Zero2IPO Gains Key VC Support from Silicon Valley

Filed in archive Venture Capital on April 13, 2006

I have written previously about the Beijing based Zero2ipo in this blog. This home-grown venture capital advisory service established in 1999 by Gavin Ni, a Tsinghua University graduate, and several other Chinese graduates, certainly has caught the Chinese venture capital wave and recently succeeded in gaining $1.5 million in first round funding, according to a regulatory filing, cited by PE Week and posted on PaidContent.org.

Investors in that round include American Pacific Ventures, Startup Capital Ventures and Authoris Capital. What's not revealed in the undisclosed press release is that the chairman of Zero2ipo is none other than John Dean, the former CEO of Silicon Valley Bank, and the rainmaker responsible for the astronomical growth of SVB's market capitalization from a paltry $65 million in 1993 to over $3 billion in 2000. Mr. Dean is also the managing partner for Startup Capital Ventures.

It's not surprising that the upcoming Zero2ipo China Venture Capital Forum scheduled for April 24-25 in Palo Alto, California includes keynoter, Michael Moritz, General Partner at Sequoia Capital. One of the sessions also scheduled includes a stellar lineup of Chinese entrepreneurs moderated by Danny Lui, Vice-Chairman of Zero2IPO with Kos Hu, Founder and Chairman of BlogCN, Jack He Ouyang, President & CEO Jade Technologies Co. Ltd, Charles C. Tang, President and CEO, Dragonsource Group and Kane Yu, CEO of NuChannel Holding Corporation.

With this venue, expect to see a surplus of Sand Hill Road VCs packing the room.