1st VC Funding Round

The company signed off on its first round of venture capital funding last July and the total value of the VC financing was $5 million. The financing value was derived from two different vectors . One section of the financing occurred through a simple equity buy-in (cash infusion), the second via the acquisition of a pharmaceutical research company which was integrated into our business platform. The value percentages are not to be publicly disclosed.



Morningside Group, the group which funded us, is known for VC financing in the telecom / internet, media and healthcare sectors. Our business extends out to all three of these areas. Morningside gained their visibilty through several successful early-stage investments: Paypal, Sohu, The9, and Ctrip. The latter three investments retain extremely high visibility in China.
As an aside, the company which I work for was in business 8 years prior to financing; by age, it is not a startup. However, the atmosphere within the company certainly feels like a startup.

During the initial VC fund roadshow, the company pitched itself as an established platform within a vertical market. Moreover, the company positioned itself as such so that venture investment would allow us to rapidly expand post-funding. Thus, the essence of the pitch was ideal market positioning and platform expansion via acquisition of assets The initial VC roadshow occurred in mid-2008, hence it took a full year to land financing.

Background Check

I stepped foot outside of the Pudong airport and was immediately enveloped by a suffocating wave of heat and humidity.

"What did I get myself into?!" I asked as I threw my bags into a decrepit van and took off towards central Shanghai. The original 8-track player wobbled in sync to the bumps which the aged shocks failed to absorb. The miniature music speakers blasted out a tinny melody from a Chinese crooner who was undoubtedly in his golden years by now.

I traveled halfway across the world to take part in helping a small business grow. My previous job at a Japanese bank in London was hectic and rewarding, but at many points I felt like a cog in a well-oiled machine.

In order to fully explain my actions in moving out to China. It makes sense to shed some light on personal history:

When I was 9, my father started up a company called New Wave Enviro . The main office was in our family basement. He had purchased a company 4 years previously in LA but it had dissolved after the business declared Chapter 7 liquidation. My dad took this hit on the chin, learned from his mistakes, and started anew. When I hit middle school, I started doing basic work for New Wave, i.e. filing invoices, entering warranty cards, etc. Although it was rote work, I had officially landed my first business internship at age 12. For the next 10 years I worked alongside New Wave Enviro as it reached positive cash-flow, expanded out to a full-time office and gained market share in its focused industry.

This experience got me hooked on business development, venture capital financing, and business expansion. In college, I was lucky enough to experience TechStars, a Boulder-based incubator providing seed capital for tech-based startups, and its InvestorDay presentation. I ended up investing in my first business, Search-to-Phone, alongside investors such as Brad Feld, co-founder of the Mobius and Foundry VC funds, and Jared Polis, who sold two of his businesses for $780 million and $470 million respectively.

Now I am in Shanghai, angling towards securing a second round of venture capital investment for the company I work for. In the coming months, I hope to shed some light on the experience of raising venture capital in China. So stay tuned...