Silicon Dragon London 2016

February 25, 2016

Silicon Dragon’s 5th annual forum in London:
New China Capital for U.K. Startups
Investors from China are entering the U.K. in search of the next, new thing while entrepeneurs are tapping the Chinese market to scale up fast.

Gerard Grech, CEO, Tech City UK

Christian Faes, CEO & Co-founder, LendInvest
LendInvest recently received the large sum of $33 million from a leading Chinese technology company to ramp up its innovative fintech startup in London.

Russ Shaw, Founder, Tech London Advocates
Russ is an angel and venture investor, a non-executive director of several high-growth businesses and a limited partner in Ariadne Capital’s ACE Fund. Previously, Russ was a top executive at Skype and a global innovation director at Telefonica.

Hussein  Kanji, Partner, Hoxton Ventures
Hussein is a venture capitalist  with a focus on European Internet and mobile companies, with a decided international horizon. Brings wealth of startup and tech experience from work at Accel, Microsoft, Sun Microsoft and several emerging companies.

Frank Meehan, Co-Founder & Partner, SparkLabs Global Ventures
Frank is an investor in early stage startups in leading hubs for SparkLabs’  fund and accelerator program based in Seoul. Previously, Frank was with Horizon Ventures (HK), representing the firm on the boards of Spotify, Siri and other leading innovators.

Alpesh Patel, Founding Principal, Praefinium Partners
Alpesh is a private equity fund manager with expertise spanning Beijing to New Delhi to London. A successful investor in cleantech and medtech globally, Alpesh is also a U.K. government dealmaker covering India, China and Southeast Asia and helping to bring entrepreneurial companies to U.K. for their global headquarters. Additionally, he is a Board Member of the 10 Downing Street Entrepreneurship Advisory Group.

Xiao Li, Investment Director, Being Global Investment/GM, Chinaunicom Incubation Base
Xiao leads investment advisory and management services for Chinese micro-enterprises, investors and entrepreneurs for both China and U.K. markets. He also manages the domestic and international venture platform for Chinaunicom in Beijing, working with VCs, university incubators, corporations, and local government finance groups to foster fund raising.

John Zai, Founder & CEO, Cocoon Networks
John leads the Chinese and European startup ecosystem Cocoon Networks, which is backed by two Chinese private equity firms, China Equity Group and Hanxin Capital and aims to nurture innovation, investment, talent and teamwork.

Mark Thompson, Partner, Sidley
Mark has more than 20 years of experience advising clients on international M&A and private equity transactions and has practiced out of London for well over a decade.

Simon Tobelem, Founding Partner, ARIE Ventures
Simon is an investment and business development professional, who is investing in emerging companies from London-based ARIE Ventures, a fund focused on Israeli technologies and developing partnership with Asian investors and businesses.  He also is Managing Partner at Realis Investment House, specializing in cross-border finance and M&A for small to mid-cap deals.

James Hardy, Co-Founder & CEO, Avenue51
Previously the head of Europe for Alibaba, James is currently leading Avenue51 and taking brands to China through e-commerce channels. He is a non-executive director of startups in e-commerce. James brings global experience to the task.

Ivan Shyr, Investment Director, Sussex Place Ventures
Ivan invests across all technology segments. He joined Sussex Place Ventures in 2011 after five years of operational experience in the Shanghai based semi-conductor manufacturer, Gulf Semiconductor. He moved to China in 2004 after a cross border sales and business development management role for Dare Technologies in San Francisco.

Karen Winton, Managing Partner U.K., Nest.vc
Karen recently opened the first overseas office in London for Nest, an investment firm anchored in Hong Kong. Her mission is to help U.K. startups expand into Asia and get access to capital and networks through Nest’s fintech and medtech accelerators and crowdfunding platform in Hong Kong.

Josh Liu, Managing Director, Co-Founder, HardwarePro
Josh runs this UK-based innovation company that helps to accelerate hardware, wearables and IoT companies, leveraging China resources. Josh is also a member of the China working group at Tech London Advocates.

Thomas Reemer, eyeScope Ventures
 
Mark Hedley, China Business Adviser, China-Britain Business Council (CBCC) Mark is a China business adviser for London and the South East region at trade assistance organization CBCC, which provides strategic and tactical guidance and support to U.K. companies entering the Chinese market.

Koen Vandecaveye, Senior Business Manager, London & Partners Koen works with companies from Greater China on entry strategies for Europe from London. As tech sector lead, he is particularly interested in fostering cross-border collaboration and investment between London and China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Ying-Ying Lu, Owner, Red Thread Global and Contributor, Silicon Dragon
Ying-Ying is a bicultural marketer with a journalistic mindset and roots in social entrepreneurship. She leads projects with Silicon Valley startups and Chinese tech companies that accelerate innovation by fostering collaboration across borders.

Rebecca Fannin, Founder, Author & Journalist, Silicon Dragon (MC)
Rebecca is a journalist turned book author turned media entrepreneur with Silicon Dragon, the group she formed in 2010 to program events and cover startup and venture news in leading tech hubs globally. She is a contributor to Forbes.

Thanks to our sponsors:
Sidley Austin, Central Working / Rise London (Barclays)

and supporters:
CBBC, China Britain Business Fusion, London and Partners, Tech London Advocates,
Cocoon Networks, Nest.vc, UKTI, InvestHK, CXO Asia / Europe,

Media Partners: Tech City News, Forbes, Startup Asia