Recently, in Shanghai’s gritty industrial district, venture capitalist Ian Goh put on a gas mask to observe robots pack exactly 40 kilograms of wheat flour into each bag. It was all part of his due diligence on a Chinese startup, Innotime, that makes packaging robots.
In a hunt for new investment opportunities, Goh, who is a managing partner and co-founder of local venture capital firm 01VC, has also visited a coal mine, a construction site, a cargo terminal and a medical testing lab. Not on his list: the next blockbuster app for China’s 1.4 billion consumers.
