You may have already be familiar with some of the big names that are joining the jury for TechCrunch Startup Competition this November in Beijing. Today, we are adding to the list some of the hottest investors from China’s internet industry.
Starting a business from scratch is tough for most entrepreneurs, but finding tutorship in reliable partners and investors can save a lot of headaches.
TechCrunch Startup Competition is a part of the TechCrunch International Summit, one of the most anticipated technology conferences of the year. We start each day with panels and one-on-one chats featuring special guest speakers, leading venture capitalists and fascinating entrepreneurs addressing the most important topics facing today’s tech landscape.
More speakers and guests of the event will be announced on a rolling basis. If you’re looking to buy tickets register here.
Hans Tung, Partner at GGV Capital
Hans joined GGV Capital Qiming Venture Partners in 2013 as a Managing Partner to focus on mobile Internet, cross border e-commerce, online education, and gaming industry investments.
Hans has been involved in a wide spread of Chinese startups that have since become category leaders, including Xiaomi, Mafengwo Travel, Vancl.com, Domob Mobile, 51fanli, Forgame, and eHi Car Rental.
Hans has been ranked as a top VC on the Forbes Midas list the past three years (2013, 2014, and 2015). He was also recognized by The Founder and CBN News magazines as a Top 10 Most-Entrepreneur-Friendly VC in China.
Steven Ji, Partner at Sequoia Capital China
Prior to joining Sequoia Capital in 2005, Steven 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 at Seagate Technology China, where he held several managerial posts successively.
Steven received his MBA from China Europe International Business School and a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Justin Niu, Managing Partner at IDG Capital
Justin Niu is actively involved in big data, cloud computing, enterprise services and new technology investments. Justin is experienced in corporate strategy, operational improvement and removing bottle necks for growth stage companies.
Prior to joining IDG Capital, Justin worked at Mckinsey & Company, where he was involved in helping leading companies in various business functions including corporate strategy, market entry, operational improvement and government relationship strategy. Justin earned his B.S. and M.S. degree in Computer Science and Technology from Tsinghua University.
Weiming Xiong, Managing Partner at China Growth Capital
Weiming Xiong has 16 years of experience in investment bank research, private equity and high – tech entrepreneurship in mainland China. He believes that technical innovation drives the change of investment idea. He focus on internet services, including enterprise services, medical treatment & health and consuming industry.
He joined WI HARPER GROUP in 2005 and took a very important seat at the project channel and marketing, in WI HARPER GROUP he took charge of few investment programs such as Maxthon, Chivd, Innovation Works, Mapbar. After that, Xiong became the partner of Bertelsmann Asia and took part in lots of investment programs such as I-Click, Mogujie, Douban and Domob.
At the end of 2012, Xiong joined China Growth Capital as partner. He led the investment programs of 1hu, HunterOn, Microseer etc. He is an alumni of Peking University.
Scott Zheng, Founder of Buttonwood Capital
Scott is the founder of Buttonwood Capital, based in Shanghai. He has more than 20 years of investment and start-up experience and insight across a wide spectrum of industries and international businesses.
Prior to founding Buttonwood, Mr. Zheng has been a series entrepreneur, having started and co-started several companies in the last 14 years, including Internet search, video streaming, instant messaging, outdoor LED media, and on-shore Liquefied Natural Gas operations.
In addition to entrepreneurial pursuit, Zheng obtained managing experience through positions such as CFO of Joyou AG (JY8: Xetra), where he played a key role in bringing the Chinese company public at Deutsche Borse’s prime standard market board in 2010; director of business development at W.R. Grace, where he oversaw mergers and acquisition in Greater China region; Asia-Pacific finance manager at Delphi Corporation’s Dynamics and Propulsion division; senior financial analyst at General Motors NA. and investment banking career at Citic Securities in the nascent Chinese securities market back in the mid 90’s.
Xiaoning Li, Founder of VC.cn
In 2011, Xiaoning Li established the first Chinese internet financing platform vc.cn after returning from the U.S. The site saw angel investments from numerous famous angel investors such as Xiaoping Xu, Kaifu Li, Wensheng Cai, Liqing Zeng, Xiangyang Yang. As an internet fund, vc.cn includes an equity financing platform, Tuopu Fund, and big data platform chuangyepu.com.
Prior to this, Xiaoning Li worked as the vice president of Merrill Lynch. Before that he took places in plenty of famous investment bank, such as JPMorgan Chase & Co and Union Bank of Switzerland. Li acquired his MBA in Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and he got a Masters Degree of computing at the University of Delaware.