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 She went on to make millions of dollars betting on China's software
and Internet boom - including buying into Xiaomi [XTC.UL] five years
ago when the company had only a prototype of the smartphones that
have since catapulted it up the global rankings and turned it into a
$45 billion enterprise.
Now, Lee, 43, is going back to her hardware roots, predicting a
renaissance for start-ups as China boosts technology and skills at
factories, potentially triggering a wave of new inventions - from
drones and robots to smart cars and beyond.
"Finally, after 15 years of investment in China, we're starting to
see the real 'makers' come to play," Singapore-born Lee, who moved
to China in 2005 to set up GGV's Shanghai office, said in one of
several interviews with Reuters.
GGV, founded in 2000 as Granite Global Ventures, has nearly $2.7
billion across six funds, with early investments in e-commerce giant
Alibaba Group Holding, ride-hailing app Didi Kuaidi and Tujia, a
Chinese vacation rental firm similar to Airbnb Inc.
The venture capital firm invested in Alibaba when Jack Ma's group
was valued at just $200 million. It's now worth $171 billion. Lee
also invested in UCWeb, which Alibaba bought for $4 billion last
year in China's biggest Internet sector deal.
REINVENTION
China's cabinet this year unveiled the 'Internet Plus' and 'Made in
China 2025' plans to boost output through new investments and
innovation as breakneck growth slows in the world's second-largest
economy and labor costs rise.
Lee sees a particularly attractive opportunity in China with these
sweeping plans to digitize and automate the economy.
"China reinvents itself every 10 years, and you can see this in
their policies - from the migration from low-cost labor to
software-based IT personnel in 2000-05, to now precision
manufacturing and automation," said Lee, who worked briefly as a
banker at Morgan Stanley.
Lee, a junior college doubles kayaking champion, recently invested
in Chinese smart notebook start-up Xiaoniu and EHang, a drone maker
that specializes in flight control software and is looking to expand
into agricultural and industrial applications.
She has also looked into electric cars and autonomous driving and
flight technologies, as an extension of the investments in EHang and
electric scooter NIU.
Together with Hans Tung, another managing partner at GGV, Lee has
focused on hardware start-ups with a presence or founders in both
China and the United States - firms better able to marry Chinese
supply chain know-how with Western product design skills, Tung told
Reuters.
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SIMPLE METRICS
Lee, a trailblazer in the male-dominated world of venture capital,
says the industry is "gender agnostic," though she quips that she's
as much at home with the guys on the golf course - "I drive 250
yards" - as she is having dinner with entrepreneurs at home with
their family and kids.
Beyond crunching numbers on start-up businesses, Lee says she works
to simple metrics. "Have you invested? Have you helped companies?
Have you made money for investors?"
"Start-ups aren't an object. They're successful because of the
people behind them. It's about understanding the motivation behind
the person. When we talked to (Xiaomi founder) Lei Jun, it's not
saying 'oh, are you making a phone? What's in it?' He has this
passion, he has to win. That's very important."
Executives who have worked with Lee say she has strong analytical
skills and a steely, decisive edge.
Tiak Koon Loh, CEO of Chinese tech consultancy Pactera and a
longtime business partner, recalled when Lee fired a group of
executives at a portfolio business in the early 2000s, something
relatively unheard of at the time in the region. "For her, business
is business," he said.
For Lee, though, there's more to it than that.
"I'm a very gut feel type of investor and my background is pretty
unique. I'm a hard core engineer. I have a real love for the
industry. I just love pulling up products and seeing things come to
life."
(Reporting by Elzio Barreto and Gerry Shih; Editing by Lisa Jucca
and Ian Geoghegan)
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