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1 WEEK TO GO DEAL!
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April 12
Adam Lindemann
Tytus Michalski
James Savage
Nisa Leung
Victor Boyajian
Danny Lee
Tim Zanni
Roland Yau
Alan Chan
TECH FOUNDER CHATS
TalkPush +
3 Forbes Asia
30U30 Superstars
WORKSHOP
Hong Kong Jumpstart
To Silicon Valley
and B
eijing
Thanks to Our
Sponsors:
Dentons, KPMG,
Cyberport
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NEXT:
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Speakers
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500 Startups
Sonny Wu
GSR Capital
Jenny Lee
GGV Capital
Jonathan Qiu
Sky9 Capital
William Bao Bean
SOSV
Edith Yeung
500 Startups
Thanks to Cooley, DDUp
for Sponsorship
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| Partner Events & Talks 2017 SVEF May 2, 2017
Silicon Valley
Crowdfunding Conference May 4-5, 2017 Washington, DC |
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@SiliconDragon
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China-California Deals Endure Growing Pains
Ask Tesla, Quixey, Vizio and Dick Clark
In a strong indication of the links in tech between China and Silicon Valley, social network giant
Tencent has acquired a 5 percent stake in U.S. electric car maker
Tesla for $1.8 billion. The rationale behind the deal is potential collaboration on automated ride-sharing and delivery services as well as related information, entertainment and e-commerce content. The investment moves Tencent further into U.S. tech terrain, in concert with the BAT (
Baidu and
Alibaba).
Alibaba-backed search engine startup
Quixey in Silicon Valley has failed with strategic misalignment, cultural differences and disagreements over a commercial contract to blame. Quixey was one of Alibaba's first bets in Silicon Valley tech startups, and the Chinese conglomerate led financing of well more than $100 million in Quixey, starting from 2013 and ending with a $30 million loan and $10 million in cash last summer. It's a high-profile fail for
Alibaba and its U.S. investment strategy.
Hit the pause or stop button for two China-to-Hollywood deals that are not happening now. A deal to buy
Dick Clark Productions by Chinese conglomerate
Dalian Wanda for $1 billion is off. A deal to buy TV maker
Vizio for $2 billion by China's
LeEco has also hit the skids. The breakups come as Chinese regulators curb outbound "irrational" investments and as Congress scrutinizes the impact of China deal making in Hollywood.
A slowdown in revenue growth last year to only a 6.3% gain at Chinese search engine
Baidu has led to reports coming that this tech leader has failed to keep pace with trends toward mobile commerce and social networks. Moreover, the loss of artificial intelligence expert
Andrew Ng from Baidu, which has been counting on AI to broaden its business, was another blow.
On the plus side,
Baidu Ventures has teamed up with
Comet Ventures to invest exclusively in AI and machine learning technologies from its new fund of $200 million. Baidu hired
Liu Wei, a co-founder of Comet Labs and a former partner at Legend Holdings' venture arm to pilot the investments.
Saban Farid
, managing partner and founder of Comet Labs, detailed the
fund strategy at the Israel Dealmaker Summit this past week in Silicon Valley and outlined test cases for AI's use.
AirBNB may be the rare American success story in China, at least based on initial results that showed booking increases of 80+ over the past six months. A key to its beginner's luck is hiring locally and setting up an in-country operation.
DEALS
DCM
and
Sequoia Capital China
have invested $11 million in a B round of financing for big data analysis startup
Sensors,
founded by a former tech manager in Baidu's data department.
INDIA
Sequoia Capital India
,
venturing from its usual investments, has funded an online healthcare startup in of all places, Perth, Australia. Sequoia led the $21 million, Series C financing for the fast-growth Aussie startup,
HealthEngine.
NOTEWORTHY
The star money behind Chinese celebrities' multimillion-dollar VC funds. Read CNBC,
Celebs
.
Top 20 VCs list from the NYTimes presents a few fresh faces but mostly highly recognizable ones from Silicon Valley.
Only 1 of the top 20 is based in China:
Neil Shen, Sequoia Capital China. Top VCs.
Five of the top 10 financings in Q4 2016 are from Mainland China, versus only 2 from the U.S.
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