Janie Yu, partner at Fung Capital USA, the corporate venturing unit of Hong Kong-based logistics company Li & Fung, moved from journalism to communications and marketing in 2007, after a stint at the BBC and PRI, and a stop-off in academia. She then moved to Fung in 2011, without any investment experience – not something for the faint of heart. Yet Janie was quick to excel: vice president in two years, and a partner in four. Fung’s president Michael Hsieh described her rise as “meteoric”.
In fact, Yu sees her unusual career path as an asset. As she said for last year’s GCV Rising Stars 2017 award: “The investigative nature of the work turned out to be great training for my VC career, and it is fairly intuitive for me to peel the onion and understand the core opportunities and risks of a company.”
She credited the team at Fung for helping her develop, too. She said: “I was fortunate enough to find an amazing team at Fung Capital that has a winning track record due to the domain expertise and focus on retail technologies, which is a great fit for my background. Furthermore, the firm culture also encourages and helps younger team members to grow and flourish, and for me this was an opportunity not to be missed.”
According to Hsieh: “Janie has continued to make significant contributions to our fund in 2017 by sourcing and completing three investments.”
Those investments were, in February, Fung was part of Celect’s series B round that raised $10m for the retail predictive analytics and inventory optimization company, led by Activant. Yu now sits on the board of Celect.
April saw Flow, the geography-busting startup for online retailers, raise $16m in its series A round, led by Bain Capital. Fung was a part of the round for the technology platform, which enables e-commerce brands to sell product across multiple regions and geographies.
In November, Fung led ThirdChannel’s series A round, worth $7m. The retail intelligence platform pairs full data collection and analytics solutions for brands and retailers. Yu now sits on the board of ThirdChannel.
With the focus clearly on retail, Yu values her team, and the precision it engenders. She said this last year: “One of the main reasons behind our firm’s success has been focus and discipline. However, for me personally, it has been a learning curve, particularly in the past couple of years when the VC market is so hyped and restless.
“Occasionally, I get distracted by deals outside of retail tech, and sometimes I fall in love with a company and relax our rigorous screening standards. Fortunately, thanks to the strong team culture, I am able to stay focused and disciplined.”
Still on the board at customer post-purchase experience management platform Narvar, Yu was also formerly a board observer at HookLogic, the product search advertising firm, before it was acquired in November 2016.
With a diverse background, a fearsome mind (Yu has a MA in East Asian Studies from Harvard), and a journalist’s nose, it is no wonder she has seen continued success, despite her relative inexperience when she first came aboard Fung.
According to boss Hsieh, she is not resting on her laurels either: “Janie has become an expert and go-to person in the retail technology, supply chain, logistics and data analytics space.”