Eight Roads, the global venture capital firm backed by Fidelity, announced the appointment of Dr. Feng Zhao as a Partner to strengthen its frontier tech capabilities. With immediate effect, Dr. Feng Zhao will oversee the firm’s early stage frontier technology investments as it continues to deepen its focus in core technology areas accompanied by a deep thematic investment approach.

Dr. Zhao joined Eight Roads two years ago as a Venture Partner to support the firm’s continued effort in building a global technology ecosystem and form the investment framework within the early stage frontier tech space. Since then, Dr. Zhao has led several investments for the firm, including cognitive services company Langboat and industry leading processor designer VCore.  In his new role, Dr. Zhao will lead the firm’s frontier tech team to pursue early stage bets in China, with a primary focus on next generation semiconductor, Internet of Things (IoT), and software technologies.

Jarlon Tsang, Managing Partner and Head of Eight Roads Ventures China commented: “We are pleased to acknowledge and celebrate Dr. Zhao’s continuing commitment to our platform. China is accelerating the development of its technology sector with the aim of creating a sound environment for the rapid advancement of cutting-edge hard technology and innovation. Dr. Zhao, with his extensive network and deep industry experience, is well-positioned to lead our frontier tech team to identify new opportunities and support visionary entrepreneurs to drive the next-generation technology innovation.”

Dr. Zhao added: “Ground-breaking hardware and software solutions are increasingly at the core of meeting today’s societal needs and addressing global challenges. We are very excited about the opportunities in China and supporting innovators who are passionate about frontier tech and its positive impact on society.”

As one of the region’s earliest venture capital funds, Eight Roads has evolved with the development of the technology industry in China and remains committed to supporting Chinese entrepreneurs to develop the next generation of global technology companies. In March, Eight Roads launched its second dedicated China Technology Fund of $350m to extend its momentum of capturing China’s growing technology investment opportunities.

To date, Eight Roads has invested in over 80 technology companies in China, sitting across enterprise tech/frontier tech (Alibaba, Kyligence, Yo-I, Pony.ai, Inceptio, Innovusion, Insilico Medicine, Langboat, Vcore, etc.), fintech (PingPong, FenBeiTong, Yingmi, Kafang, etc.), and consumer tech (Changing Biotech, Blueglass, Ruiyun Cold Chain, etc.). Globally, Eight Roads has backed over 260 companies in technology, including AppsFlyer, Cazoo, Icertis, Made.com, Neo4j, Paidy, Shadowfax, and Spendesk, to name a few.