Eight Roads Ventures today announces that it has appointed Feng Zhao as a Venture Partner to further strengthen its global enterprise technology capabilities. Dr. Zhao will be based in the Beijing office and starts with immediate effect. Leveraging his extensive networking, he will be focusing on sourcing new investments for the China Technology Fund.

Dr. Zhao is an expert in the Internet of Things (IoT), he pioneered and developed fundamental technologies in this field. He was the Deputy Managing Director at Microsoft Research Asia, where he led his team to develop mobile and cloud solutions which advanced state-of-the-art computing and significantly impacted Microsoft product groups. Prior to that, he was the Principal Researcher and Partner at Microsoft Research Redmond.

More recently, Feng was the Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Haier, where he led the company’s R&D efforts and was in charge of its global smart home strategy - helping the company’s digital transformation from a hardware-centric manufacturer to an internet-enabled smart home solution provider.

Feng received his PhD in Computer Science from MIT and taught at Stanford University and Ohio State University. He authored and co-authored over 100 technical papers and books and has over 40 US patents issued.

Jarlon Tsang, Managing Partner and Head of China at Eight Roads Ventures said: “Our goal at Eight Roads Ventures is to help entrepreneurs develop the next generation of global technology companies, and investment capital from Eight Roads Ventures is only the initial step provided to our entrepreneurs. Access and support provided by Dr. Zhao and other industry veterans in our global ecosystem are essential resources we provide to our companies on their journey to success. We are excited to welcome Dr. Zhao in joining us as a core senior member of the technology investment team dedicating his deep experience in developing new technologies to support our entrepreneurs.”

Eight Roads Ventures has a growing network of domain experts globally, which now includes 25 Venture Partners sitting across Asia, the US and Europe.