A record number of Chinese investors appeared on this year’s Forbes Midas list, highlighting the growing influence of Chinese venture capital and entrepreneurship.
The Midas list, compiled by Forbes Magazine and TrueBridge Capital, features the top-100 high-tech VCs ranked by portfolio companies that IPO’d or raised money at least a USD 200 million valuation in the past five years.
This year’s Midas List featured 21 Chinese investors, up from 16 in 2018. Neil Shen of Sequoia Capital China is ranked number one.
Driving the prominence of Chinese investors on the list is the strong performance of Chinese startups. Of the 10 companies that generated that most value for Midas listees, six originated in China.
These six companies include Alibaba, Meituan, Toutiao, Didi Chuxing, newcomer Pinduoduo, and JD.com.
Alibaba remained the top performance driver for Midas listees owing to its record-breaking USD 25 billion IPO in 2014, which valued the company at USD 231 million. Meituan was second after raising USD 4.2 billion at a USD 52.8 billion valuation in its IPO last September. Toutiao ranked third after its parent company Bytedance closed a USD 3 billion round at a USD 75 billion valuation in October 2018. Didi Chuxing was sixth. Its value is north of USD 65 billion, according to Reuters’ sources. Pinduoduo, in eighth, joined the list for the first time after raising USD 1.6 billion at a nearly USD 24 billion valuation during its July 2018 IPO. Closing out the list’s China-based contingency was ninth-placed JD.com on the back of its 2014 IPO, where it raised USD 1.8 billion at a USD 26 billion valuation.
Editor: Nadine Freischlad