INTRODUCTION
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution."
-- Albert Einstein
Bishan Capital’s foundation is rooted in the deep passion for technology and creativity. Since 2012, Bishan team has invested over RMB 4 billion (~USD 600 million) in China’s dynamic media and entertainment industry. In the movie domain, we invested in China's most successful science-fiction and industrial film company founded by Guo Fan, the director of movie "The Wandering Earth", and generated 30X return on a single project. In the media tech domain, our portfolio company Bajiayun, a one-stop enterprise video service provider with core audio and video technology, was successfully listed on NASDAQ (NASDQ: RTC) in December 2022. In the gaming domain, our portfolio company Ti-Games produced China’s first console game on Playstation 5 platform: “F.I.S.T. – Forged in Shadow Torch”, which received positive reviews from global game media (IGN 8/10, Gameinformer 8.5/10; Metacritic 81, Famitsu 33). In the consumer domain, we made angel investment in IPStar, China’s leading IP restaurant/food and beverage/merchandise retail chain that operates renowned IPs such as “Genshin Impact” “Detective Conan” and “Cinnamoroll”.
We believe China's media and entertainment industry is at its inflection point. In the Internet era, 3 million active “Up-Zhu” (v-loggers at Bilibili), 30 million registered online literature authors and over 100 million short-video creators have emerged in China. Looking ahead, we believe this tremendous creativity will converge with new technologies such as AI and VR/AR to unlock even greater business potential. In the meantime, we believe innovations in the media and entrainment industry will significantly impact the consumer economy, and media & entertainment industry will become a new driver of overall economic growth. We are therefore confident investing in the convergence of technology and creativity for the next 10 years. We will empower creators to build world-class creative companies through our bottom-up research approach, “McKinsey-style” advisory service and our supportive Bishan alumni community.
MEET OUR TEAM
Alan Chen Partner
Mr. Alan Chen is the Managing Partner of Bishan Capital. Prior to founding Bishan, Mr. Chen was a Partner at Houde Qianhai Fund, a leading investment firm in China’s media and entertainment industry, where he led the fund’s venture capital arm. Mr. Chen had more than 20 years of business experiences spanning from McKinsey & Company, Shanda Capital to Nestle, Mars and start-up company Xueda Education (NYSE XUE). Mr. Chen holds a BA in Economics from the University of International Business and Economics, an MBA from Yale University, and an EMBA from Tsinghua University.
Alan enjoys reading, golfing, and traveling. He has once assembled a complete set of IKEA bedroom furniture by himself when studying in the US.
Cao Shuzheng
Mr. Cao Shuzheng is a Managing Director of Bishan Capital. Previously, he was an associate director at Houde Qianhai Fund and a product manager at Blue Whale Media. Mr. Cao holds a bachelor’s degree in Microelectronics from Tsinghua University and a master's degree in Public Administration from Tsinghua University.
Outside of work, Shuzheng loves online literature, e-sports, and trying out new indie games. He is also a big fan of film director Makoto Shinkai, with whom he has met face-to-face.
OUR PORTFOLIO
FOUNDERS WORDS
"Alan was our first investor, backing Guo Fan Film in its earliest days. We share not only a passion for great content but also a vision to build China’s premier science-fiction film and television industry. "
--Fan Guo, director of The Wandering Earth movie franchise
"IPSTAR, the specialty retail chain for anime merchandise, was an idea that Alan and I brainstormed together, and he invested millions in the angel round. Before 2018, anime merchandise (or 'goods,' as fans call it) was only available at comic conventions—there were no other offline retail options. Back then, we thought: why can’t these goods be sold in shopping malls? Inspired by Japan’s Animate, we launched the first IPSTAR store alongside a Detective Conan café in Shanghai’s Jing’an Joy City. It was an instant hit."
--Weicheng Wu, Founder and CEO of IPSTAR
"Bishan Team, Tao Meng's Series A lead investor, has stood by us side by side for seven years, providing critical strategic and operational support. They have gone above and beyond, leveraging their extensive film and television industry resources to empower Tao Meng's growth."
--Chao Yin, CEO of Tao Meng
"Alan approached us shortly after Ti-Games secured angel investment, drawn by our shared optimism about VR. When the industry hit a development bottleneck, he backed our pivot to console games and provided substantial support—both strategic and promotional—for F.I.S.T."
--Tao Zhang, CEO of Ti-Games