Silicon Dragon Valley 2018
POWER PLAYERS
Morrison & Foerster
SVB Financial Group
Draper's Hero City
.......
Silicon Dragon
Israel 2018
Powering Up
China-Israel Links
Sunrise Israel Tech Capital
..........
Silicon Dragon
Focus on Fintech
at London Stock Exchange!
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PARTNER EVENT
Global Investor
Summit
Jerusalem
February 1, 2018
Check out Silicon Dragon's event in Tel Aviv, Jan. 29, on your way there!
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Silicon Dragon
Circle 2018
1 Complimentary
Ticket to a
Silicon Dragon event and
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Where Was The Wow?
There wasn't much new or wow at this year's CES -- at least if you don't count all the new AI-empowered refrigerators, toasters and toilets plus the black-out moments at the convention hall. Makes you wonder about the future of tech and all those e
lectricity-sucking gadgets. But Baidu, Alibaba and other of China's tech titans were in the spotlight. Like last year, one-third of the exhibitors at CES were from China!
Things were bright at Silicon Dragon's Happy Hour at CES 2018, where VCs and entrepreneurs mixed for networking, media interviews, a fireside-style chat with
Hans Tung
of
GGV Capital,
and a welcome by Nevada state treasurer Dan Schwartz. Check out Silicon Dragon
livestream
at our Facebook page.
See pix above and more at our Silicon Dragon site:
Hans Tung
, Rebecca Fannin,
Anna Fang
and Wei Jiang of
ZhenFund and
S
ophia Xu
of
Vipkid.
N
otable
at CES was
Baidu's splashy event where
its new line of smart hardware products AI and an autonomous driving platform were
launched. What most impressed me were such comments from
Baidu
execs as: "
innovating at China speed." and
"Innovating for the world."
It was a little Ste
ve Job
s-like.
Impromptu m
eeting with Monster CEO Noel Lee at Huawei's press event. Got to hear about Monster's deal with Huawei to bring improved sounds to its new cellphones.
Taiwan startups also had a good showing at CES and unveiled breakthroughs in smart devices and IoT with a spotlight on three startups: AEON Motor,
Geosat and Taiwan Main Orthopedics.
It was interesting to see
Alibaba's
giant tent featuring logistics and design
services, right at CES and emphasizing some of its core services. Seemed smart!
26 Observations about CES 2018
A write-up by
HAX
partner
Benjamin Joffe
tells what you
missed at CES this year. No dominant theme, pro-looking booths, more B2B and sophisticated, high quality exhibits by Chinese companies - a big difference from years past when shoddy China booths were relegated to back
rows. Read spotting CES.
FUNDING DEALS
Alibaba
is reportedly buying a $3 billion stake in Chinese-bike-sharing startup
a
deal
valuing
Ofo
at $10 billion. It looks like a full exit for GSR, and a solid return for partner Allen Zhu who did Ofo's series A financing in 2016.
This new mega investment comes after
Ofo
raised $700 million in mid-2017 from
Alibaba
and Chinese ride-sharing service Didi Chuxing and others.
Chinese social trip planning site
Mafengwo has raised $133 million in series D financig from
General Atlantic,
Temasek
,
Yuantai Investment
and
Hopu. Prior investors
Capital Today
,
Qiming Venture Partners
and
Hillhouse Capita
l also pitched in.
China's major e-commerce JD.com is looking to bulk up its logistics business with a $2 billion fund raise. Hillhouse Capital and Sequoia Capital China are reportedly in as investors. The logistics business is also possibly being readied for an IPO overseas, following JD's public debut on Nasdaq in 2015.
Sequoia Capital China has funded Australian design startup Canva with $40 million in a deal valuation in the unicorn sphere deal. The startup, which Silicon Dragon featured at a Sydney event in 2013 (!) and has covered regularly, becomes Australia's second tech unicorn, after Atlassian, which we also spotlit very early on. It was 2013 that Rick Baker of Blackbird Ventures first invested in Canva, which prides itself on being easier to use than design products from Adobe or Microsoft.
IPOs
A partner of China's smartphone + plus maker
Xiaomi, Huami Corp., which is in the smart wearable space,
has filed fo
r a $150 million IPO on Nasdaq.
NOTEWORTHY
Chinese workers abandon Silicon Valley for riches back home.
An exodus triggered by abundant capital, growing innovation and flourishing career opportunities.
Read
The Next Silicon Valley is China
.
LimeBike arrived in my Bay Area neighborhood over the weekend - good timing for Silicon Dragon's nearby event in San Mateo,
Jan 18. Co-founder
Brad Bao is speaking about the new e-bikes and the journey at this Chinese-style bike-sharing startup funded by
DCM and
Andressen Horowitz.
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