Northern Light appoints venture partner

Northern Light Venture Capital has appointed Zhi Tan as a Beijing-based venture partner. 

Tan joins from digital media company Focus Media where he was chief executive officer and a director. Prior to that he was a chief executive officer at poster frame advertising business Framedia, which Focus Media acquired for $183 million in 2005.

Tan will provide expertise in building the firm’s media businesses, Feng Deng, managing director of Northern Light, said in a statement. His experience in the industry encompasses a role as a senior advisor at Hong Kong-based media company Tom Group, where he worked before joining Framedia. Before that, he was the chief executive officer of Chinese e-commerce business 8848.net, and prior to that, he was vice president for computer technology company Microsoft China.

Northern Light has 15 investment professionals across offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Menlo Park. It is currently investing out of its second fund, which closed on $350 million in January 2008. So far the fund has invested in social networking service business Kaixin001, game developer and publisher Gogo and Nurien, a 3D social networking company.