Ex-Alibaba scientist is ready to support founders outside of the Ivory TowerMin Wanli was a highly sought-after career choice for those interested in computer science careers. Min Wanli, a prodigy, was admitted to a top Chinese research university at the age 14. After completing his Ph.D. in statistics and physics at the University of Chicago, Min spent nearly a decade at IBM and Google.Min, like many other young, aspiring Chinese scientists, returned to China during the height of China's internet boom in the early 2010s. Min joined Alibaba's cloud arm, and was at the forefront in applying Alibabas tech to industrial situations. He used visual identification to reduce highway traffic and compute power to increase factory efficiency.Min made a leap in July 2019. Min resigned as Alibaba Cloud's chief executive. It had been a key growth driver for the ecommerce giant and was China's largest public cloud infrastructure provider. He had no investment experience and started North Summit Capital, a venture capital firm.Many enterprises were skeptical about digital transformation in 2016 and 2017. In Min's office, Min said that they were no longer skeptical of digital transformation in 2019, having seen successful cases from Alibaba Cloud. Min is looking out at a cluster in Shenzhen highrise offices and urban villages. He was dressed in a light-blue shirt and a smiley, childlike expression.Everyone wanted to be digital. How can I meet their needs when there is only 400-500 people in my team?Min's solution was to not serve old-school corporations and factories but to finance and help a number of companies. He quickly closed the North Summit fund with hundreds of millions of dollars from an undisclosed high net-worth individual from United Arab Emirates. Min met Min when Min represented Alibaba at Duhai's 2018 tech conference.Min says that venture capital is like a magnifier. It allows me to connect with many tech companies and share my experiences from the past so they can work efficiently with clients from traditional industries.As an example, I would discuss with my portfolio companies whether to sell hardware or software first or give them equal weight.Min strives for deep involvement in the companies that he backs. North Summit invests quickly, with check sizes ranging from $5 million to $25,000,000. Quadtalent, Min's technology service company, was also established to support his portfolio after he has invested.Many investors find the idea of digital transformation both exciting and scary due to traditional industries' complex and fragmented nature. Min has a set of criteria that will help him narrow down his target market.First, an area that is investable should be data-intensive. For example, subway tracks could benefit from large numbers of sensors to monitor the status of rail systems. A second requirement is that a manufacturing area or business process be capital-intensive. For example, production lines that require exorbitant equipment. The industry should also be dependent on repetitive human experience such as traffic police officers.Not only founders need to be able to solve industrial problems, but they also need to have experience in an industry. Min looks beyond the Ivory Tower for computer science wizards to find entrepreneurs.Today, we need a cross-disciplinary talent that can perform compound algorithms. This includes understanding business rationales and sensor signals as well as manufacturing processes. It is impossible to apply neural networks through an algorithmic blackbox without considering the other factors.Min is facing a lot of competition from investors as they hunt for the next ABB or Schneider in China. The country is moving towards technological independence in all aspects of its economy. This mandate becomes more urgent as COVID-19 disrupts global supply chain. Min pointed out that startups offering industrial upgrade solutions are seeing skyrocketing valuations as a result.Factory bosses don't care if their automation solution providers happen to be underdogs or startups. The factory CFO will ask the question, "How much more do we save or make with this piece of equipment or software?" "The investor is cautious about the deployment of his maiden fund. North Summit is now two years old and has already closed four deals. TopScore, an automated footwear company, was founded in 2017. Lingumi, an English-language learning app for pre-school children in China, was launched in London. Aerodyne, Malaysia's drone service provider, was also closed. Extreme Vision is a marketplace that connects small and medium enterprises with affordable AI vision solutions.North Summit plans to invest close to $100 Million in Chinese companies this year. Mins have recently been looking at optical storage and robotic process automation (RPA), just two of the many areas on their radar.
