GSR, Sequoia, Vectr Ventures Take Top Honors At Silicon Dragon
Allen Zhu of GSR Ventures accepts award for Silicon Dragon VC firm of the year
Alan Chan of Vectr Ventures accepts Silicon Dragon Award for Angel Investor of the Year
GSR Ventures, Vectr Ventures and Sequoia Capital took top honors as venture investors at Silicon Dragon Awards Nov. 5 in Hong Kong. VC Allen Zhu won the award for top VC of the year. His early investment of $3 million in car-hailing app Didi in 2012 turned into a $15B valuation for the now-merged Didi Kuaidi.
Alan Chan of Vectr Ventures won the award for Angel Investor of the year. Since starting Vectr in 2013, he’s led the Hong Kong-based firm’s investments in some 30 companies, focusing on hot market sectors in fintech, data and analytics, VR and medtech. The firm is investing in global hotspots with many deals in California but also eight in his hometown of Hong Kong.
Sequoia Capital claimed the prize for top Venture Deal of the Year for the firm’s investment in Chinese drone maker DJI. Sequoia put $30 million in DJI in 2014, followed by Accel this year with $75 million. DJI ranks five on the world’s unicorn table with a valuation of $10 billion. Unicorn deals clearly factored in with early venture bets on DJI and Didi.
Three tech entrepreneurs from the Greater China region were awarded as Top Founder champions.
Founder Awards: Lamplight Analytics, Pinkoi, EHang
Lamplight Analytics, Hong Kong Raised one of Hong Kong’s larger seed investments of $1.5 million from Vectr Ventures and angel investor Martin Haigh for its young (2014) startup that combines social media and data and analytics. That’s co-founder Fergus Clarke accepting the awards for the Lamplight team at Silicon Dragon Awards.
Pinkoi, Taipei Asia’s Etsy founded in 2011 recently raised $9 million in funding from Sequoia India and GMO Ventures for its online marketplace for original design goods. Early backers are Cherubic Ventures and Infinity Ventures.
EHang, Shenzhen Consumer drone maker EHang pulled in $42 million this September in a Series B financing that boosted its valuation after a $10 million initial investment by VC Jenny Lee of GGV Capital early in the year. EHang counts ZhenFund (of angel investor Bob Zhu fame) as an investor and is staffing up with its professional ranks with top hires from 21 Vianet, Lenovo and Microsoft. EHang just launched Ghost 2.0 Drone with VR Goggles, all controlled with a smartphone.
Photos from Silicon Dragon Awards
VC panelists Chris Burch, James Zhang, Carmen Chan, Matt Cheng, Allen Zhu, Alan Chan with Rebecca Fannin
