With less than two weeks left, 2014 TechCrunch China Summit is just around the corner. We’re honored to have great VCs from both China and the U.S. to share their insights in tech.
Xu Xiaoping, aka Bob Xu, Founder of ZhenFund
Xu is the Founder of ZhenFund. He is also known as one of the China’s pioneering angel investors, with distinctions from Founder Magazine as “2010 Most Respected Angel Investor,” “2011 Angel Investor of the Year,” “2012 Best Angel Fund in China,” “2013 Best Angel investor in China” and “2013 Zhongguancun Angel Investor Trailblazer.”
Prior to founding ZhenFund, Bob was a Co-Founder of New Oriental Education & Technology Group (NYSE: EDU), the largest provider of private education in China. He is considered a legendary figure by millions of young Chinese students studying abroad who were influenced by his writing, teaching and speeches.
In 2006, China Southern People’s Weekly voted Bob to be one of China’s “50 Most Charismatic People” and in 2004, Forbes Magazine listed Bob as one of China’s “Top 100 Celebrities.”
Dave McClure, Founder of 500Startups
500 Startups is an early-stage seed fund and incubator located in Mountain View, California. While focusing mainly on Internet startups, its fields of investment range from finance, e-commerce, search engine service, social network, to mobile platforms and etc.
Prior to becoming an angel investor, Dave McClure served as technology consultant for Intel and IBM, followed by head of marketing at PayPal. After he left PayPal, McClure started to invest in Internet startups, and founded 500 Startups in 2011. Dave McClure has worked in the Silicon Valley for over twenty years, and this time he will share with us his wisdoms and experiences from an investor’s perspective.
Pat Gallangher, Managing Partner of CrunchFund
Pat Gallangher has 17 years of technology investing, operations and finance experience. Prior to starting CrunchFund, Pat was a Partner at VantagePoint. Before that Pat worked at Morgan Stanley Venture Partners. His experience cuts across many different IT sectors and stages and he has made dozens of initial and follow-on investments. Before joining Morgan Stanley, he held management roles at RealNames, an internet services company, and Toyota Motor Corporation.
CrunchFund is an early-stage venture capital company founded by Michael Arrignton, Pat Gallagher, and MG Siegler in 2011. Investors in CrunchFund includes AOL, Accel Partners, Austin Ventures, KPCB, Greylock Parners, Redpoint Ventures, Sequoia Cpatal and etc.
In addition to the keynote speakers introduced above, TCBJ is launching a VC Panel during the event, joined by Michael Zhu from Gobi Partners, Hans Tung from GGV Capital, Steven Ji from Sequoia Capital China, and Feng Li from IDG Capital Partners.
Michael Zhu, Partner at Gobi Partners
Michael joined Gobi in 2003. He is based in Shanghai, and focuses on gaming, e-learning, e-health, as well as enterprise SAAS sectors.
Michael has accumulated extensive experience in venture capital and has led and executed numerous investments including Vange and Gokuai Technology. He is a leading partner on the Gobi Yingzhi Fund, for which he led the fundraising effort in 2011. Michael is also a guest lecturer on entrepreneurship and business plan writing for the MBA program at Shanghai Jiaotong University and the China Europe International Business School.
Michael received his B.A. in Computer Automation from Donghua University in Shanghai. In his spare time, he is also a mentor of the China Youth International Business Competition and the Shanghai High-Tech Mentorship Program.
Hans Tung, Partner at GGV Capital
Hans Tung left Qiming Venture Partners last year to join GGV Capital as a managing partner focusing on mobile and Internet in both China and Silicon Valley.
While at Qiming, Tung was an early investor in Xiaomi, the smartphone manufacturer with more than $5 billion in annual sales. Tung also was an investor in Forgame (IPO 2013), a Chinese online game developer, as well as apparel retailer Vancl.com and eHi Car Rental.
He’s still on the board at Forgame, as well as at San Francisco social commerce startup Wish.
A Stanford graduate, Tung splits his time between Beijing and San Francisco, and has also lived in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taipei, Palo Alto, Boston and New York.
Steven Ji, Partner at Sequoia Capital China
Prior to joining Sequoia Capital in 2005, Mr. Ji had been with Walden International, Vertex Management and CIV Venture Capital, where he was in charge of numbers of investment projects.
Steven Ji was also among the first group of employees of Seagate Technology China, where he held several managerial posts successively.
Mr. Ji received his MBA from China Europe International Business School and bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Feng Li, Partner at IDG Capital
Feng Li is actively involved in investment in education, consumer services, TMT and other high-tech related fields. In the joint of internet and finance, Mr. Li led the investments into Credit Ease, Ripple, Coinbase, Baifendian and Wacai.
Mr. Li once launched two start-ups, after that, he joined New Oriental Education & Technology Group, where he worked for eight years and held several core management roles, such as the core education system, sub-brand’s establishment and promotion, distant education and subsidiary products. After leaving New Oriental in early 2007, he created Miaozhen System, a renown big-data driven advertising company.
Before that Mr. Li served at China Renaissance, where he was involved in leading many financing cases. Mr. Li received his M.S. in Chemistry from University of Rochester and BS in Chemistry from Peking University.
For more information on TCBJ agenda and guest speakers, visit the official site.