CoStone was founded in 2001 as one of the earliest investment firms in China at the time. Since its establishment, CoStone's rationale for selecting industries to invest in depends on the general direction of China's economic development. Therefore, its core investment areas have always been industries that can achieve high growth. It is considered taboo to simply follow the current trends and chase what is currently popular. A focused approach is taken rather than diversified approach to investing which allows CoStone to obtain high returns by limiting the number of companies to invest in. When selecting companies, CoStone believes they should have no
black boxes with regards to core technologies and the founding team should be able to serve customers without issues. Rather than financials or
macroeconomics, importance is placed on a company's behavior and management. In the early 2000s, CoStone made investments in the construction machinery industry. This came after China became a member of the
World Trade Organization in 2001 leading to heavy industrialization of the country. By 2009 while China continued industrialization, CoStone took the initiative to invest in more advanced fields such as technology and healthcare. For example, CoStone invested in
SenseTime in 2016 when
artificial intelligence had only started being exposed to the public such as the games from
AlphaGo versus Lee Sedol. ==References==