Neil Shen, Founding & Managing Partner of Sequoia Capital China

Hongkonger Neil Shen, Founding & Managing Partner of Sequoia Capital China, tops this year’s Forbes’ 2018 Midas list, which ranks the world’s top 100 venture capitalists (VCs) who have made strong exits or notable investment deals involving technology start-ups. Shen, ranking 11th in 2017, is one of the three Sequoia Capital venture capitalists to make the Midas top 10 this year, and one of 16 China-based or China-born VCs to make the 100-person list, the largest number ever. Shen, who co-founded China’s leading online travel site Ctrip, has also invested in Alibaba, JD.com, and China’s leading online platform for food ordering and cinema booking Meituan Dianping. The other two Sequoia entries were Jim Goetz, a partner based in Menlo Park California, who held the top spot for the past four years but this year descended to third place, and Doug Leone, the Managing Partner who oversees the firm’s global operations, who ranked ninth.

Neil Shen is joined in the top 10 by J.P. Gan, Managing Partner of Qiming Venture Partners, who’s ranked eighth. Ranked 30th last year, J.P Gan, Managing Partner of Qiming Venture Partners, is elevated to the 8th spot, rocketing into the top 10 through investments in Chinese start-ups such as popular selfie-editing app Meitu, and Meituan-Dianping. Gan began his VC career in 2000 at the Carlyle Group, where he was a founding member of the firm’s Asian venture fund in Hong Kong. His firm Qiming has also invested in Xiaomi, China’s leading smartphone maker and application developer, whose listing is expected this year. Xiaomi was valued at USD46 billion at its last financing round in December 2014, the world’s third biggest unicorn.

Beijing-based Joy Capital founder Erhai Liu (62) returns to the list thanks to investments in Chinese transport start-ups such as bike-sharing start-up Mobike and electric vehicle start-up NIO. In the 24th spot is Bob Xu of ZhenFund, who rose nearly 50 spots on this year’s list thanks to investments in companies including Meicai, an online marketplace for selling agricultural produce directly to restaurants that raised USD450 million in a series-E round in January.

The Midas list is based on two primary yardsticks measured over the last five years: all exits, either through initial public offering (IPO) or merger and acquisition (M&A), valued at USD200 million each, and financing rounds in a private company that have valued the start-up at USD400 million and above. To make it into the top 10, an investor needs 13 qualifying deals and eight unicorns – start-ups valued at USD1 billion or above – in their portfolio. With 79 venture capitalists from the U.S., 16 China-based or -born, three from the United Kingdom, two from Switzerland, and one each from Israel and India, Forbes said the 2018 top 100 list is the most international list over its 17 years’ publication, the South China Morning Post reports.

The Midas List

Sequoia Capital China website.