Hans Tung

Background

Hans Tung is a Managing Partner at Notable Capital (formerly GGV Capital), where he leads the firm’s AI-driven Prosumer, Commerce, and Fintech practice ¹. He was born in Taiwan and raised in Los Angeles, and holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University ²³.

Tung began his career on Wall Street before attending MIT for graduate school ⁴. He subsequently joined Bessemer Venture Partners, where he spent roughly three years starting in Menlo Park before moving to Shanghai, helping global companies such as Skype expand into China ⁴. In 2007, he moved to Qiming Venture Partners, where he focused on China investments through 2013 ⁴.

In 2005, Tung was among the first Asian American Silicon Valley venture capitalists to move to China full time, spending approximately eight years investing in the country before returning to Silicon Valley in 2013 ²³. He joined GGV Capital as a Managing Partner in October 2013, focusing on mobile internet, cross-border e-commerce, online education, and gaming ⁵.

When GGV Capital split into two successor firms in March 2024, Tung remained with the U.S. entity, which was renamed Notable Capital ⁶. The U.S. partnership — led by Managing Partners Hans Tung, Glenn Solomon, Jeff Richards, and Oren Yunger — focuses on North America, Latin America, Israel, and Europe ⁶.

Tung has been named to the Forbes Midas List for 13 consecutive years and has been ranked in the top ten for five straight years ¹². He was recognized as a 2018 Great Immigrant by the Carnegie Corporation of New York ³. He co-hosted the 996 Podcast, focused on tech and entrepreneurship in China, which became the most popular English-language podcast on China’s tech industry ³. He serves on the Asia Advisory Council for the Stanford School of Engineering and is a frequent guest speaker at Stanford Graduate School of Business ¹.

Stated Thesis

(Self-reported: These represent what Tung says publicly about his investing approach. See Inferred Thesis for analysis of actual investment behavior.)

Tung has articulated a long-running bet on globalization: “Over the next ten years between 2013 and 2023, the globalization of mobile Internet, especially for consumer companies, will be the most important trend I will ever bet on in my career.” ⁷

On market scale, he has stated: “Any $20 billion company in the future must be a global company.” ⁷

Tung describes looking for founders with a global mindset and cross-border experience: “We look for inspired founders and teams who love to learn and also operate with a global mindset.” ⁸ He has noted that successful founders possess “heavily stamped passports” and are not limited by geographical boundaries ⁷.

On founder qualities, Tung has said: “Great founders do, they don’t start companies, they start movements.” ⁹ He emphasizes learning speed: “Smart people are good at learning from the mistakes. The really talented people learn from other people’s mistakes. So, if you can figure out a way to learn from observing others and what they’re doing, and learn from their lessons, then you’re going to be much further ahead.” ⁹

On AI and commerce, Tung stated at the Phia Series A in January 2026: “Historically, shopping was built for an internet of pages and filters, not one mediated by agents. Now, AI sits between people and products, and the challenge is no longer access. It is understanding intent, taste, and trust in real time.” ¹⁰

On Parafin and embedded finance, Tung has written: “Parafin unlocks access to capital by embedding financial products directly into the platforms where merchants already operate.” ¹¹

On Latin America fintech: “Stori is a perfect example of an international team bringing a global mindset to solve a huge local challenge.” ⁸ On the founders: “The founders of Stori don’t just want to create a fintech app. They want to use the power of technology to create a ‘Super App’ to change the lives of hundreds of millions of lower- and middle-income consumers.” ⁸

On LimeBike (now Lime): “We believe LimeBike has built the strongest team, and has the best approach, to play a critical role in the public transportation sector in the US and Europe.” ¹²

Inferred Thesis

(This section analyzes Tung’s actual investment behavior based on verified portfolio data. Sample: 20 confirmed investments with sourced years and stages.)

Caveat on sample size: Tung has been investing for over two decades at Qiming, GGV Capital, and Notable Capital. The firms collectively have backed 400+ companies. The 20 investments verified here with specific round details represent a fraction of his total activity and should be treated as directionally indicative, not statistically definitive.

Stage distribution (20 verified investments): Roughly 8 of 20 (40%) are at Series B or later (StockX Series C, Poshmark, Ibotta C-1, Udaan Series D, Slack Series F, Peloton Series E, LimeBike Series B, Stori Series C), while 12 of 20 (60%) are Series A or earlier. However, these tend to be his more visible, press-announced investments; his actual portfolio likely includes more early-stage deals. His stated focus — and the notable-capital.com page — emphasizes seed through Series A as primary entry points ¹.

Sector breakdown (20 verified investments): - Consumer commerce and marketplaces: 9 of 20 (45%) — Wish, Poshmark, Ibotta, StockX, Lime, OfferUp, Quince, Peloton, Phia - Fintech: 5 of 20 (25%) — Affirm, Coinbase, Stori, Parafin, Turtlemint - Enterprise/Productivity: 2 of 20 (10%) — Slack, Otter.ai - AI: 1 of 20 (5%) — Anthropic - Emerging markets / B2B: 2 of 20 (10%) — Udaan (India), Musical.ly (China) - Hardware: 1 of 20 (5%) — Xiaomi

Consumer commerce and fintech together account for 70% of confirmed activity, consistent with Tung’s stated focus.

Geographic patterns: Prior to the GGV split, Tung’s portfolio spanned heavily between the U.S. and China (Xiaomi, ByteDance/TikTok via Musical.ly, Udaan in India). Post-split as Notable Capital, he focuses on the U.S., Latin America (Stori, Parafin), and India/global companies. His early China experience and bridge-building role is a distinctive feature not replicated by most U.S.-based VCs.

Founder profile patterns: Tung has a pattern of backing immigrant founders or founders with cross-border experience (Xiaomi’s Lei Jun, Musical.ly’s Alex Zhu, Stori’s Marlene Garayzar). He also backs technical founders from elite institutions who are repeat builders. The Parafin investment (founded by ex-Robinhooders with ML expertise ¹¹) fits this template.

Co-investor patterns: Tung has co-invested repeatedly with DST Global (Udaan Series D, StockX), General Atlantic (StockX), Coatue (LimeBike), and Spectrum Equity (Otter.ai). His China-era co-investments often involved Sequoia China and IDG Capital.

Check size and valuation: Signal by NFX reports his check range as $250K–$25M with a target of $10M ¹³. The Parafin Series C was $100M led by Notable Capital ¹¹; the Phia Series A was $35M led by Notable Capital ¹⁰. His range at the firm level spans from seed checks to large growth rounds.

Notable divergence from stated thesis: Tung’s stated thesis emphasizes early-stage entry, but his confirmed investments show significant growth-stage and later-stage activity (Slack Series F, Peloton Series E, Udaan Series D, StockX Series C). The pattern suggests willingness to enter at multiple stages when conviction is high, even if the preferred entry is early.

Portfolio

This table covers 20 of Tung’s confirmed investments. His full portfolio across GGV and Notable Capital spans a significantly larger number of companies. Stages and years are sourced where available; “~” indicates approximate year from available sources.

In Their Own Words

“Over the next ten years between 2013 and 2023, the globalization of mobile Internet, especially for consumer companies, will be the most important trend I will ever bet on in my career.” — Hans Tung, lessons article, accessed 2026 ⁷

“Any $20 billion company in the future must be a global company.” — Hans Tung, lessons article, accessed 2026 ⁷

“Great founders do, they don’t start companies, they start movements.” — Hans Tung, public remarks, accessed 2026 ⁹

“Smart people are good at learning from the mistakes. The really talented people learn from other people’s mistakes. So, if you can figure out a way to learn from observing others and what they’re doing, and learn from their lessons, then you’re going to be much further ahead.” — Hans Tung, public remarks, accessed 2026 ⁹

“We look for inspired founders and teams who love to learn and also operate with a global mindset.” — Hans Tung, GGV Capital blog post on Stori investment, 2021 ⁸

“Stori is a perfect example of an international team bringing a global mindset to solve a huge local challenge.” — Hans Tung, GGV Capital blog post on Stori investment, 2021 ⁸

“Parafin unlocks access to capital by embedding financial products directly into the platforms where merchants already operate.” — Hans Tung, Notable Capital blog, December 2024 ¹¹

“Parafin is on its way to becoming the essential financial layer for merchants everywhere, embedded where they already manage their businesses.” — Hans Tung, Notable Capital blog, December 2024 ¹¹

“Historically, shopping was built for an internet of pages and filters, not one mediated by agents. Now, AI sits between people and products, and the challenge is no longer access. It is understanding intent, taste, and trust in real time. Phia is building the intelligence layer for that shift.” — Hans Tung, Phia Series A press release, January 2026 ¹⁰

“Poshmark has set the standard for social commerce in the U.S. By building a platform that supports its community, the company has been able to foster a uniquely scalable shopping environment where sellers can build social influence to help drive discovery and sales.” — Hans Tung, Poshmark funding announcement, April 2016 ¹⁶

“StockX has already seen incredible growth internationally but what we are most excited about is the opportunity to continue to scale the company globally and provide unprecedented access to consumer goods for users across the world.” — Hans Tung, StockX Series C press release, June 2019 ²¹

“We believe LimeBike has built the strongest team, and has the best approach, to play a critical role in the public transportation sector in the US and Europe.” — Hans Tung, LimeBike Series B press release, October 2017 ¹²

“Our firm looks well outside Silicon Valley and beyond borders for companies that understand how commerce for the mass market is shifting to mobile, and Ibotta gets it.” — Hans Tung, Ibotta C-1 funding press release, July 2017 ¹⁷

“Venture is a tough job…if you’re right 25-30% of the time, you are already quite amazing.” — Hans Tung, public interview, accessed 2026 ⁹

“During the pandemic what we have seen is that the founders that are very quick at cutting down their costs and trying to innovate their process have done well.” — Hans Tung, YourStory interview, October 2020 ²⁷

What Founders Say

No independently sourced founder testimonials found. The notable-capital.com website features portfolio founder stories, but full testimonial quotes attributable to specific portfolio founders about their experience working with Hans Tung were not accessible during this research pass.

Connections

• Board member, Poshmark — joined board as part of Series C round led by GGV Capital, April 2016 ¹⁶
• Board member, StockX — joined board alongside Josh Luber (co-founder) as part of Series C, June 2019 ²¹
• Board member, Ibotta — became board observer alongside GGV VP Robin Li as part of C-1 round, July 2017 ¹⁷
• Former board member, Xiaomi — early investor and board member at Qiming Venture Partners, circa 2011–2013 ¹⁴
• Former board member, Musical.ly — board member from 2015 until ByteDance acquisition for ~$900M in November 2017 ¹⁸
• Former employer, Bessemer Venture Partners — VP/Associate 2005–2007, based in Menlo Park and Shanghai ⁴
• Former employer, Qiming Venture Partners — Partner 2007–2013, focus on China investments ⁴
• Co-investor pattern, DST Global — co-invested on Udaan Series D (2019) and StockX Series C (2019) ²¹²²
• Co-investor pattern, General Atlantic — co-led StockX Series C (2019) ²¹
• Stanford School of Engineering Asia Advisory Council — member ¹

Sources