Clubhouse App Craze. Will It Last? Fear of Missing Out?

March 15, 2021

www.silicondragonventures.com

China Entrepreneurs Feel a Chill from Jack Ma's Fall from Grace

The public thrashing of China's most famous capitalist may slow Beijing’s drive to become a global leader in tech, even as President Xi Jinping prepares to pour trillions of dollars into making the country self-sufficient in everything from semiconductors to software.

But Xi’s drive toward tech dominance is being threatened by an unexpected speed bump: China’s forceful crackdown on Jack Ma’s business empire.

“The Jack Ma incident could be a turning point” for China’s tech sector, says Rebecca Fannin, founder of research group Silicon Dragon Ventures.

Read Bloomberg: Silent Jack Ma

DEALS, FUNDS, IPOs

High Alpha Raises Third Fund at $110 million, Indiana's largest VC Fund.

Silicon Dragon has interviewed VC Scott Dorsey and will share more soon!

Southeast Asian ride-hailing startup Grab is in talks to go public soon in a SPAC merger deal that could be valued at $40 billion.

Shanghai-based biotech startup Delonix Bioworks Closes $14 Million in seed financing to accelerate the cevelopment of its next generation vaccines. Funding was led by Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund (BIVF) and IDG Capital, with ZhenFund.

Insuretech platform Turtlemint raises $46 million in Series D financing in India.

NOTABLE

In 2020, as U.S. venture capital surged by 13 percent to a record $156 billion, the San Francisco Bay Area VC declined by 13 percent to the lowest venture deal count in 10 years, and the largest drop in angel and seed investments among the most active U.S. hubs, new Pitchbook-NVCA report shows.

Audio creators are a new kind of influencer, born of the meteoric rise of the audio-only chat app Clubhouse. Together, they are pulling in millions of weekly listeners and building online followings.

Silicon Dragon founder Rebecca Fannin is interviewed on CGTN America from Washington DC about Clubhouse.

March 15 show starting 5pm EST.