Ron Cao

Ron is the Founder and a Partner of Sky9 Capital, a leading technology venture capital firm focused on investing in emerging opportunities in the Internet, enterprise and deep technology sectors in China. With presence in Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, and Silicon Valley, Sky9 aims to work with the next-generation of entrepreneurs to build world-class companies together and have societal impact.

Previously, Ron was a partner with Lightspeed Venture Partners and started Lightspeed’s China operations from scratch in 2006. Under Ron’s leadership, Lightspeed China became a leading venture firm in China with a portfolio of over 60 early-stage technology companies from a combination of capital from Lightspeed’s global funds and from two dedicated China funds raised in 2011 and 2014. Prior to joining Lightspeed, Ron was Managing Director of KLM Capital, a cross-border venture firm with offices in Silicon Valley and China. Ron started his career in the US with Motorola, Goldman Sachs and Intel.

Over his 18-year venture capital career, Ron has invested in a number of technology companies that have grown to become market leaders in their respective industries. In particular, Ron led the early-stage rounds and serves on the boards of:

PPDAI[NYSE:PPDF] – China’s largest online consumer micro-lending platform; Tujia – China’s largest AirBnB player; FangDD – China’s largest online-offline platform for real estate transactions; QingCloud – China’s leading enterprise-grade cloud computing platform.

Ron has also been involved with various successful investments such as Blockchain.info, Dianping, FaceU, Lianluo Interactive [002280.SZ], LuckyPai [sold to Lotte], Lulutrip, DaVdian, MediaV [sold to Qihoo], Meilele, MetroWave [sold to IPGP], Opulan Technologies [sold to BRCM], PeerSafe, Pinduoduo, ShareWave [sold to CRUS], and others.

Ron was named by Forbes China and CBN Weekly as one of the “Top Chinese Venture Capitalists” / “China’s Midas List” over multiple years. Ron serves as a venture advisor to the Shanghai Minhang Municipal Government. In 2013, Ron was selected by the World Economic Forum as one of its “Young Global Leaders” and served on the Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Future of Software and IT. Ron is actively involved with various philanthropic pursuits, especially in the areas of children’s education and impact investing. Ron has been involved on the boards of BEAM Alliance and Maitian Education Foundation. Ron received both his B.S. and M.Eng. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.