Taoran Sun

Taoran Sun is a Chinese serial entrepreneur best known as the founder and chairman of Lakala Payment Co., Ltd. Lakala was founded in 2005 and became one of China’s early licensed third-party payment providers after receiving a Payment Service License from the People’s Bank of China in 2011. Lakala Payment listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange ChiNext board in April 2019 under stock code 300773.

Sun graduated from Peking University’s Department of Economic Management in 1991. Public company biographical filings state that from 1991 to 1998 he held roles at Sita Group including deputy manager of the advertising department, general manager of Sita Advertising, and vice president of Sita Group. From 1998 to 2001 he served as director and executive vice president of Beijing Hengji Weiye Electronic Products Co.

Before Lakala, Sun co-founded or helped build several Chinese companies, including BlueFocus, the marketing and PR group, and worked on the Hengji Weiye “Business Link” handheld electronics business. Peking University describes him as a successful serial entrepreneur who founded Lakala, BlueFocus, Koala Fund and other ventures, and notes that he has served as an external mentor for Guanghua School of Management EMBA programs and in Peking University entrepreneur organizations.

Koala Fund was founded in 2015 by Sun and is managed by a professional investment team. The firm says it manages more than RMB 2 billion and is backed by LPs including Lakala, Beijing Science & Technology Innovation Fund, Zhongguancun Science City, Guotai Junan, Legend Holdings, Peking University Education Foundation, CAS Holdings, BlueFocus, TRS and Glodon.

• Koala Fund says it focuses on early and early-growth companies with “huge market potential,” organized around two core themes: “digitalization” and “autonomous and controllable” technology.
• Its stated investment areas include IT architecture upgrades, new digital and intelligent infrastructure, general digital applications, vertical-industry digital applications, basic hardware, basic software, cybersecurity and foundational applications.
• Koala Fund’s published investment philosophy is to conduct “deep industry focus and research,” identify future trends and investment themes, and work alongside high-potential early companies and founders.
• The fund emphasizes value-add from LP resources: Lakala, Legend Holdings, listed-company LPs and government/industry LPs are positioned as channels for strategic resources, business development support and company-building help.
• Fund I was established in November 2015, focused on internet industry investing, primarily Series A to Series C, with fintech and enterprise services as core directions.
• Fund II was established in November 2019 with Beijing municipal and Haidian district funds and Lakala as major LPs; its stated goal is to invest in future fintech leaders and support fintech commercialization and incubation.