Zihao Xu is a Principal at Octopus Ventures, one of the largest and most active venture funds in Europe with £1.2bn under management. He leads the fintech team and personally likes to focus on capital markets and crypto investments, and currently serves on the board of six portfolio companies. Octopus Ventures typically invests between £1m and £10m in pioneering entrepreneurs building fast growing businesses, and counts the likes of BoughtByMany, Cazoo and Depop among its portfolio. Zihao is particularly drawn to public ledger blockchain projects that enable permissionless incentive structures to unlock innovation in hitherto closed ecosystems.

Prior to joining Octopus in 2016, Zihao was a Senior Consultant at Roland Berger where he led strategic, operational and commercial diligence projects across a range of industries whilst also setting up a direct-to-consumer ecommerce sunglasses brand. Zihao was born in China and holds a BA in Economics and Management from the University of Oxford.