Innovation Works, a Chinese start-up incubator, announced today that it has raised $180 million from a list of American investors that includes Sequoia Capital, executives from Google and Facebook, and Silicon Valley Bank.
One investor, Yuri Milner, doesn’t see any reason why the world of shoestring tech startups and teen CEOs in hoodies should be an American phenomenon. “Kai-Fu’s Innovation Works is the top very-early-stage fund in China,” Milner told reporters.. “We are proud to be an investor, and hope that IW will help to produce in China companies on the scale of Facebook, Zynga, or Groupon.”
Innovation Works founder and Chinese businessman Kai-Fu Lee had a long career working with tech companies. He spent years as a VP of Apple’s Interactive Media Group, then helped Microsoft and Apple expand their operations in China. He founded Innovation Works in 2009.
“Innovation Works has incubated and invested in about 34 project companies, and nine of them have successfully obtained sizable Series A financing from third-party VCs,” Lee told reporters. “Our unique incubation and investment model has not only produced a pipeline of high-quality projects, but also enabled local early-stage start-up teams to grow quickly with the help of our 360-degree mentoring services.”
Read more at MarketWatch.
