Lina Chong

Investment Stage

Focus Areas

About Investor

Lina Chong is a Partner at HV Capital, a leading European venture capital firm, based in Berlin, Germany, with more than a decade of experience in early-stage technology investing, entrepreneurship, product management, and startup growth. She joined HV Capital in 2025, following senior investment positions at Target Global and Hasso Plattner Ventures. At HV Capital, she focuses on identifying and supporting ambitious European founders developing innovative B2B SaaS, Enterprise Software, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Generative AI, Machine Learning, AI Infrastructure, AI Agents, Developer Tools, Workflow Automation, and Enterprise Applications. Her broader historical investment experience also includes FinTech, HealthTech, EdTech, E-commerce, Marketplaces, Consumer Technology, TravelTech, Open-Source Software, and Digital Platforms. Her investment geography is primarily Europe, particularly Germany and other major European technology ecosystems, although her historical investment activity has included companies operating internationally. Lina primarily targets the Pre-seed, Seed, and Series A stages, with an emphasis on technically differentiated startups, strong founding teams, and scalable business models. In an April 2026 investor discussion, she described investing from Pre-seed through Series A, with initial institutional investments of up to $15 million. According to Signal, her estimated investment range is $100,000 to $5 million, with a preferred investment ticket of approximately $1.5 million. These figures are third-party estimates and should not be interpreted as her personal investment commitments; the publicly discussed $15 million maximum provides more recent context for the institutional investments she can pursue through HV Capital. Her documented investment portfolio at HV Capital includes Flank, an AI workflow automation platform serving legal and compliance teams; Meshcapade, an AI platform specializing in digital humans, avatars, and motion capture; and Tzafon, an AI research company developing foundation models and autonomous agent systems. HV Capital's official website directly identifies Lina as an investor in these companies. Her broader investment track record includes involvement with TravelPerk, Fresha, Versori, Healthforce, Bloom, GoEuro, iZettle, and Hansoft, reflecting experience across enterprise software, financial technology, digital commerce, healthcare, and consumer services. Additional investment databases associate her with Saleor Commerce, Fifth Dimension AI, and Odin, although the nature of her personal participation and the institutional affiliation associated with each transaction should be assessed separately. Shizune tracks approximately 11 investment transactions associated with Lina and reports that around 64% were lead investments, providing evidence of historical lead-investor activity. However, these classifications are based on tracked financing transactions and do not independently establish her personal leadership in every round. Before joining HV Capital, Lina served as a Partner at Target Global, having joined the firm in 2018 and progressed through its investment team. At Target Global, she focused on early-stage technology investments and supported companies developing scalable software and digital business models. Earlier, she worked at ResearchGate from 2014 to 2018, contributing to product development, monetization, and commercial growth. During her tenure, she helped expand ResearchGate's commercial activities from an early stage to approximately $15 million in revenue, gaining practical experience in customer acquisition, sales, marketing, and product commercialization. Before ResearchGate, she worked as an Associate at Hasso Plattner Ventures from 2012 to 2014, where her investment experience included companies such as iZettle, GoEuro, and ReBuy. Lina began her career as an entrepreneur, co-founding and exiting two consumer technology businesses: DealKeren, a group-buying platform in Indonesia acquired by LivingSocial, and Luster, a mobile commerce company established in New York. Her experience founding, operating, and selling startups gives her an operational perspective on the challenges entrepreneurs face when developing products, building teams, managing cash flow, and pursuing growth. Lina holds a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Law and Society from the University of California, Riverside, and completed graduate studies in Law and Business at Bucerius Law School and WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management. She has lived and worked across three continents, contributing to her international business experience and cross-border investment network. Her investment philosophy emphasizes founder conviction, technical differentiation, practical execution, transparency, and long-term relationships. She particularly values entrepreneurs who demonstrate a deep understanding of their markets, have already begun developing solutions, and can translate ambitious ideas into measurable commercial progress. Through her combination of venture capital investing, entrepreneurship, product management, and operational leadership, Lina supports founders with early-stage fundraising, investment strategy, product-market fit, go-to-market execution, enterprise customer acquisition, AI commercialization, strategic partnerships, hiring, organizational development, follow-on financing, and international expansion. Her experience is especially relevant to European founders building technically sophisticated AI and enterprise software companies that require both institutional capital and hands-on strategic guidance to scale.