William Zhao

Senior Partner at BAI Capital/Bertelsmann Asia Investments

📍 China🔄 Updated September 2026💼 18 investments📅 11 years investing🗓 Last invested Sep 2025
VC🌍 ChinaInvested this year
18
Total investments
8
Early stage
3
Mid stage
0
Late stage
11y
Years active

Portfolio

18 investments · sorted by recency
All investments
Early stage
Mid stage
Late stage
Investor and board member
Sep 2025
INS is a cultural innovation platform under Hero Group, which also includes Hero Esports and Hero Games (Black Myth: Wukong).
 INS specializes in commercial real estate and offline user experiences across entertainment, nightlife, and youth culture. With projects in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chengdu, and Xi’an, INS is expanding its model to key cultural districts across China and internationally.
 The flagship complex, INS Land Shanghai, is located in the heart of Fuxing Park. Spanning seven stories and over 20,000 square meters, it houses more than 20 interconnected venues, including clubs, restaurants, and live performance spaces.
 INS also produces large-scale music festivals and cultural events, bridging global IPs with Chinese audiences while incubating original festival brands. By integrating Hero Group’s strengths in digital ecosystems, cultural production, and community engagement, INS is building the next generation cultural hub where esports, nightlife, music, and immersive storytelling converge.
Investor and board member
Aug 2025
VelaFi provides stablecoin-powered financial infrastructure for global businesses, connecting banking rails and blockchain networks to enable fast, compliant cross-border payments, domestic payouts, FX, and treasury operations.
Investor and board member
Dec 2024
Established in both Hong Kong and Singapore, KUN holds significant licenses in payment services and digital payment tokens. Our operations extend across emerging markets in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and beyond. Our mission is to offer cross-border trading enterprises and MNCs a comprehensive digital payment solution that prioritizes security, convenience, and efficiency. We are dedicated to building a forward-looking global next-generation digital payment network. For more information, please visit www.kun.global/
Investor and board member
Mar 2024
Local Payments, Global Business. Waffo, A unified payment solution that lets you go global in the blink of an eye.
Investor
2022
Co-founded by Xin Li-Cohen, Christie’s non-executive Deputy Chairman, and TRLab CEO Audrey Ou, TRLab fuses technology with fine art expertise to pioneer the future of collecting. Since its founding in 2021, TRLab has successfully designed and launched interactive art collecting experiences with leading digital and traditional artists, including “The Calder Question”, a multi-season educational project developed with the Calder Foundation; “Your Daytime Fireworks,” an online collecting journey with contemporary artist Cai Guo-Qiang, which was shortlisted for a 2022 Lumen Prize; and “Vogue Meta-Ocean”, the first digital art collection curated by Vogue editors worldwide. Exploding the Self", a 2021 limited-edition digital artwork TRLab co-developed with Cai Guo-Qiang, is now in the permanent collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Backed by notable investors from the tech and art sectors, TRLab’s partners and investors include Dragonfly Capital, Pace Verso, and Rockbund Art Museum, one of Asia’s premier contemporary art museums. Learn more about TRLab’s team and major projects at www.trlab.com.
Investor
2022
Somos el ecosistema cripto más completo de LATAM.
Investor
2022
Mocasa is a fintech company focusing on providing innovative credit payment services to the Philippine market. It aims to enable Filipino users to experience the convenience of credit payment anytime and anywhere, and enjoy benefits such as zero interest when paying on time, flexible installment plans, and credit limit growth. Currently, Mocasa has over 200,000 users who have successfully obtained credit limit. It has also integrated with many well-known partners to provide quality credit services such as Mastercard and Credit Information Corporation (CIC). To learn more about Mocasa or to experience its credit payment service, visit www.mocasa.com or download the Mocasa App in Google Play or Apple App Store.
Investor and Board Member
2021
Seyond™ is a leading global provider of image-grade LiDAR technology, powering a safer, smarter and more mobile world across the automotive, intelligent transportation, robotics and industrial automation sectors. Founded in Silicon Valley with strategically placed research and manufacturing facilities across the globe, Seyond is crafting LiDAR solutions that elevate autonomous driving and fuel the advancement of smart infrastructure development. The company’s dynamic portfolio – including ultra-long range flagship LiDAR sensor Falcon, mid-to-short range LiDAR sensor Robin and perception service software platform OmniVidi – powers automotive and ITS solutions for partners like NIO, Faraday Future, Exwayz and Hexagon. Currently, over 200,000 Falcon units are in use, and the product continues to be mass-produced today. See Smarter™.
Investor and Board Member
Jan 2020
乐荐信息科技(北京)有限公司 is an internet company based out of 北京, 北京, China.
Investor
Jan 2019
OPay gives you the freedom to do more! Transfers are fast and free, our network uptime is 100% with amazing cashback on data & airtime recharge. We are Beyond Banking
Investor and Board Member
Jan 2019
Stori is a fast-growing, venture-backed financial technology company, on a mission to democratize credit access for 400 million underbanked LatAm consumers. Stori currently operates in Mexico and has a global team with offices in Arlington Virginia, Mexico City, and Asia. We have quickly made our mark as one of the top digital banks in Mexico with more than two million applicants for our credit card product since launching. Stori is one of the top-funded startups in the region with US$250 million raised to date. We are backed by top global venture capital funds, such as GGV Capital, GIC, Lightspeed Venture Partners, General Catalyst, Goodwater Capital, Mexicos Tresalia Capital, Vision Plus Capital, BAI Capital and Source Code Capital; who have successfully invested in startups such as Affirm, Airbnb, Alibaba, Stripe, and TikTok. Stori has a standout founder team among fintechs, leveraging 100+ years of accumulated experience in consumer finance, banking and technology across Mastercard, Intel, Capital One, Morgan Stanley, GE Capital, and HSBC in the U.S., Mexico and Asia. The team has launched and managed many multi-million-customer credit card products globally, providing a wide breadth of experience and knowledge to our team.
early stageBanking
Investor
2019
Reap is a leading global payment technology provider that enables financial connectivity and access for businesses worldwide. By merging traditional finance with digital assets, bridging disparate economies, and connecting key financial players, we are transforming the financial landscape into a more interconnected and interoperable space for efficient money movement. With stablecoin-enabled corporate cards, payout solutions, and expense management tools, we streamline financial operations and empower businesses to scale. Our APIs enable businesses to embed finance into their own products and services, from issuing Visa cards to facilitating cross-border payments. Reap is supported by a strong network of investors, including Acorn Pacific Ventures, Arcadia Funds, HashKey Capital, Hustle Fund, Fresco Capital, Abacus Ventures, and Payment Asia. Founded in 2018 in Hong Kong, we have since expanded to a team of over 100 across the globe.
Investor
Jun 2018
Established in 2014, WeBank Co., Ltd. (“WeBank”) is the leading digital bank based in China. WeBank provides inclusive financial services to micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and the general public. In 2024, WeBank established its technology subsidiary “WeBank Technology Services” in Hong Kong. The subsidiary is committed to providing digital financial and infrastructural solutions to clients worldwide.
Investor
2018
Linklogis was founded in Shenzhen in February of 2016 by senior executives with backgrounds in international finance and internet technologies, with the support of Tencent and other early shareholders. Linklogis was successfully listed on the main board of HKEX in April of 2021, stock code 9959.HK, becoming the first listed China supply chain finance technology SaaS enterprise. Committed to be the leading supply chain finance technology solution provider, Linklogis aims to redefine and transform supply chain finance through technology and innovation. As one of the key members of Tencent’s to B strategic ecosystem, Linklogis champions the philosophy of National Inclusive Financing by leveraging advanced technologies such as ABCD (AI, Blockchain, Cloud Computing, Big Data) in supply chain ecosystem applications, to provide innovative supply chain finance technology solutions that are data-driven, scenario-based, automated, and online. Our cloud-native solutions optimize the payment cycle of supply chain transactions, digitalize the entire workflow of supply chain finance, and enhance transparency and connectivity in the supply chain finance ecosystem, therefore supporting the real economy. With our purpose-built solutions and industry-leading technology infrastructure, we are able to deliver tangible benefits to various stakeholders in the supply chain finance ecosystem with profound influence in reshaping the supply chain finance sector. We focus on providing world-class solutions for anchor enterprises and financial institutions to meet their evolving business and technology needs, helping them deliver superior user experience for their SMEs.
Investor
2018
消费金融核心能力提供商
Show all 18 investments ↓
Experience · 21 entries
All (21)
Investments (18)
Board (7)
2025
Investor and board member
Sep 2025
INS is a cultural innovation platform under Hero Group, which also includes Hero Esports and Hero Games (Black Myth: Wukong).
 INS specializes in commercial real estate and offline user experiences across entertainment, nightlife, and youth culture. With projects in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chengdu, and Xi’an, INS is expanding its model to key cultural districts across China and internationally.
 The flagship complex, INS Land Shanghai, is located in the heart of Fuxing Park. Spanning seven stories and over 20,000 square meters, it houses more than 20 interconnected venues, including clubs, restaurants, and live performance spaces.
 INS also produces large-scale music festivals and cultural events, bridging global IPs with Chinese audiences while incubating original festival brands. By integrating Hero Group’s strengths in digital ecosystems, cultural production, and community engagement, INS is building the next generation cultural hub where esports, nightlife, music, and immersive storytelling converge.
Investor and board member
Aug 2025
VelaFi provides stablecoin-powered financial infrastructure for global businesses, connecting banking rails and blockchain networks to enable fast, compliant cross-border payments, domestic payouts, FX, and treasury operations.
2024
Investor and board member
Dec 2024
Established in both Hong Kong and Singapore, KUN holds significant licenses in payment services and digital payment tokens. Our operations extend across emerging markets in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and beyond. Our mission is to offer cross-border trading enterprises and MNCs a comprehensive digital payment solution that prioritizes security, convenience, and efficiency. We are dedicated to building a forward-looking global next-generation digital payment network. For more information, please visit www.kun.global/
Investor and board member
Mar 2024
Local Payments, Global Business. Waffo, A unified payment solution that lets you go global in the blink of an eye.
2022
Investor
2022
Co-founded by Xin Li-Cohen, Christie’s non-executive Deputy Chairman, and TRLab CEO Audrey Ou, TRLab fuses technology with fine art expertise to pioneer the future of collecting. Since its founding in 2021, TRLab has successfully designed and launched interactive art collecting experiences with leading digital and traditional artists, including “The Calder Question”, a multi-season educational project developed with the Calder Foundation; “Your Daytime Fireworks,” an online collecting journey with contemporary artist Cai Guo-Qiang, which was shortlisted for a 2022 Lumen Prize; and “Vogue Meta-Ocean”, the first digital art collection curated by Vogue editors worldwide. Exploding the Self", a 2021 limited-edition digital artwork TRLab co-developed with Cai Guo-Qiang, is now in the permanent collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Backed by notable investors from the tech and art sectors, TRLab’s partners and investors include Dragonfly Capital, Pace Verso, and Rockbund Art Museum, one of Asia’s premier contemporary art museums. Learn more about TRLab’s team and major projects at www.trlab.com.
Show all 21 entries ↓
Investment activity
2015–2025 · 18 investments
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