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Taiyang Zhang
Taiyang Zhang is a serial entrepreneur and angel investor focused on blockchain, decentralized finance (DeFi), biotechnology, and computational chemistry.[15] He co-founded Ren Protocol, serving as Chief Executive Officer before moving to an advisory role, was a Venture Partner at Alameda Research, and is a founding member of KeeperDAO.[5][1] Beyond crypto, Zhang co-founded Automera, a Singapore-based biotechnology startup developing Autophagy-Targeting Chimera (AUTAC) small molecules, and QDX, an Australian computational drug discovery company applying high-performance quantum chemistry software to small-molecule drug design.[13][14]
Early Life & Education
Taiyang Zhang was born in Canberra, Australia. He studied Computer Science at the Australian National University for less than one year.[2]
Career
In 2014, Taiyang Zhang founded Neucode, a software development agency alongside Loong Wang and Jaz Gulati.[3] He later co-founded Virgil Capital, a cryptocurrency hedge fund that used quantitative, data-driven strategies to trade digital assets across global markets.[3][12]
Ren Protocol
Originally called Republic Protocol and headquartered in Singapore, Ren was founded in July 2017 by Taiyang Zhang and Loong Wang. Zhang served as the company's CEO, Loong Wang as its Chief Technology Officer, and Jaz Gulati as its Lead Developer.[8]
Ren was launched in January 2018, with Zhang citing its primary use case as a "decentralized dark pool for cryptocurrency trading."[4]
Ren's main function is to act as a custodian for digital assets while they are moved between different blockchains. This involves securing the assets and generating corresponding tokens on the destination blockchain.[8]
In January 2019, Ren participated in the release of the whitepaper introducing Wrapped Bitcoin. The paper introduced the notion of "wrapped" tokens, utilizing Ethereum's ERC-20 token standard.[9]
"Dark pools were created out of a need and that need is when someone has a large volume order and wants to trade it in the best possible way. It also aids transparency. A decentralized dark pool is very important because the rule set on where everybody is trading is very transparent and there are no bribes in the system" - Taiyang Zhang explains in an interview
In February 2021, the Ren development team joined Alameda Research.[10] Taiyang Zhang and his co-founder Loong Wang, moved to advisory roles to guide the next phase of Ren Protocol.[11]
KeeperDAO
In 2019, Taiyang Zhang and Tiantian Kullander co-founded and jointly managed KeeperDAO. It was a collaborative effort between Kullander's Amber Group, a crypto trading and market-making firm, and Zhang's Talo Systems, a blockchain research firm.[1]
Automera
In 2022, Zhang co-founded Automera, a Singapore-based biotechnology startup focusing on the development of Autophagy-Targeting Chimera small molecules (AUTACs), which are designed to harness the cell’s autophagy machinery to remove selected proteins.[2][13] Automera was established at Talo Labs Pte Ltd by co-founders Associate Professor Michael Lazarou, Loong Wang, and Taiyang Zhang in collaboration with Accelerator Life Science Partners (ALSP).[13] In September 2023, the company announced a $16 million Series A financing co-led by ALSP and ClavystBio, with participation from EDBI, Xora Innovation, and other investors, to advance its AUTAC-based targeted protein degradation platform in oncology and other disease areas.[13][7]
QDX
In 2023, Zhang co-founded QDX, an Australian computational drug discovery company that uses quantum mechanics-based simulations of molecular interactions to support small-molecule drug design.[14][6] QDX is headquartered in Melbourne and operates as QDX Technologies Pty Ltd, with an Australian Business Number active from April 2023 and a main business location in Victoria.[14] Its founding team consists of Loong Wang, who serves as CEO, quantum chemist Giuseppe Barca, physician-scientist and former Baker Bros Investments partner Kelvin Neu, and Taiyang Zhang, who co-founded the company after his work on Automera.[14] QDX develops EXESS, a GPU-accelerated ab initio quantum chemistry engine, and the Rush platform, which combines EXESS with machine learning to support drug discovery workflows for partners in pharmaceuticals and related sectors.[14]
Angel Investing
As an angel investor, Zhang generally focuses on cryptocurrency, blockchain, decentralized finance, biotechnology, and computational chemistry companies.[15]
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