Granite Asia’s Jixun Foo on where Asia’s AI edge is forming

Granite Asia has a long record of backing household names like Alibaba, Xiaomi, and Grab at an early stage. The VC firm has invested in 65 companies that later went public – testament to its ability to spot and scale early-stage bets.

Since splitting from GGV Capital in 2024, Granite has sharpened its focus on Asia Pacific while expanding into multi-asset strategies.

It raised over US$350 million for the first close of its private credit vehicle, the Libra Hybrid Capital Fund, last year. More recently, the firm raised US$110 million for an IPO-focused fund that it’s distributing exclusively to DBS clients, targeting AI companies.

To take a closer look at Granite’s AI thesis, Tech in Asia recently spoke with senior managing partner Jixun Foo, who shared that the VC firm is continuing to apply its playbook in various sectors – from consumer technology and enterprise software to AI.

“We’ve been investing in [what’s] arguably in AI for the last 10 years,” he said.

Those bets include Manycore Tech, a Hangzhou-based spatial intelligence software company that Granite backed as early as 2014, when it was valued at between US$30 million to US$40 million. Manycore is now preparing to raise more than US$100 million in a Hong Kong IPO.

The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

What are you seeing in the market that makes this the right time to launch an IPO-focused fund, and why target AI companies?

The IPO market is coming back, and I think the momentum is carrying through this year.

Traditionally, we have been a venture/growth investor. We have been backing companies very, very early. Grab was almost a 10-year journey, and we’ve stayed invested in Manycore for more than 12 years.

Most of these investments were made early and across stages. In some cases, we back companies a little bit later, but the idea is that they are still at the growth stage.

There’s a lot more interest around AI in the market right now, and as such, we figured we could create a pool of capital that actually addresses these interests. Investing in IPO-stage companies is quite different from our traditional venture and growth investments and requires a team that is just focused on that segment of the market.

See also: Granite Asia’s Jixun Foo teases a new fund strategy