Women in tech: GGV Capital’s Jenny Lee reflects on investing in China’s technology market

Jenny Lee, a managing partner at private equity firm GGV Capital, says being a venture capitalist (VC) in China can veer from analysing companies and deals to being a psychiatrist or even a marriage counsellor when needed.

Based in Shanghai, Lee said in an interview that she once had to call up a start-up founder’s wife, who thought her husband was neglecting their family, to explain that the man frequently slept at the office because he was working hard to raise a new round of financing to keep their company afloat.

“Sometimes female investors are more emotional and sensitive than male investors,” Lee said. Still, she considers that trait as a strength because “VC [deal making] is a people business”.

Such insights have served Lee well since 2005, when she established Menlo Park, California-based GGV’s first office in China. At GGV, she has been instrumental in investing and helping eight early stage start-ups go public on the New York and Hong Kong stock exchanges as well as on the Nasdaq-style ChiNext board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.