Singaporean venture capitalists remain bullish on Chinese VC market

SINGAPORE - Six Singaporean venture capitalists, who are active in Chinese Venture Capital (VC) market over the last decade, gathered on Tuesday at a forum to share their experiences and expectations towards the Chinese market.

China has entered into a new phase of growth, with the private sector playing an increasingly important role in promoting the economy. Outbound investments from China have also surpassed inward investment flows, which provide new opportunities for businessmen from Singapore and other countries.

Sun Xueling, CEO of Business China, organiser of the forum "Riding the waves of the future economy -- opportunities in China," said that the InfoTech sector has become a fast growing area in the Chinese economy, and many Singaporeans have played a role in the growth of this sector in China.

Jui Tan, Managing Partner of BlueRun Ventures China is one of them. He joined BlueRun in 2005 and has since then been active in VC investments in China. Indicating that the Chinese market is fast-changing, he said VC in China is a business of both risk and opportunity.

"The first risk is in human. China is a big market full of opportunities, which also means it has a high mobility of talent. Whether the founder can aggregate a team is very important for the future of a VC project. Other risks include the quick change of market and user's demand, as well as the policy."

As to the opportunities, Tan highlighted the innovation potential in the Chinese market. "Many youngsters have lived abroad and accumulated experiences in new technology, so China has a big talent pool for innovation. Second, universities in China lay significant importance on emerging technologies such as AI and VR, so China also has a good foundation in technology."

Therefore, the opportunity for China in the next 10 years "must be in technological innovation," Tan said.

Foo Jixun, Managing Partner of GGV Capital reviewed the evolvement of the new marketing areas that have emerged in China. He concluded that the trend of entrepreneurship in China over the past decade is about solving problems and identifying inefficiencies in the market.

"What we've seen earlier, with the first generation of the internet, is the whole information inefficiency, such as the search engines, entertainment including online video and music. They give the consumers more choices. As the market evolves, it became a transaction platform, with Alipay coming out, which helps solve another thing, that is the whole inefficiency in merchandising...In the last three to five years, it's more about mobile internet, and how it is transforming inefficiency in services."