Zhou Liu

Liu Zhou is the founder and chairman of Fortune Venture Capital (达晨财智), which he built into one of China's most influential homegrown venture firms. A Hunan native who trained in accounting at the Hunan College of Finance and Economics (湖南财经学院), Liu was working as an assistant to the president of Hunan TV & Broadcast Intermediary Co. (电广传媒, the listed arm of the Hunan Broadcasting System) when the company held a landmark IPO on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 1999. Recognizing the potential of venture capital, and backed with 100 million yuan from chairman Long Qiuyun, Liu went south to Shenzhen in 2000 to start the firm — choosing Shenzhen, he said, because "it was the frontier of reform and opening up." Fortune Venture Capital was formally established on April 19, 2000.

The firm's early years were brutal: of 196 companies it invested in through the 2001–2005 period, only about 10 remained operational by 2005. Its breakthrough came with Coship Electronics, which IPO'd on the Shenzhen SME board in June 2006. After the revised Partnership Enterprise Law passed, Fortune raised its first market-oriented fund from 2007 and reorganized as 达晨财智 in 2008, transitioning into a true market GP. A 2017 arrangement let the management team acquire a ~20% stake to retain talent.

Over more than two decades, Liu has become one of the most decorated figures in Chinese VC. He and president Xiao Bing were both named among China's "Top Ten Venture Capitalists" in 2009, and Liu has repeatedly won Zero2IPO's "China's Best Venture Investor" (2009, 2012, 2015) and appeared on the Forbes China VC 100 list (#49 in 2022, #22 in 2023). He serves as a vice-chairman of the equity- and venture-investment committee of the China Investment Association and is recognized as a Shenzhen municipal-level leading talent.

Today the firm reports roughly 60 billion yuan (~US$6–7 billion) under management across some 20+ funds, having invested in 780+ companies with 140+ IPOs and 130+ successful exits over its 25-year history.

• "Invest early, invest small, invest in tech" (投早投小投科技) — the firm's core current strategy, targeting hard-tech companies while they are still small, with hard tech reportedly 75–80%+ of the portfolio.
• Long-term, professional, value investing — Liu's stated philosophy: *"坚持长线、专业、价值投资，赚企业成长的钱，成长性是投资的灵魂"* ("stick to long-term, professional, value investing; make money from companies' growth — growth is the soul of investing").
• "Foreign eyes, domestic hands" — a house doctrine of *"以外资的眼光看项目，内资的手法做项目"* ("look at deals with a foreign investor's vision, execute them with a domestic investor's methods"), seeking China's emerging industries and growing alongside them.
• Exceptionally rigorous diligence — before investing, Liu insists on meeting 90%+ of a company's shareholders and management, examining at least seven internal departments, meeting four-plus customers, and analyzing three direct competitors; he is known for "only doing things within his circle of competence" (只做能力圈内事).
• AI stance (as of late 2025): the firm has backed ~40 AI companies across large models, humanoid/robot bodies and dexterous hands; Liu judges the AI "bubble" as "not that large overall" and argues top-tier institutions should "dance with the bubble" — staying disciplined on valuations while backing genuine innovation. For 2026 he is emphasizing "AI + applications" over chasing 100–200 billion-yuan headline valuations.