With Helen Wong, Seasoned Venture Capitalist
James Tan, Managing Partner, Quest Ventures
Rui Ma, China Tech Analyst, Tech Buzz China
China has been tightening regulations and cracking down on multiple sectors from gaming to fintech to education to the gig economy, sending shock waves across the investor and tech startup community. Beijing’s moves are testing the market and investor appetite even as they push companies to rethink their core business models and strategies to survive. Some of the sectors that have been adversely impacted by the tough measures are incidentally also among the top bets for both private and public market investors alike.
Given this backdrop of uncertainty in the world’s largest consumer market, there is a lot of scepticism around how these measures will impact the local players, including those listed on global markets, and also overseas investors backing them. In this Big Picture discussion, we have put together an eminent panel of distinguished speakers who will share their unique insights and reading of the ongoing developments.
Our first panelist Helen Wong is a seasoned venture capitalist with 20 years of investment experience in China, US and SE Asia. She is the founding team member at GGV Capital and ex-Partner at Qiming Ventures. GGV is a US-China venture capital firm while Qiming is a top-tier China venture capital firm with over $5b under management. Her investment and exit record at Qiming include Mobike (sold to Meituan), which reached unicorn status; Luojiswei (sold to Tencent) also reached unicorn status; Lagou (sold to 51jobs). Her successful exits at GGV include Tudou (IPO on NASDAQ then acquired by Youku/ Alibaba); Buchang (IPO on A-share); and BCD (IPO on NASDAQ then acquired). She has been involved in 8 of GGV Fund I’s successful exits including Alibaba.
Rui Ma, our second panelist and commentator, has 16 years of experience in technology and finance, spanning seed stage to pre-IPO investing, with a decade focused on China. She founded Tech Buzz China in 2018 to educate and consult investors, funds and entrepreneurs on Chinese tech products, strategies and trends. She previously worked at 500 Startups as an investment partner and spent a decade in private equity and mergers & acquisitions roles at Raine Group, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch in both Silicon Valley and China.
Our third panelist is James Tan, managing partner at Quest Ventures, a top venture capital fund in Asia. James Tan was earlier co-founder and COO of 55tuan, a NASDAQ-listed e-commerce group that grew to more than 200 cities and 5,000 employees across China. Quest Ventures’s portfolio includes prominent names such as Carousell, Carro and ShopBack. After close to a decade in China, Tan returned home to Singapore to nurture tech startups through the VC venture.
Join this discussion for some insightful observations on China’s tech space developments and their fallout in the region.
