Silicon Dragon's Top VC 2020
Keynote: Kamran Elahian, Founder and Chairman, Global
Innovation Catalyst, Silicon Valley
Elahian founded 10 companies
including three unicorns (Cirrus Logic, NeoMagic and Centillium). He previously
ran venture firm Global Catalyst Partners for 15 years. He now works in global
philanthropy and is an Advisory Member to the UNICEF Innovation Fund.
· Society is moving from a knowledge economy to an
innovation economy. lies in algorithmic content. This is the case for finance,
education, media, and many other markets.
Over time, more tasks will happen with
algorithmic content or machine learning and automation. Less and less will be
manual.
Due to broadband and the diffusion of knowledge,
Silicon Valley is no longer the only place for unicorns to be created.
Tech innovation will be propelled by a
convergence of engineering, business and design schools in addition to hubs that
consist of accelerators, incubators, co-working spaces, maker spaces, and micro-funds. Tech hubs are emerging on the frontier, and spurring
the creation of new tech jobs. There are now over 1000 tech hubs in Africa
alone.
Venture Panel: Outlook 2021
Jeffrey Chi – Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Vickers Venture Partners
Edith Yeung – General Partner, Race Capital
Duncan Chiu – Managing Partner, Radiant Venture
Olivia Wang – Former Head of US, ZhenFund
Key points by panelists:
Duncan Chiu – Managing Partner, Radiant
Ventures
·
Radiant Ventures took a conservative approach
and slowed down its investment activity early in the year when Covid-19 hit. In
order to offset the slowdown in investments in Q1, Radiant Ventures did follow-up
rounds on previous portfolio companies, a common thread among other firms. Now, investors are beginning to plan post
Covid-19.
·
The Hong Kong market is split: later stage
companies are having no trouble raising money, unicorns can get funded even now
if they are not too aggressive with their valuation.
·
Earlier stage companies are having a more
difficult time because they are backed by personal investors and angels, who
tend to be more conservative. This makes it harder for these early stage
company to close a round. Many are
calling this a gap year for these early-stage companies.
·
Startups in the US and China are able to focus
on their own markets because they’re so big, but for companies coming out of
Hong Kong, they need to choose their market. The top choices in this case are
Mainland China, Southeast Asia, and the U.S.
James Mi – Founding Partner, Lightspeed
China
·
The investment pace slowed for Q1 but now it is
picking up for both early and late stage companies in search of funding.
·
Barriers are being put up for cross border
collaboration and innovation, but this also creates opportunities for startups
in each region because more local solutions are required.
· Lightspeed has been advising its portfolio companies during Covid-19 to keep a six-month cash reserve and raise funding even if they think they can get by without it.
Olivia Wang – Former Head of US,
ZhenFund
·
A priority has been to prepare portfolio companies
for the worst case scenario and manage their cash burn.
· As opposed to Q1, the summer has been robust for even seed and series A companies.
Jeffrey Chi- Vice Chairman and
Managing Director, Vickers Venture Partners
· “It’s not about when Covid-19 will pass, but how we are going to learn to live with it.”
·
Tensions will continue whether Biden or Trump is
president. (time lag here)
· Innovation will take a step back as
tensions between US and China grow. Frictions in deals are happening when US and China are part of the transaction.
Edith Yeung – General Partner, Race
Capital
·
Distributed deals geographically are the norm. Location
does not matter.
·
Covid-19 is an accelerator for previously avoided
sectors like online education and healthcare.
IPOs:
Where Hong Kong Fits
Michael Chan - Head of International
Issuer Services, HKEX
Irene Chu – Partner, KPMG
China / Head of New Economy and Life Sciences markets, Hong Kong
·
Hong Kong IPOs totaled $129.8 billion from
2016 through first half of 2020, compared with $96.6 billion for NYSE, $91.7
billion for Shanghai, $72.3 billion for Nasdaq, $53.2 billion for LSE, and
$41.7 billion for Shenzhen.
·
New economy companies account for about 25% of
all Hong Kong market cap.
·
Market appetite for companies in health,
fintech, and biotech is strong.
·
Even with social unrest, Hong Kong IPOs are not
having issues with raising money.
·
Look for more Southeast Asian tech companies
to go public.
·
Neither wanted to comment on the delay of the
Ant IPO in China, but it’s created some uncertainty in the market over powerful
influences.
