featuring a panel of
leading VCs investing in China's top startups
Helen Wong Qiming Ventures
(think Youku-Tudou)
Nicholas duCray
Cathay Innovation
(think Pinduoduo)
+
Dominic Penaloza
Innovation & Tech Head
WeWork China
Thanks to our sponsors and partners
MobileMonday Shanghai
WeWork
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SPECIAL EVENT
AI Superpowers with Kai-Fu Lee and AI Panel
St. Francis
Yacht Club
San Francisco
Ticket includes a signed book + reception
Silicon Dragon
Annual Awards
Top VC, Founder, Deal and Startup Fund Raising
of the Year Hong Kong
November 15, 5-9pm
Speaking
appearances
Overseas Technology
Entrepreneurs Contest
Beijing
August 11
Keynote Talk
Cyberport Venture Forum
Hong Kong
November 8 Moderator
SYNCH 2018:
Rebecca Fannin
with
VC panelists
Alex Liang of Oriza Ventures and Xuezhao Lan of Basis Set
Ventures -
August 2018
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Could Google Beat Baidu This Time In China?
Circa 2006: Google Beijing headquarters Silicon Dragon's Rebecca Fannin with then-Google China president Kai-Fu Lee, now a venture capitalist at Sinovation Ventures and author of upcoming book, AI Superpowers.
Hear his talk Sept. 28 at the yacht club in San Francisco:
Will
Google do better this time in entering China with Dragonfly, its project to bring a censored search engine back to China?
Google attempted to become the top search engine in China for nearly a decade and stopped without success in 2009. The global search powerhouse struggled in China with inferior search results, unreliable service, censorship issues and intense competition from Chinese upstart
Baidu - by now a familiar story for many American brands facing obstacles in China.
Read Forbes:
Google Deja Vu
Starbucks on demand in China, courtesy Alibaba
Starbucks has managed to become one of the few successful American businesses in China, a major feat in tea-drinking nation China. Now America's biggest coffee brand has scored by forging an alliance with online marketplace
Alibaba to boost sales amid U.S.-China trade tensions and reports that Chinese consumers are boycotting
Starbucks.
The move comes as
Starbucks sales have recently slumped in China by 2 percent while competition has intensified. Local rivals such as newcomer
Luckin Coffee are gaining market share against the dominant Starbucks with 660 outlets, competitive prices and ordering over a mobile phone app.
The partnership of
Alibaba and
Starbucks comes at an opportune moment -- and it mimics the digitalized upstart
Luckin Coffee that launched early this year.
FUNDS
Golden Gate Ventures in Singapore is giving startups in Southeast Asia a boost with the recent raising of $65 million toward a $100 million fund investing in the emerging region. Existing investors include Singapore sovereign fund Temasek, Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin and Mistletoe, run by Softbank chairman Masayoshi Son's brother Taizo.
Vynn Capital, a Southeast Asian VC firm investing in
early stage startups and based in Malaysia, is partnering with the United Nations World Tourism Organization
to develop Asia's tourism and hospitality business. Vynn Capital's managing partner Victor Chua, a former investor with Gobi Partners, won a Forbes 30 under 30 award.
DEALS
China new energy vehicle maker XPeng Motors has raised $587 million in a Series B financing from Primavera Capital and Morningside Venture Capital at a post-money valuation of $3.67 billion.
Medlinker, a China mobile medical services startup based in Chengdu, pulled in a $147 million, series D founding round, backed by CIC, Sequoia Capital, and China Renaissance co-founder. Medlinker becomes China's newest unicorn while China Internet old-timer Sohu loses its unicorn status.
Tencent and Alibaba have co-invested $53 million in former Voice of China TV producer, Shanghai Canxing Culture & Broadcast Co.
Hershey has quietly sold its candy unit Golden Monkey to a state-owned food processing business after acquiring the Shanghai-based chocolate maker for $577 million in 2014.
DATA: China VC Hitting Highs In U.S.
Chinese venture capital investment in the U.S. reached nearly $2.4 billion in the first five months of 2018, at the level of its previous full-year record set in 2015. The Rhodium Group predicts that China VC in the U.S. will surpass prior records in 2018 due to a big jump in biotech deals and shift to later-stage funding rounds. This comes in spite of heightened U.S.-China tensions.
At the same time, Chinese FDI investment in the U.S. continues to decline. After reaching a record high of $46 billion in 2016, it fell in the U.S. to $29 billion in 2017, and to only $1.8 billion in the first five months of 2018.
FEATURED VIDEO: TRANSIT INNOVATORS IN LA
Silicon Dragon LA 2018 Panelists:
Phil Roberts, Eric Mika, Kevin Noertker, John Cole discuss their amazing innovations to upgrade mobility, with moderator Ruby Salo of Nixon Peabody.
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