From Mobile China Forum:
Mobile China Featured Speaker: Chia Li, Co-Founder and Managing General Partner, Dragonvest
Chia has more than seventeen years of international business experience in the US, Europe and Asia, eight years of which involves direct experience in China as an investor and an entrepreneur. Cha Li specializes in the emerging wireless, digital media and Internet sectors in China.
Cha Li was one of the first students who left China to study in the West after the Cultural Revolution. After his graduation, he has worked in international media companies such as Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide and ZiffDavis before he started his own business in New York City. His first US start-up company, EastWest Communications, Inc. was an advertising company that helped numerous US multinationals expanding into Asia. As a serial entrepreneur himself, Cha Li has founded and run several companies in search engine technology, eLearning, online music and mobile gaming before he became a venture capitalist.
Cha Li was educated at the National Academy of the Arts in China, where he received a B.A. and the University of London, where he received an Master degree. He was also the founding Chairman of the Chinese Overseas Student Association in Europe.
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About Dragonvest
Dragonvest Partners is an early stage technology venture fund investing in talented Chinese entrepreneurs who have started new enterprises in Greater China.
Based in Shanghai, PRC with a presence in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, Dragonvest is dedicated to investing in early stage emerging Chinese technology companies. Dragonvest’s unique advantage is its bi-lingual, bi-cultural investment strategy which allows Chinese technology companies to grow and emerge as global technology enterprises.
DVP targets early stage companies including “Sea Turtle” ethnic Chinese returnees who have established emerging enterprises in China. Dragonvest is on the leading edge of assisting promising entrepreneurs in growing exciting companies dedicated to developing and marketing products both for the Chinese domestic market and the global market.
Early Stage Focus
Dragonvest specializes in assisting early stage companies. We believe there is a dearth of expertise and capital available to entrepreneurs at an early stage. We focus on returned Chinese technology entrepreneurs. These are talented individuals who have already started their companies by returning from North America, Europe or Japan to China. They have brought with them years of experiences from abroad. They have readjusted to life in China and are ready to invest in their new venture.
Young entrepreneurs need more than just capital. They need advice and support to ensure that they build their company correctly for the future. Dragonvest understands how to support these emerging entrepreneurs with capital, guidance and business development support.
Market Sector Focus
Dragonvest invests in a focused number of TMT market segments across China’s main economic centers. We concentrate on known business models which are emerging in China’s new private enterprise market economy.
The Fabless Semiconductor Sector is a rapidly expanding sector in China. This sector first developed in Taiwan in the 1990s. It has successfully spawned numerous public companies in Asia and North America. Now this same trend has begun in China. We believe the next 10 years will see the dramatic emergence of fabless semiconductor design companies in Beijing, Shanghai and other major technology centers.
The Convergence of Broadband and Wireless is an exciting growth sector in China. Now the world’s number one telecommunications market,with more than 450 million mobile phone subscribers,the delivery of broadband content across 2.5 and 3G networks will continue to expand. Dragonvest is focused on the enabling technologies which will facilitate the delivery of digital content to hundreds of millions of users.
The Medical Device sector is an extremely promising sector in China. Dragonvest will focus on companies who are developing devices with a significant electronics component that can be marketed in the Chinese, Asian, European or American markets. The major western medical device companies are already outsourcing their production to China. Dragonvest will fund companies who are able to develop innovative low cost solutions for this segment.
Geographic Focus
Dragonvest invests in companies doing business in Greater China. This includes the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. More specifically, our primary geographic areas of focus are Shanghai, Beijing and China’s Midwest heartland. Shanghai includes the Greater Shanghai area with the area bounded by Nanjing on the north, Hangzhou on the southwest.
In addition to these areas, we are establishing relationships in several western cities including Chengdu.
Money, Capital, Silicon Valley 