More Chinese venture capitalists have now made it into Forbes' latest list of the top 100 venture capitalists from around the world. This indicates that more Chinese investors are now participating in the gradually changing global venture capital market, which has mostly been dominated by Silicon Valley for the past decade.
In Forbes Magazine's latest list of the world's top venture capitalists, 21 Chinese investors made it into the top 100. This is a drastic improvement from the 17 domestic investors that were included in the list last year. Meanwhile, four Chinese investors took positions in the top 10 in this year's list.
For the second consecutive year, Shen Nanpeng (Niel Shen) of Sequoia Capital China remained at the top spot in the list. Following the managing partner of Sequoia Capital China is Gan Jianping (JP Gan), the managing partner of Qiming Venture Partners, ranking in fifth place. Gan is then followed by Xu Xin (Kathy Xu), the founding partner of Capital Today, in sixth place. Below Xu is Tong Shihao (Hans Tung), the managing partner of GGV capital, in seventh place.
Forbes had ranked the investors based on their portfolio of companies that have already gone public. This also includes companies that have acquired at least US$200 million in valuation in the last five years. Companies that have recently raised funding at a valuation of at least US$400 million are also considered as part of the ranking factors.
According to Forbes associate editor Alex Konrad, he has now seen an increasing number of investors from China, who are now changing the global venture capital market and taking the some of the thunder away from Silicon Valley. After years of dominance in the particular market, tech giants such as Facebook and Twitter are now slowly losing their grasp on the top spot as they make way for newer generations.
Zhou Xuan, a professor with the private investment funds Institute of the University of International Business and Economics, notes that the increase in the number of Chinese investors in the list is a clear indication of China's vast and vigorous economy. Zhou explains that the various reforms that have been enacted over the years that have opened up China's economy to the world have now taken effect allowing more high-quality enterprises to flourish.
Premier Li Keqiang had mentioned in the recently held Boao Forum for Asia that the country was now taking steps to make it easier for foreign companies to set up investment firms in China. However, Zhou warns that Chinese venture capitalists still have a long way to go before they can directly compete with the world's top players.
