James Zhang

James Zhao-Hui Zhang is a venture investor and entrepreneur with nearly three decades of experience across biotechnology, venture capital, and financial services. He has been a partner at VU Venture Partners since 2020, where public filings describe the firm as San Francisco- and Hong Kong-based and state that he co-founded its Asian office in Hong Kong.

Before VU, Zhang was a founding partner of Formation 8, a Silicon Valley venture firm with more than $1B under management. HKUST describes Formation 8 as an early backer of companies including Oculus VR, Wish.com, Oscar Health, OpenGov, and Blend Labs. He was also previously a venture partner at SoftBank China Venture Capital and Khosla Ventures; VU says that at Khosla he helped bring portfolio company LanzaTech into China by brokering deals with Chinese steelmakers.

Zhang’s operating background is rooted in life sciences. He was a co-founder of Mendel Biotechnology, BioConsortia, Modular Bioscience, and WaterCare Technologies. VU says he led Mendel Biotechnology’s business development, including its agricultural collaboration with Monsanto and biofuel collaboration with BP.

Academically, Zhang holds a PhD in Genetics from the University of California, Davis, and a BS in Biology from the University of Science and Technology of China. HKUST lists him as Adjunct Associate Professor of Finance and Associate Professor of Science Practice, teaching venture capital and entrepreneurship. From August 2021 to June 2024, he was Chief Investment Officer, technologies and venture capital, at Great Eagle Holdings; since June 2024, he has served as advisor to the chairman.

• VU Venture Partners describes its Fund II as “A Global Deep Tech VC Fund,” investing from pre-seed through Series B.
• VU’s stated sector focus spans Consumer, Enterprise, FinTech, Frontier Tech including AI, robotics, materials, and space tech, Healthcare including digital health, medical devices, biotech, and pharma, and PropTech.
• VU says its initial investment amount is $100K-$1M per portfolio company, with 50% of Fund II reserved for follow-on rounds and the ability to invest up to $10M in follow-on financing.
• VU’s stated geography for its global fund is 65% North America, 20% Asia, 10% Europe, and 5% LatAm, with offices including San Francisco, Austin, Munich, Burgas, Sao Paulo, and Hong Kong.
• Zhang’s GRC Fund background points to a more China/U.S.-oriented focus on energy and resource efficiency, health and wellness, sustainability, agriculture technologies, medical devices, data analytics, cloud computing, and new materials.
• VU says it is not strictly stage-focused or valuation-sensitive; its “core focus is investing in 10-100x+ return opportunities.”