The fog has lifted and the sun is shining in the San Francisco Bay Area. Check out the Forbes Q&A interview: Silicon Dragon reawakens. And the Wall Street Journal link to the post too:
Tech innovation and venture investment with a Silicon Valley view of global trends
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Sunday, July 12, 2009
VC scoop-thanks, Joe
Veteran Chinese dealmaker Joe Zhou sent me an email to share news that his new China fund, Keytone Ventures, has raised $200 million--in the wake of a challenging fund raising cycle that has spread to once over-heated China, with first-half 2009 funds at $1.8 billion, down from the $6.6 billion raised during the first six months of 2008.
I've been closely covering Joe's career moves for more than two years now since he opted to team up with Kleiner Perkins China in 2007, and then bailed in early 2008 over incompatible deal-making styles. Joe already has seven investments in the Keytone portfolio, deals that he originally sourced while at KP China. UPDATE: The fund has 20 limited partners, Joe tells me, and one-quarter of them overlap with those at KP China. Also, China-focused fund of funds Jade Invest is one of the limited partners. So is European pension fund Industriens Pension. Interestingly, one-quarter of the LPs overlap with those at KP China's inaugural fund of $360 million.
Keytone is one of the few foreign capital funds without a link to a top-tier firm from Silicon Valley. That is probably a good thing, since many of the Valley funds in China--Sequoia Capital included--are struggling. KP China, meanwhile, has been rebuilding its team and portfolio.
I've been closely covering Joe's career moves for more than two years now since he opted to team up with Kleiner Perkins China in 2007, and then bailed in early 2008 over incompatible deal-making styles. Joe already has seven investments in the Keytone portfolio, deals that he originally sourced while at KP China. UPDATE: The fund has 20 limited partners, Joe tells me, and one-quarter of them overlap with those at KP China. Also, China-focused fund of funds Jade Invest is one of the limited partners. So is European pension fund Industriens Pension. Interestingly, one-quarter of the LPs overlap with those at KP China's inaugural fund of $360 million.
Keytone is one of the few foreign capital funds without a link to a top-tier firm from Silicon Valley. That is probably a good thing, since many of the Valley funds in China--Sequoia Capital included--are struggling. KP China, meanwhile, has been rebuilding its team and portfolio.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Taiwan tech tour-Southern style
The next episode of the Taiwan tech tour takes place in the Southern Taiwan Science Park. I arrived at the Tainan train station by high-speed rail from Hsinchu (the science park to the north) and a 20-minute highway ride past factories. Only operating for six years, the southern park is newer and smaller than Hsinchu. It's also pursuing a different area of tech--cleantech. Even so, the park is home to 13 integrated circuit companies, 48 optoelectronics producers, 23 in the biomedical area, and 48 in precision machinery along with numerous government-backed research and development centers.In the lobby of the science park, I had a chance to check my email and do some twittering before I was treated to a Chinese dinner by the Director-General of the park, Dr. Chen Chun-wei and his staff (see photo).
We talked about his goal of attracting more greentech companies to their site, which is in the countryside between Tainan and harbour city Kaohsiung. Among the lures are low-interest bank loans, no business taxes on exports, and a five-year income tax exemption for certain products deemed strategic. Since the park is new, there isn't much of a community base here, though there is a shopping mall and some restaurants.
For lodging, it was to Tainan city, where I checked into the contemporary Tayih Landis Hotel. Spacious rooms, free Internet, a tasty breakfast buffet and to top it off, a fully equipped gym situated on the fifth floor of an atrium. Not much time to work out though. After filing some stories in the early morning, I did a little sightseeing of Tainan's historic sites--the old fort, the ancient building covered in tree roots and limbs--and paused long enough for a tasty luncheon at a joint known for its shrimp rolls. See my plate. I ate nearly everything too, and wasn't hungry for a day afterwards!
Ok, next stop--Motech Solar. Here, I met with the general manager, Chang Kuo-en, for a briefing on the company's progress.
And it has been substantial! Motech Solar, which started in Tainan in 1999, is today's the world's eighth largest solar cell manufacturer in the world. It was ranked sixth just last year, but Mainland Chinese producers are coming up fast. Besides its four plants here, Motech also has a so-called "fab" near Shanghai. With revenues nearing $800 million for 2008 and sales evenly divided among the U.S., Europe and Asia, Motech is Taiwan's top solar cell producer with a 51 percent market share. It also owns a plant in Pennsylvania (the former US Steel factory turned into an alternative energy command post!) that I will drive by on my annual trek to Ohio for July 4th festivties and fireworks. Having mastered vertical integration, naturally the company's next goals are to drive down costs and build up power efficiency to as much as 1 Giga-watt (per cell?) As a going away gift, I got a nifty business card holder with a cover design of a solar panel. Before departing, I also had an opportunity to shake hands with the company's chairman and CEO, Dr. Simon Tsuo. Final note: does every tech exec in Taiwan have a PhD?
Taiwan Hot Springs
The weekend before my tech tour of Taiwan began, I luckily got to experience the hot springs at the Hotel Royal Chiao Hsi, in the northeastern village of I-lan. Here, just an hour drive and a 14-kilometer tunnel passage from Taipei, I recovered a bit from jet lag, and also found a way to write stories from a Zen-like resort that doesn't offer a writer's chair or desk. It's decorated in Japanese futon style so you can imagine the kind of arrangement I had for writing. I was up Sunday morning at 5 for a delightful hike along the mountain stream that feeds the hot springs--and spotted these locals photographed taking a refreshing swim. Only some stray dogs along the path cut my journey short. I was the only westerner there among the tourists, but that just added to my R&R. The resort, which is newly opened, also offers a spa and a ladies' only bathing spot, but no time for that, unfortunately. I'll be back, I promise!
Monday, June 22, 2009
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