TechNode’s cheat sheet to Chinese investment in Silicon Valley
With an ambitious government innovation agenda, and RMB depreciation, coupled with Chinese internet giants with global ambitions, Chinese investment is going more into US startups.
According to China’s Investment in Silicon Valley report, released by CB Insights, quarterly participation by Greater China investors in US tech financing deals excluding M&A has not fallen below 40 deals since Q2 2014 with many Chinese investors participating in major 2015 financing deals for the likes of Uber, Lyft, AirBnB, Sofi, and Snap grossing nearly US$ 10 billion. 21% of US unicorns are backed by an investor based in China ranging from BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent), Renren, Hillhouse Capital, and Jinjiang International.
Based on the report, TechNode has compiled a cheat sheet of companies, funds, and their preferred industry.
Gaming
Tencent plays a major role in the US gaming ecosystem, investing in Riot games, Rocket Gems, Discord, Epic games, Artillery, DOTS, Kamcord, VC Mobile Entertainment, and Robot Entertainment. Last year, the company bought Clash of Clans for a whopping US$ 8.6 billion. Gaming is a core part of Tencent’s revenue, based on its digital item sales as well as VIP memberships.
VR/AR
HTC, Tencent, Horizons Ventures and Shanda Group have all invested in US-based AR or VR startups. As a leading player in the VR market, HTC has made efforts to add B2B applications in sectors ranging from publication and hospitality to education. HTC Vive is also welcomed by offline VR arcades in China for its high-quality experience using controllers. HTC invested in Owlchemy Labs, VR Chat, Surgical Theater, WeVR, and Baobab Studios.
AR product maker Meta received investment from Horizons Ventures, Lenovo Group, and Tencent Holdings.
AI
Tencent has been the most active in investing in AI startups, including Skymind, CloudMedX, Diffbot, and Scaled Inference. A number of AI-focused startups in the U.S. have taken on multiple China-based investors.
Fintech
Chinese social networking site Renren has been the most active in US fintech, such as a provider of P2P mortgages LendingHome, student loan service Social Finance, Aspiration, Plum, Sindeo and San Mateo-based stock trading site Motif. Renren’s investment in fintech companies is to diversify their investments in order to stabilize the company. The company has planned to invest a total US$ 500 million in fintech companies and has been active in investing in both Chinese companies and US companies.
Digital Health
Wuxi Venture Fund is active in digital health and healthcare investing in 23andMe, Lumo BodyTech and UNITY Biotechnology. Other active investors in digital health are Ping An Ventures and Tencent.
IoT
Foxconn are active in IoT investing and has invested in Electric Imp, SoundHawk, GoPro which went public.
Other active investors you should know:
Zhenfund is the top on the list of Chinese entrepreneurs want to get funding from. They invested in US companies like Hyperloop One, Medal, Super Evil Megacorp and Chinese companies like Ehang, and the ONE Music Group.
Fosun Kinzon Capital is active in fintech, digital health, and mobile commerce, and has invested in firms including StyleSeat, Scanadu, Tapingo.
SAIC is active in auto tech and made investments into firms including YourMechanic, Beepi, and SolidEnergy Systems.
TAL Education Group invested in the Minerva Project, Volley Labs, and Knewton.