"At that time, Jifu did not do very well in China, but in the global VC world, Jifu is a famous brand, so it has the potential for success." Chen told the reason why he joined Jifu. "If they have done well, what do you want to do?"
At the end of 200 1, the top management of Japan Jifu Association quietly came to Beijing. After meeting with some China government officials, an investment action plan with a scale of $ 1 billion has been basically finalized. The investment direction mainly includes information technology, wireless communication, semiconductor design and internet software.
"Because I am investing in technology, I specially found several people with engineer backgrounds." Almost at the same time as the first Asian Science and Technology Fund was raised, Jifu Asia set up an investment team in China, consisting of six people, including Chen, Zhou Zhengning, Li, Li Zhenni and Le Wenyong. Except for jenny lee, a Singaporean with "superb skills", all the other five members of Gifford's China investment team are from China.
Gifford's localization advantage was quickly reflected. Except for the near-perfect exit case of "372 1 Blitzkrieg", during the market downturn from 2002 to 2004, Jifu still maintained the speed of investing 4-6 projects every year in China, including companies with excellent performance, such as Feibochuang.
However, in 2005, with the independent wave of China's venture capital industry and a large number of international mainstream VC's entry, the members of the venture capital management team who are ahead (especially those who have achieved something) have become the goals of others. In the first half of 2005 alone, jenny lee, a Singaporean who invested in Feibochuang on behalf of Gifford and was called "very skilled" by Chen, left Gifford and became a partner and an executive director of TDFCapital respectively. Together with Li, who left Jifu at the end of 2004 to develop private banking, three of the four vice presidents of Jifu's China investment team chose to leave one after another.
"The mobility of management team members is a constant challenge for the entire venture capital industry, not a problem for the rich family." Chen, who is also the president of the Hong Kong Venture Capital Association, said that Jifu quickly found a way to "fill" the "vacancy" left by Zhong Xiaolin.