5Y Capital was founded in 2008 by Richard Liu and Ken Shi, both former Morningside Group investment professionals who spun out their own China-focused technology fund during the global financial crisis, operating under the Morningside name with the blessing of the Chan family, the Hong Kong property dynasty behind Morningside Group. The firm rebranded from Morningside Venture Capital to 5Y Capital in October 2020, taking its new name from Wuyuan Road, the location of its Shanghai headquarters. Its defining outcome came early: 5Y was the first institutional investor in Xiaomi, and by the time the smartphone maker completed its 2018 Hong Kong IPO, that stake had returned a reported 800 times its original investment - one of the largest single venture outcomes in Chinese technology history, alongside a later $30 billion return from Kuaishou's 2021 Nasdaq listing.
Xiaomi's 2018 Hong Kong Stock Exchange IPO - 5Y (then Morningside) was Xiaomi's first institutional backer, realizing a reported 800x return on its original investment as the company grew into one worth roughly $170 billion