Money Keeps on Rolling In — Wireless Venture Investments in China

In 2005, 233 Chinese start-ups got total 1 billion US dollar from venture investors. Meanwhile, 4 more billion USD was raised by VCs that are active inside China (Source: Zero2IPO). Obviously, the money keeps on rolling in.

Telecommunication was 2nd favorite investment target, behind Internet. However, the wireless investment targets never get as much attention as Internet ones in China. Many wireless companies are hidden in IC or Services categories. What are the hottest wireless investment targets in China now? Are there unique features of Chinese wireless industry and market? How do these features translate into venture capital investments and wireless entrepreneur opportunities in China?

In this seminar, we invite venture capitalists that are actively investing in China and successful venture-backed Chinese entrepreneurs to share their first-hand experience.

Contact and More Information:

Moderator:

Speakers:

Stella Xi Jin
Partner
IDG VC Partners
Stella is responsible for IDGVC's Silicon Valley investment operations since 1999. Stella has 18 years of experience in operations, consulting, and technology investments. She has advised and assisted startups with their business expansion and growth strategies targeting Greater China. In particular, she works with portfolios in their corporate structuring, team building, business development, marketing, sales, and distribution.

Prior to joining IDGVC, Stella served as partner at Vantone Investment Group. Prior to that, Stella was co-founder and vice president at Lorrex Health Products. Earlier in her career, she was a consultant at Electric Power Research Institute and a project manager at Unison International. Stella received her M.A. in Economics from the University of California at Davis and B.A. in Economics from San Francisco State University. She attended Beijing Foreign Languages University before moving to the U.S.

David Lee
Partner
Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP
David Lee, a partner in the firm’s Silicon Valley office, is a member of Orrick’s Emerging Companies Group, which advises emerging companies and venture capital firms. Mr. Lee practices in the areas of corporate formation, securities, venture capital financings, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, public offerings, and technology licensing transactions.

Mr. Lee has an active practice representing China-focused emerging companies, both in the United States and in China, and heads Orrick's China Emerging Companies Group. Mr. Lee has represented one of China's leading Internet companies, Sina Corporation, since its initial public offering. In addition, Mr. Lee's practice involves a broad network of entrepreneurs, angel investors and venture capitalists that are active in developing China-focused companies.

Mr. Lee's company clients have been backed by, among others, Accel, Austin Ventures, Crosspoint, CommVentures, Doll Capital, Draper Fisher, Hummer Winblad, JK&B, Lightspeed, Mayfield, NEA, Redpoint, Sequoia, Telesoft, Trinity, Walden, and Venrock.

Before joining Orrick, Mr. Lee was a founding member of Venture Law Group.
Representative engagements include:

• Sina Corporation, in its initial public offering
• Sina Corporation, in its $100 million convertible bond offering
• Foundry Networks, in its initial public offering
• Flash Electronics, in its restructuring from a California corporation to a Cayman Islands corporation
• Ramp Networks, in its initial public offering Represented Ramp Networks in its acquisition by Nokia
• Quality Semiconductor, in its initial public offering
• Quality Semiconductor, in its acquisition by Integrated Device Technology
• Triscend Corporation, in its acquisition by Xilinx.
• Transmedia, in its acquisition by Cisco

Roger Liao
Partner
iD Ventures America
Mr. Roger Liao joined Acer Technology Ventures (ATV) in late 1998 and was a Partner and Vice President of Investments since 2000. Previously, Mr. Liao was in charge of the U.S. operation of Acer Neweb Corp, now Wistron Neweb. Prior to that, he was a consultant in sales and marketing, strategic alliance, investment, and business development between Silicon Valley and Asia. He helped co-founded ATronics in 1985 with customers including then PC Limited, now Dell Computer, and Axik Computer in 1990, earning over twenty Best Buy/Editor's Choice Awards in the two-year span with customers including federal and state governments. He also spent five years in engineering positions at STC/CRC, Ungermann-Bass and Sharp Taiwan. His experience covers engineering, manufacturing, business development, sales and marketing as well as venture investment.

He is currently a Venture Partner of iD Ventures America (formally ATV) and has involved with several companies as either a board director or advisor. He manages a few companies within which some focus on the Asia market with offices in China and Taiwan. His main interests are in areas such as semiconductors, display technology, broadband communications, wireless Internet and nanotechnology. Mr. Liao has been involved with several high-tech, non-profit organizations. Among others, he was the Chairman and President in 2000, and Chairperson of Entrepreneur SIG in 2001 of the Chinese Information and Networking Association (CINA). In addition, he has been a judge of Business Plan Competitions for several organizations such as UC Berkeley, and the mentor for the Global Entrepreneurial Leadership (GEL) program at Stanford University. He received his BSEE degree from National Taiwan University and MSEE degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York.

iD Ventures America has a total of $340 million under management through three funds: the Acer Technology Venture Fund established in 1998; IP Fund One established in 2000 and jointly managed with iD TechVentures Inc. in Taiwan and China; and iD6 Fund, recently formed in 2005. These funds are invested by Acer affiliated companies and executives, as well as external limited partners, such as China Development Industrial Bank, ABN AMRO Capital Investment Asia Ltd., Chase Capital Partners, Nomura/Jafco Investment, DBS Nominees Pte., Ltd., GIC Special Investments Pte., Ltd.

David Liu
Managing Director
JefferiesBroadview Technology Investment Banking Group
David Liu is a Managing Director of the Jefferies Broadview technology investment banking group. He works in the firm's Silicon Valley office and is a member of the Software, Services & Media global practice group. Mr. Liu covers both U.S. and Asian technology companies and has strong domain knowledge of technology capital markets. Since joining the firm in 1993, Mr. Liu has completed over 30 transactions resulting in an aggregate value of more than $3 billion. With more than 12 years of investment banking, venture capital and technology start-up experience, Mr. Liu has advised on a broad range of transactions ranging from IPOs, follow-on offerings, convertibles, private company sales, tender offers and restructurings. Mr. Liu founded his own software company and has served on the boards of several technology start-ups. He holds an MBA degree from Harvard Business School and two BS degrees from the University of Pennsylvania.

Xin Ye
co-founder & CTO
LinkTone
YDON (mobile site: wap.ydon.cn) has been developing its mobile WAP search and entertainment portal service in China. It's a service very popular with Chinese mobile phone users, it helps users to find mobile ringtones, music, games and mobile books and allow users to create mobile blogs to share with others. It also provides local search searches for consumers to find service information.

Xin Ye is CEO of Ydon, a company he co-founded in Early 2006. Xin manages Ydon's overall business strategy and operation. He was previously SVP/CTO of Linktone where he managed the technology, it operations and strategic business and partnership development. Before he was the founding CTO of Sohu where he was instrumental in its portal service development. He has been CTO of Censoft, Microsoft's first joint venture in China. Before coming back to China, Xin has 12 years experience in engineering and technology selling in Silicon Valley with Tibco and Marimba. Xin has a MS from Marquette University in Wisconsin, and BS from Tsinghua University in China.

Moderator:
Tim Chang
Principal
Gabriel Venture Partners
Tim Chang is a Principal at Gabriel Venture Partners, a leading early-stage VC firm based in Silicon Valley. Tim leads the Wireless investment team, and also leads Gabriel's Asia initiatives including business development and investments in China, Korea, and Japan. Tim brings to Gabriel a background combining operational, technical, and international business experience. Prior to joining Gabriel, Tim was a Product Marketing Manager at Gateway, where he launched a full enterprise product line of servers, workstations, and network PCs in to the Japanese market. Prior to Gateway, Tim worked as a tri-lingual development engineer for General Motors working throughout Japan, Korea, and China.

Tim led Gabriel's investment and served as a director on the board of Iridigm Display Corporation, which was acquired by Qualcomm in 2004. Tim also led Gabriel's investments in Kajeet, Sequoia Communications and Sandbridge, and serves as a director on the boards of Kajeet and Sequoia Communications. Tim previously contributed on the boards of Placeware (acquired by Microsoft) and Arula Systems (acquired by Raritan). In addition, he actively works with the boards of TestQuest, Sandbridge, Skycross, IPWireless and NextG Networks.

Tim is also an active contributor in the wireless industry, and serves on the board of the Wireless Communications Alliance (WCA). He is also an advisory board member of the San Diego Telecom Council (CommNexus), the VC Task Force Wireless SIG, Silicon Valley Chinese Wireless Association, iHollywood, as well as the CTIA Wireless Venture Forum.

He received his BS, graduating Summa Cum Laude, and MS, on a full fellowship, from the University of Michigan. Tim also holds an MBA from the Stanford Business School. Tim is an accomplished musician and actor, and continues to perform around the Bay Area.