# Zhen Cao

> Zhen Cao is a seed investor at Republic (San Francisco) backing Blockchain and Gaming. See 11 investments, check sizes, portfolio. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: Angel Investor
- Fund: [Republic](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/republic-co)
- Location: San Francisco, United States
- Total investments: 11
- Last investment: Feb 2022
- Lead investor: 0%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/zhen-cao
- X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/ZhenSpectrum
- Website: https://x.com/gemboomboom

Zhen Cao is a seed investor at Republic in San Francisco focused on Blockchain and Gaming. Zhen is a partner at Republic.co, an Angelist spin-off, with 1M users globally, the mission is democratizing private market investing. Republic is one of the most trusted online startup ecosystems in the world, along with AngelList, Product Hunt and CoinList family. Our funding portal and broker-dealer are SEC-registered and members of FINRA. Shewas the partner of JLAB, the crypto fund of JD Capital. It is the only public PE fund in China with a $9B AUM. Her portco included The Graph, Flow, Star Atlas, StepN, Oasis, Thunder, MobileCoin, Ontology, Ankr, etc. Zhen was on the content strategy team in HTC Vive, Where she was working on Skyrim, Doom, Star War, Star Trek, Ready Player One, Fallout, etc.

## Round sizes

| Stage | Round size |
| --- | --- |
| Seed | $4M–$6M |

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Blockchain | 6 | 55% |
| Gaming | 3 | 27% |
| Web3 | 2 | 18% |
| Cryptocurrency | 2 | 18% |
| Apps | 1 | 9% |

14 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Seed | 6 | 55% |
| Funding Round | 2 | 18% |
| Pre-Seed | 1 | 9% |
| Initial Coin Offering | 1 | 9% |

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| United States | 5 | 45% |
| Australia | 1 | 9% |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Karmaverse | Karmaverse is a GameFi multiverse with various metaverses, such as the Old West, cyberpunk, fantasy world, zombie world, etc. | $6M | Seed | Feb 28, 2022 |  |
| Karmaverse | Karmaverse is a GameFi multiverse with various metaverses, such as the Old West, cyberpunk, fantasy world, zombie world, etc. | $6M |  | Feb 28, 2022 |  |
| Karmaverse | Karmaverse is a GameFi multiverse with various metaverses, such as the Old West, cyberpunk, fantasy world, zombie world, etc. | $6M |  | Feb 28, 2022 |  |
| STEPN | STEPN ioffers a blockchain-based fitness app. It works by letting users buy NFTs that last for a certain amount of time. | $5M | Seed | Jan 20, 2022 |  |
| Ancient8 | Ancient8 create a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) that develops a platform to enable everyone to play and build the metaverse while earning rewards. | $4M | Seed | Jan 19, 2022 |  |
| Manta Network | Manta Network is building a secure and interoperable future with Zero-Knowledge. | $5.5M | Seed | Oct 19, 2021 |  |
| P0x Labs | P0x labs is the team behind Manta Network is a privacy-preserving technology operating on the Polkadot blockchain. | $5.5M | Seed | Oct 19, 2021 |  |
| Autonomys | Subspace Labs is a distributed research and development company behind the Subspace Network. While based in Palo Alto, CA, we are a global, remote-first team of protocol hackers and cryptocurrency enthusiasts.The Subspace Network is a layer zero protocol that is fully interoperable with any layer one, allowing it to serve as an infrastructurelayer for the entire Web3 ecosystem. Based on years of original R&D, Subspace is the first protocol to truly resolve the blockchain trilemma, providing an open, scalable platform for both storage and compute. Subspace currently supports Polkadot and Kusama, with more networks coming soon. | $4.5M | Seed | Jun 02, 2021 |  |
| Star Atlas | Star Atlas is a metaverse introducing a gaming experience by harnessing the power of traditional core games and blockchain mechanics. Star Atlas is a grand strategy game that combines space exploration, territorial conquest, political dominance, and resource management. |  | Pre-Seed | Feb 09, 2021 |  |
| The Graph | The Graph is the indexing and query layer of the decentralized web. Developers build and publish open APIs, called subgraphs, that applications can query using GraphQL. There is a hosted service in production that makes it easy for developers to get started building on The Graph, and the decentralized network will launch later this year. TheGraph currently supports indexing data from Ethereum, POA, and IPFS, with more networks coming soon. To date, ~1,700 subgraphs have been deployed for dApps like Aragon, Uniswap, Synthetix, Balancer, Gnosis, Balancer, Livepeer, and Decentraland. | $5.1M |  | Jun 30, 2020 |  |

10 of 11 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [NFX](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/nfxcapital) — VC Fund, 4 deals together
- [ParaFi Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/parafi-capital) — VC Fund, 4 deals together
- [OKX Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/block-dream-fund) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [Foresight Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/foresight-ventures-e03b) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [Fundamental Labs](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/fundamental-labs) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [GSR Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/gsr-ventures-management) — VC Fund, 3 deals together

## About Republic

VC Fund · New York, United States

Republic gives people the opportunity to invest in the future they believe in by providing access to startup, real estate, crypto, and video game investments. Focused on creating a diverse, sustainable, and connected world, Republic has facilitated over $500 million in investments from over one million members of the global community. With a globalteam in six countries, Republic is backed by Galaxy Digital, The Motley Fool, Binance, Naspers, AngelList, and more.

5 contacts available at Republic.

| Name | Title | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kendrick Nguyen | Co-Founder and CEO | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/kendrick-nguyen |
| Kinsa Durst | Director of Marketing | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/kinsa-durst-656d |
| Matt Melbourne | Head of Investment Team & Business Development | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/matt-melbourne |
| Shrina Kurani | Vice President Business | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/shrina-kurani |
| Zhen Cao | Partner, Asia | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/zhen-cao |

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## FAQ

### What does Zhen Cao invest in?

Zhen Cao invests primarily in Blockchain, Gaming and Web3 startups, most often at Seed and Funding Round stage. Most of the 11 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### What is Zhen Cao's check size?

Zhen Cao typically joins rounds of $4M–$6M at Seed. These ranges are 10th–90th percentile round sizes calculated from confirmed public funding rounds, so they are a realistic guide to the rounds Zhen Cao participates in.

### When did Zhen Cao last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for Zhen Cao closed in Feb 2022. Shizune tracks 11 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

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