Lanchi Ventures Research
Investment Thesis
Lanchi Ventures (formerly BlueRun Ventures China, rebranded in September 2023) backs early-stage technology entrepreneurs under the stated mission to "re-define the future through technology." Founded in 2005 by Jui Tan and Terry Zhu as a spinout of Nokia Venture Partners, the firm built its early track record in Chinese consumer internet and mobility before pivoting decisively toward artificial intelligence. By July 2023 the firm had set a target of allocating over 50% of its latest fund to AI, and its newest dual-currency vehicle explicitly splits between an RMB fund aligned with Chinese industrial policy and a USD fund targeting globally competitive AI ventures founded by Chinese entrepreneurs.
Sector Focus
Lanchi organizes its public-facing thesis around four pillars: AI, Robotics, Bio + Healthcare, and Consumer. In practice the portfolio skews heavily toward applied and infrastructure AI (agentic software, inference/compute infrastructure, embodied intelligence), physical AI and robotics (humanoid and service robots, autonomous mobility), and a smaller cluster of biotech/healthcare and vertical consumer/fintech bets. The firm runs ecosystem programs (Booming Camp, the Lanchi CEO Community, an AI Entrepreneurship Community, and an AGI Community) to source and support founders pre- and post-investment.
Stage Focus
Lanchi describes itself as an early-stage investor, engaging from pre-seed/seed through Series A, with selective follow-on participation in later rounds of standout portfolio companies (e.g., continuing to back Genspark through its Series B).
Check Size
Not publicly disclosed. Given fund size (~$560M for the newest dual-currency vehicle, ~$2.1B+ AUM across the platform) and an early-stage mandate, typical initial checks are likely in the low-to-mid single-digit millions, with meaningful reserves for follow-on.
Recent Activity
The firm closed its fourth dual-currency fund at approximately $560M (RMB 3.9B) in April 2026, bringing platform AUM to roughly RMB 20B. Managing partner commentary (attributed to "Chen Weiguang" in Dealroom/DealStreetAsia coverage, likely a transliteration variant of a Lanchi managing partner) emphasized continued conviction in Chinese AI and frontier-tech talent. In March 2026, six Lanchi portfolio companies presented at NVIDIA GTC in San Jose, with AGIBOT featured in the "AI for Robots" track. Portfolio company Genspark raised a $275M Series B in November 2025 (led by Emergence Capital and SBI Investment) to launch an AI workspace product. Singapore-based AI fintech RockFlow raised additional financing in November 2025 to expand agentic capabilities and global reach. Payments infrastructure company ONERWAY raised a $10M Series A+ in August 2025. Portfolio company TARS unveiled a large-scale multimodal dataset for embodied intelligence in October 2025.
Portfolio Highlights
Lanchi's site lists 200+ portfolio companies. Publicly featured names include Genspark (AI workspace/agents), Omi and ChatPods (AI consumer products), UniUni (last-mile logistics), Jobright (AI job search), PPIO and HPC-AI Tech (AI compute/infrastructure), BreezeML, Gausium Robotics and Galbot (commercial/service robotics), AGIBOT and TCab Tech (embodied AI and autonomous mobility), VITURE (AR glasses), RockFlow (AI fintech), KEYi Tech, LTZ Therapeutics, Allink Biotherapeutics and BioMap (bio/healthcare), and Li Auto, a Nasdaq-listed EV maker and one of the firm's most prominent early wins from its BlueRun Ventures China era.
Team
- Jui Tan, Founder & Managing Partner - Over 20 years of venture capital experience; started his VC career at BlueRun Ventures in Silicon Valley in 2001 and helped expand the firm into Asia from 2005. Previously Director of Global Service Development at Singapore Telecom and held engineering roles at IBM. B.S. in Electrical & Electronics Engineering from Nanyang Technological University; M.B.A. from IMD, Switzerland. Recognized on the Forbes Midas List among the world's top 50 venture capitalists. Personally led or participated in early investments in Li Auto, Genspark, Moonshot/Kimi, AGIBOT, Galbot, PPIO, UniUni, and TCab Tech.
- Terry Zhu, Co-Founder - Co-founded the firm alongside Jui Tan in 2005 (as BlueRun Ventures China); limited additional public biographical detail is available on the firm's current site.
External reporting (Tracxn) indicates a broader team of roughly 11 people including partners, venture partners, and principals across China and Singapore, though individual names beyond the two founders are not publicly listed on lanchiventures.com.
Decision Process
Structured as a multi-partner firm (partnership-style decision process) rather than a solo-GP shop, consistent with a ~11-person investment team spanning multiple offices.
Founder Preferences
The firm's messaging and portfolio composition point toward strong technical founders building at the frontier of AI and robotics, with particular emphasis on globally ambitious, Chinese-origin entrepreneurs (or teams with strong China-market ties) building agentic software, embodied AI, and deep-tech infrastructure.
Geographic Focus
Headquartered in Singapore, with additional offices/roots in Beijing and Hong Kong (expanded into Hong Kong in July 2024). The new fund structure explicitly bridges China-policy-aligned RMB capital with globally deployable USD capital, reflecting a dual China/global-Chinese-diaspora investment footprint across Greater China and Southeast Asia.
ESG
Signatory to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment since May 2022.