Google China head starts $115-million venture to fund net start-ups
08 Sep 2009
Four days after Dr. Kai-Fu Lee, Google's president and VP of engineering in China announced his resignation in mid-September, comes the news that he has raised $115 million to start a company that will finance the next generation of internet and mobile computing start-ups.
His departure as head of Google's China operations has been a setback for the internet giant as it attempts to raise market share in the search engine business in China, currently held by local leader Baidu.com.
Keeping an eye on mobile technology, cloud computing and internet start-ups, Dr. Lee has floated a company 'Innovation Works' to help talented Chinese engineers and entrepreneurs develop the next generation of internet and mobile computing technologies.
Dr Lee's company has managed to raise $115 million from investors like venture firm WI Harper Group, which will be the lead investor in Innovation Works, while YouTube co-founder Steve Chen, Taiwan-based electronics company Foxconn Electronics, Beijing-based investment holding company Legend Group and education company New Oriental Education and Tech Group are the other investors in the company.
Foxconn is one of the world's leading electronics companies, and it manufactures the iPhone for Apple and computers for Hewlett-Packard among others, while Legend's subsidiary is the China's laptop computer maker Lenovo.
Dr Lee said that although it is difficult to raise funds, he managed it in four weeks after meeting 12 people, nine of whom wrote checks immediately.