James Fu Bin Lu is an American Internet entrepreneur. He has been a serial entrepreneur and senior corporate executive in

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

and

Baidu Baidu, Inc. ( ; ) is a Chinese multinational technology company specializing in Internet services and artificial intelligence. It holds a dominant position in China's search engine market (via Baidu Search), and provides a wide variety of o ...

. He has been the chairman of

Grindr Grindr () is a location-based social networking and online dating application for gay, bisexual, queer, and transgender people. It was one of the first geosocial apps for gay men when it launched in March 2009, and has since become the large ...

since 2020 and leading investor to a number of high-profile technology companies globally.

Biography

Lu received master's degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

(graduating ''summa cum laude'') and worked as an engineer for

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) in La Cañada Flintridge, California, Crescenta Valley, United States. Founded in 1936 by Cali ...

, developing software for the Mars rover. Lu was a founder of textbook rental company

Chegg Chegg, Inc., is an American Educational technology, education technology company based in Santa Clara, California. It provides homework help, digital and physical textbook rentals, textbooks, online tutoring, and other student services. The comp ...

and social network Yoolin, serving as its CEO. Yoolin was acquired by zhanzuo.com in 2007. After serving as the Global Head of Amazon Marketing Services (now known as Amazon Advertising), Lu was hired in June, 2015 by

as vice president of content ecosystems. Lu left Baidu in 2017. In late 2015, Lu drove a $88M USD investment into

Kuaishou Kuaishou Technology ( zh, c=快手, l=quick hand) is a Chinese publicly traded partly state-owned holding company based in Haidian District, Beijing, that was founded in 2011 by Hua Su (宿华) and Cheng Yixiao (程一笑). The company, liste ...

at $2.1B valuation and sat on the board of the company. In 2021,

went public in HK Stock Exchange and the investment delivered $4.9B in profit (approximately 56 times return). In 2020, Lu was a lead investor in the over $600 million acquisition of

from Beijing Kunlun Tech Co. This transaction came about as a result of the decision by

CFIUS The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS, ) is an inter-agency committee in the United States government that reviews the national security implications of foreign investments in the U.S. economy. CFIUS, led by the U. ...

to compel the owner of Grindr, a Shenzhen-listed Chinese company, to sell the company to US interests. In Nov 2022, the company went public in New York Stock Exchange. Lu's personal stake in the company is estimated to be worth $750m to 1.5B. In 2021, Lu led a controlling acquisition of

Investing.com Investing.com is a Israel-based financial markets platform and news website; one of the top three global financial websites in the world. It offers market quotes, information about stocks, futures, options, analysis, commodities, and an econ ...

from its founder and served as a director of the board. In July 2024, Lu stepped up and took the role of Executive Chairman of the company overseeing all parts of the business. In Feb 2022, Lu was the leading investor in the acquisition of Coins.ph from GoTo and serving as a board member.

References

21st-century American businesspeople Living people University of Michigan alumni American chief executives Year of birth missing (living people) {{US-CEO-stub