Ted Hou

Overview

Ted Hou is a founding partner of the Berkeley Catalyst Fund, an early-stage venture capital firm based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The fund primarily invests in startups emerging from the UC Berkeley ecosystem, with a focus on life sciences and material science sectors. It sources deals from UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, UC San Francisco, associated incubators and accelerators, and alumni throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. The fund is designed to share some of its returns back through the UC Berkeley Foundation to benefit the College of Chemistry. Before transitioning to venture capital, Ted held leadership roles in the renewable energy and optical telecom industries. He served as Vice President of Marketing at Hanwha SolarOne and Vice President of Product Strategy at NRG Residential Solar. His career began in the optical telecom industry, where he advanced from an application engineer to a managerial role at companies like Oplink Communications and JDS Uniphase. Ted holds a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, where he conducted research under Nobel Laureate Professor Yuan T. Lee. He also holds a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Science and Technology of China. Ted is currently an advisor to the College of Chemistry at UC Berkeley and various startup accelerators. He is fluent in Mandarin and has worked to foster relationships between academia and industry across the US and Asia. The Berkeley Catalyst Fund has a sister fund called the Berkeley Catalyst Philanthropic Fund, which is financially managed by the UC Berkeley Foundation and can accept donations of any size. The philanthropic fund enables alumni and other donors to participate in the entrepreneurial ecosystem in a way that benefits the College of Chemistry.

Investment Focus

• Early-stage startups
• Life sciences
• Material science
• Affiliation with UC Berkeley or related institutions

Portfolio Companies