said Lee, who announced his decision to exit the Internet search giant on Sept 4.

WI Harper Group will be the lead investor in Innovation Work, the fund headed by Lee, according to a statement. Other investors include Steven Chen, the Youtube co-founder, Foxconn Technology Group, Legend Group and New Oriental Education & Technology Group. [Full story]

About Lee and his compamy 

Innovation Works is an investment company founded by Dr. Kai-Fu Lee in September 2009.

The company focuses on making early-stage high-tech investments, coaching young entrepreneurs, and providing complete services to help Chinese young people create successful start-up companies.

Innovation Works has raised funds from an elite group of investors, with the lead investor being WI Harper Group founded by Mr. Peter Liu.

Among the investors, there are Fortune 100 companies, well-known venture capital funds, and investors from both the US and China, including Foxconn Technology Group led by Mr. Terry Gou, Legend Holdings led by Mr. Liu Chuanzhi, New Oriental Education & Technology Group led by Mr. Yu Minhong, and Mr. Steve Chen who is a co-founder of YouTube.

Innovation Works has also received support from Silicon Valley Bank, Foundation Capital, Chunghwa Telecom, MediaTek Inc. and many top investors from the US, Europe and Asia. 

Kai-Fu Lee is a seasoned business executive with rich experience in the China market. Beginning his career as an engineer, Lee held top management positions at Apple, Silicon Graphics International and Microsoft.

As president of Google China from 2005 until September, Lee built a 700-person organization and helped boost Google's market share in China from 16.1 percent to 31.0 percent.

As a leader in the Chinese Internet sector, Lee also devoted himself to helping Chinese technology students achieve their career goals.

He has given hundreds of lectures to more than 500,000 students. He has written seven public letters and three books for Chinese students. Lee also runs a popular website, www.kaifulee.com, to answer questions from Chinese students.

Lee quit Google last year to establish a venture platform company called Innovation Works that supports Chinese information technology startups.

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