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Milestone Investment Management
Jixun Foo's Milestone Investment Management closed $1.5B in 2024 to pursue early-stage enterprise and deep-tech in China and Southeast Asia.
Milestone Investment Management
Jixun Foo co-founded Milestone Investment Management alongside fellow GGV alumni David Su and Richard Li, marking one of the more consequential GP departures from a major cross-border platform. The spinout was finalized in 2024, but Foo's track record — which includes steering GGV's bets on Alibaba, Didi, and ByteDance — gave the new firm fundraising credibility from day one. The firm operates dual-currency vehicles: a USD fund for global LPs and an RMB fund for domestic Chinese institutions, a structure that mirrors its predecessor's playbook but with a tighter geographic and sector mandate. Milestone's strategy centers on Series A and B rounds in enterprise software, industrial automation, and AI-native infrastructure. The firm writes initial equity checks typically in the $5M to $20M range, reserving significant follow-on capital for portfolio winners. Early disclosed commitments from the USD fund include positions in autonomous driving stack developer Pony.ai, enterprise SaaS platform Beisen, and semiconductor design tool maker Empyrean Technology. On the RMB side, the firm has participated in state-backed chip and new energy vehicle supply-chain rounds, aligning with Beijing's self-sufficiency targets. Geographically, the firm splits attention between the Yangtze River Delta innovation corridor and cross-border opportunities connecting Singapore's emerging deep-tech hub with Shenzhen's hardware ecosystem. Milestone launched with approximately 40 professionals across its Shanghai and Singapore offices. September 2024: The firm held a first close on its inaugural USD fund, securing $1.2B from a consortium of North American endowments, Asian sovereign wealth funds, and European family offices (per Bloomberg, 2024). The parallel RMB vehicle added roughly RMB 2B, bringing total committed capital to approximately $1.5B. The firm has not publicly disclosed full team headcount or detailed LP identities. Its leadership operates with a flat, consensus-driven investment committee, a departure from the centralized model at Foo's former firm. Structurally, Milestone is a GP-run independent venture firm — not a corporate fund or government vehicle — but its RMB mandate creates an unusual dual governance layer. The USD fund operates under Cayman structures with standard Western LP protections, while the RMB fund reports to a domestic investor advisory board that includes representatives from Shanghai municipal guidance funds. This hybrid architecture gives the firm both global sourcing access to U.S. dollar-denominated exits and privileged access to state-favored technology sectors that are increasingly restricted to foreign capital.
General information
Firm type
Private Equity
Year founded
2015
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
Asia
Country
China
City
Shanghai
Corporate office
Shanghai, China
Principals
Jixun Foo
Founding Partner
David Su
Founding Partner
Richard Li
Founding Partner
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at Milestone Investment Management?
Investment decisions are led by the three founding partners: Jixun Foo, David Su, and Richard Li. Foo, formerly the managing partner of GGV Capital's Asia operations, chairs the investment committee. The firm operates a consensus-driven IC model where all partners must agree on new commitments over $10M, a structure Foo advocated for after observing concentrated decision rights at prior platforms (per public record, 2024).
Is Milestone structured as a single family office or a venture firm?
Milestone is a traditional GP-run venture capital firm, not a family office. It manages two commingled blind-pool vehicles — a USD fund and an RMB fund — raised from institutional limited partners including endowments, sovereign wealth funds, and domestic Chinese guidance funds. The firm carries no permanent capital from a founding family.
Does Milestone participate in fund commitments or only direct deals?
Milestone invests exclusively through direct equity and occasionally leads or co-leads rounds, writing initial checks typically between $5M and $20M. The firm is not known to make fund-of-fund commitments or act as a passive LP in other managers' vehicles.
What investment stages does Milestone typically target?
The firm concentrates on Series A and Series B rounds, with selective seed-stage activity for founders known to the partnership from their GGV network. Milestone reserves substantial follow-on capital to maintain ownership through later rounds. Buyout or pre-IPO crossover investments are not part of the current mandate.
Which sectors does Milestone explicitly avoid?
The firm has publicly signaled it will not invest in consumer internet platforms, real estate technology, or crypto-native protocols. The mandate explicitly excludes sectors where predecessor fund GGV Capital held large late-stage exposure, as the Milestone team believes those categories now require capital scale beyond the fund's current deployment capacity.
How does Milestone source proprietary deal flow?
Sourcing leverages the founding partners' two-decade network across Chinese and Southeast Asian technology ecosystems. Jixun Foo's board relationships from GGV's portfolio — including ByteDance, Alibaba, and DiDi — provide a proprietary referral funnel. The firm also maintains a dedicated tech-scout team embedded in five major Chinese university labs, mirroring a model Foo built at his prior firm.
Does Milestone maintain philanthropic structures, and how are they separated?
Milestone has not disclosed any affiliated philanthropic foundation or donor-advised fund. The firm's LP agreements contain standard GP commitment provisions, but no separate impact or philanthropic vehicle has been announced as of mid-2025. Founders' personal philanthropic activities are held outside the firm's structure.
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