FT: Neil Shen goes it alone in China after Sequoia split

THE FINANCIAL TIMES reports:

As Beijing was bearing down on its technology industry, banning lucrative business models and freezing new foreign listings, Neil Shen stepped up to a podium in the Chinese capital with a message to fellow entrepreneurs: align your companies with the country’s direction.

Sequoia China’s billionaire founder implied his venture capital group was already in tune: 80 per cent of the companies it has invested in recently were in “artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing and other hard tech fields”, he told the conference.

Two years after Shen’s speech, the break-up of one of the world’s most successful investing empires had become inevitable.

The Silicon Valley-based group this week said it was splitting off its China arm into an independent entity. The partnership between Shen and Sequoia had its roots in a simple idea — marrying American money with Chinese entrepreneurs…

The full story is here.

Now read this: “Sequoia China goes solo under HongShan brand, a sign that the bromance between US funds and China tech start-ups is over“.