Global Corporate Venturing Rising Stars Awards 2017: #3 Alvin Wang Graylin

History is littered with successful companies under pressure in one area trying to expand or pivot into a fast-growing new field.

The relatively few that stand a chance of succeeding often have to thank a handful of intelligent hard-working people who are well networked, which in Chinese is the system called “guanxi”.

So it is perhaps no surprise that Taiwan-based smartphone maker HTC looked to Alvin Wang Graylin, a Chinese native, serial entrepreneur and corporate executive, for help early last year.

One of Wang Graylin’s previous startups, run until the end of 2015, was called Guanxi.me, a location-based social discovery platform backed in its series A round by Singapore-based phone operator Singtel’s Innov8 corporate venturing unit and venture capital firm DFJ.

Guanxi.me’s Firefly personalised events app used augmented reality technology to recommend local events based on a user’s tastes and social circles.

So when Cher Wang, chairman of HTC, who once declared HTC was a China-based brand in order to promote its products to local consumers, wanted its China regional president of Vive, the company’s 3D virtual reality (VR) headset made in partnership with Valve, she turned to Wang Graylin. Hitting the ground running, he then had a busy second half of last year.

In November, HTC signed a strategic cooperation pact with the government of Shenzhen, a southern China city and special economic zone (SEZ), to set up a VR research institute as well as a RMB10bn ($1.5bn) venture fund.

Wang Graylin said: “The Shenzhen SEZ has one of the most progressive governments in China, and has a history of growth and innovation for the past 30 years. It is also becoming a key centre of innovation for the mobile internet and smartphone industry globally.

“When we were approached by the Shenzhen government to set up such a fund and a VR research centre jointly, we felt it would be a very complementary relationship and would provide a strong foundation for driving growth for VR in China and globally.”

Part of Shenzhen’s interest in HTC lay in the groundwork Wang Graylin had done in building the industry through alliances.

In August, HTC also signed a strategic cooperation agreement with China-based online retailer Alibaba Group jointly to develop VR technology based on Alibaba’s cloud platform, Aliyun. Three months later and Alibaba and HTC together demonstrated Alibaba’s Buy-plus mobile VR channel on HTC-powered VR-ready smartphones.

In June, Wang Graylin also started as president the VR Venture Capital Alliance (VRVCA) with 28 initial members managing a combined $10bn. Another eight members joined in November to take the total to $12bn.

VRVCA backers include Colopl VR Fund, a $50m specialist fund launched by mobile game publisher Colopl in December 2015; the Virtual Reality Fund, backed by Colopl and game developer Gumi; and Legend Capital, the corporate venturing arm of conglomerate Legend Holdings.

The corporates are augmented by institutional investors such as venture capital firms Sequoia Capital, GGV Capital, Qiming Venture Partners, Matrix Partners and Redpoint Ventures.

Wang Graylin is also chairman of the Industry of Virtual Reality Alliance, launched in September as the only government-endorsed VR organisation in China.

In May, the governing Communist Party of China’s central committee and the state council issued its National Innovation-driven Development Strategy Outline, which highlighted the need to develop a new generation of information network technologies, enhance VR technology research and industrial development, strengthen the IT Infrastructure for economic and social development, promote innovation in industrial technology, and form new development opportunites.

These connections helped drive entrepreneurs to HTC and create the dealflow for the VR fund along with HTC’s own Vive X VR Accelerator, set up in July with $100m. Out of 1,200 applications from companies around the world, the accelerator chose 33 startups for the initial cohort, with support from HTC-backed incubation centers in Taipei, Taiwan, Beijing and Shenzhen in China and San Francisco in the US.

A press release disclosed a number of the companies – entertainment-focused Action Bunker VR, 7D Vision and LumiereVR; gaming-focused Directive Games, Shortfuse, EdSenses, Omnigames, Metal Cat and Glowsticks Games; applications-related CleVR, AppMagics, Teemew and SurrealVR; user interface and user experience-related BreqLabs; tools-related RockVR, Apmetrix, Fishbowl VR, Kaleidoscope VR, Immersv, Wondergate and Oben; as well as education and medical-related Augmented Intelligence and TheMetaverseChannel.

Such speed and scale creates both opportunities and challenges. Wang Graylin said: “Our biggest challenge with the investment arm has been speed of deal execution and legal complexity. The companies we are looking at come from all over the world and with differing company structures. Our internal legal and deal teams are not use to working with companies at this stage and with so many at the same time. We did 33 deals in batch one, and likely will do 30 to 40 more in January 2017. It will hopefully get better over time as we standardise our processes and documents.

“It is a bit early to say greatest, but the highest-profile company in Vive X so far is one called TPCast [one of 10 that had been in stealth]. It created the world’s first wireless, high-end VR upgrade kit to allow Vive to get rid of the cable that ties it to the PC doing the VR/graphics processing. Oculus leaders had said on stage only a month ago this problem would not be solved for about two years.

“This new product will release in the first three months of 2017, and will enable a new level of freedom and improved usability for VR globally. TPCast’s valuation after joining Vive X has increased manifold. There are several other companies in Vive X batch one that have the potential to create a similar level of impact on the industry.”

The RMB1,400 ($220) TPCast device was offered for pre-order in November through Vive’s Chinese site and reportedly sold out within minutes.

Perhaps unsurprisingly given such an immediate impact as regional president, Wang Graylin said: “I am very happy with what I am doing today and the impact I am making. VR will be changing all our lives in a significant way and I am excited to play a role in helping direct where that is headed.”

Looking more broadly, he said making a stronger venture and entrepreneurial industry required other corporations to “hire more entrepreneurs into the company and take more risk on high-potential people and deals – do not let the lawyers and accountants drive or inhibit decision-making.”

Wang Graylin said before entering CVC he had been an entrepreneur for the previous 15 years, founding four venture-backed startups in the US and China and also worked for several public companies. He said: “Having that background make me understand the mind-set of both the investor and the entrepreneur, which lets me better communicate and collaborate with both sides.”

As well as Guanxi.me, and at the same time, he was CEO and co-founder of Model Plus, a cross-agency mobile platform for searching and booking professional models, and MInfo, a mobile search technology that was the official such provider to the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

However, running multiple companies was seen by investors as a challenge. Tim Draper, co-founder of DFJ, which backed Guanxi.me in its October 2012 A round, said: “Alvin is a good guy and Guanxi might have worked, but he was distracted with other pursuits. Always best for an entrepreneur to be singularly focused.”

However, Will Wang Graylin, his brother and also a serial entrepreneur, as well as Alvin’s other co-founder at MInfo, which ran for more than a decade from 2005, was positive.

Will, now global co-general manager of Samsung Pay, after the South Korea-based conglomerate acquired his last company LoopPay in February 2015, while admitting his view might be biased, said: “Having known Alvin since childhood, and attended both undergrad at University of Washington, and graduate school at MIT together, in the same classes, I believe I can share some insights that can be helpful. Alvin had always been an overachiever – he graduated high school and college at the top of his class, nearly 4.0 GPA [grade point average, the maximum score possible], and highly competitive even recreationally in tennis, swimming and the chess team.

“He was entrepreneurial even in college, starting his computer service company[Investment Compass, later iCompass]. He has tremendous passion and energy, asside from his keen analytical skills. I have been impressed by his tenacity and believe he is the kind of person who always finds a way to win.”

And with this Rising Stars 2017 award he has won again.