TLDR:
– China accounted for 16 members of the 2024 Forbes Midas List, driven by social media and healthcare companies.
– Neil Shen slipped to No. 3 from No. 1 on the new ranking.
China, buoyed once again by the performance of social media and healthcare companies, accounted for 16 members of the 2024 Forbes Midas List unveiled on Tuesday. This marked an increase of one from a year ago. Despite losing the top spot and having two investors fall out of the top 10, the China group, which comprises those based on the mainland and Hong Kong, ranked second to the United States this year on the list of the world’s top venture investors. Long-time listee Neil Shen, the Hong Kong-based founding and managing partner of HongShan, slipped to No. 3 this year from No. 1 in 2023, with successful investments including TikTok parent ByteDance and online fashion site Shein.
China’s large economy and talent pool have helped to make the country a global focus of venture capital investors and spawn a home-grown venture industry. Despite a decline in the country’s stock market index in the past year amid eased post-pandemic economic growth and rising global tensions, the number of China listees edged up. Notable amongst the China-based investors were Richard Liu, a founding partner at 5Y Capital, who ranked lower this year at No. 13 compared to No. 4 last year, and Zhen Zhang, the founder of Gaorong Capital, who ranked at No. 87 versus No. 7 last year. Three women from China made it to the list, including Anna Fang, Nisa Leung, and Annabelle Yu Long, all representing different venture capital firms.
Leading the China pack with the most listees from one firm this year was 5Y, with three members making the cut. Other China-based listees included representatives from renowned firms like DCM, Source Code Capital, Shunwei, Granite Asia, Matrix, DST, and IDG Capital.
