Cathay Innovation Hires Rose Yuan and James Colgan to Expand San Francisco Team

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Sep 15, 2025, 08:00 ET

Following the close of its $1 billion Fund III, the venture firm makes two key additions to deepen
its commitment to the next generation of global AI companies

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 15, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Cathay Innovation today announced the appointment of Rose Yuan as a director on the investment team and James Colgan as an operating partner supporting both the investment and ecosystem functions. The new hires build on the firm's momentum following the recent close of its $1 billion Fund III and reflect Cathay Innovation's commitment to backing transformative AI companies in the consumer, healthcare, financial services, and energy/mobility sectors.

Rose Yuan joins Cathay Innovation as a Director.

James Colgan joins Cathay Innovation as an Operating Partner.

Yuan will lead investments in horizontal and vertical enterprise AI applications, bringing a rare blend of investor acumen and operating expertise. She joined Cathay Innovation from Generation Investment Management, where she served as a director focused on category-defining companies. Previously, Yuan was a Vice President at CapitalG, backing high-growth B2B software startups, and she also held Finance, Business Operations, and Strategy roles at Gusto during a period of rapid growth. Yuan began her career at J.P. Morgan before joining the early-stage venture capital firm, Scale Venture Partners.

"Rose blends sharp investment judgment with real-world operating experience, making her an invaluable partner to founders from the very beginning," said Denis Barrier, co-founder and CEO of Cathay Innovation. "Our San Francisco-based investment team grows to five, giving us even greater capacity to invest in emerging technology companies across the Americas."

Colgan joins as an operating partner, supporting Cathay Innovation's investment and ecosystem teams in evaluating early- and growth-stage SaaS and AI opportunities while helping founders unlock their next phase of scale through modern product and go-to-market strategies. Throughout his career, he has helped transform Outlook Mobile into one of Microsoft's most widely used products, led Product for Slack's enterprise platform, and held CPO roles at Spendesk and Envoy, where he drove growth through AI capabilities, product-led growth, and modern R&D operations. Earlier in his career, James founded a cloud scaling startup and held product leadership roles at high-growth technology companies.

"James has helped build some of the most impactful consumer and enterprise software products of the last decade. His experience turning product vision into company-wide momentum will be a tremendous asset to our team and the companies we back," added Barrier.

About Cathay Innovation

Cathay Innovation is a multistage venture capital firm, affiliated to Cathay Capital, investing in founders building transformative businesses across Europe, North America, Asia, Latin America and Africa. Its platform connects founders with investors and its ecosystem of leading Fortune500 corporations to help startups scale and transform industries with consumer to enterprise and AI solutions in commerce, fintech, digital health and mobility / energy. Founded in Paris in 2015, Cathay Innovation now manages over €2.5B AUM with additional offices in San Francisco, Berlin, Madrid, Shanghai and Singapore and has invested in over 120 startups including Chime, Pinduoduo, Glovo (acq by DeliveryHero), Wallbox, Owkin, Getaround, Ledger, ZenBusiness, Alma, Descartes Underwriting and more. To learn more, visit us at www.cathayinnovation.com.