Chinese Venture Capitalist
Neil Shen () is a Chinese billionaire venture capitalist, who is the founding and managing partner of HongShan, formerly known as Sequoia China, the Chinese arm of venture capital firm, Sequoia Capital. Prior to that, he was a co-founder of two companies, Ctrip.com and Home Inn.
He has been dubbed the most successful early-stage investor in China.
"Forbes" has ranked him first on the Midas List in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2023.
In December 2022, "Forbes" put his net worth at $3.6 billion.
Early life and education.
Shen was born in Haining, Zhejiang in 1967. He grew up in Shanghai and attended Shanghai No. 2 High School where he was called a math prodigy. He then attended Shanghai Jiao Tong University where he graduated in 1989 with a bachelor's degree in applied mathematics. Afterwards, he moved to the United States and attended the Yale School of Management, graduating with a master's degree in management in 1992.
Career.
After graduation, Shen worked for Citibank in the United States for two years. In 1994, he moved to Hong Kong to work as an investment banker at Lehman Brothers. In 1996 he joined Deutsche Bank as director of China capital markets.
Shen left the banking sector and in June 1999 co-founded Ctrip.com with James Liang, Min Fan, and Qi Ji. He served as president of the company from August 2003 to October 2005. He oversaw the company's initial public offering (IPO) on the Nasdaq in December 2003.
In 2002, Shen co-founded Home Inn as a joint venture between Ctrip and the Beijing Tourism Group. It was spun-off from Ctrip as a separate company before its IPO on the Nasdaq in 2006.
In 2005, Shen co-founded Sequoia China with Zhang Fan under the guidance of Sequoia Capital partners Michael Moritz and Douglas Leone. Shen was given full autonomy and led Sequoia China to make successful investment in various companies such as Alibaba, ByteDance, Meituan, JD.com, Pinduoduo, Qihoo 360, DJI, Vipshop.
When managing partner, Douglas Leone retired in 2022 from Sequoia Capital, Shen was considered one of the potential successors. However the role went to Roelof Botha instead. Shen did not work as closely with the new leadership and has talked about going independent for years.
In June 2023, Sequoia Capital announced its plans to split into three entities. Sequoia China led by Shen will be operating independently under the name HongShan, a pinyin romanisation of Sequoia Capital's chinese name, which means redwood.
Personal life.
Shen is married to an investment banker and has two daughters who attended school in Hong Kong.
Shen currently holds Hong Kong citizenship and resides in Hong Kong. He speaks Mandarin and English. He also has some proficiency in Cantonese. Outside Hong Kong, Shen also has a mansion in Hainan where he often invites investors.
Shen is current Chairman of the Yale School of Management Board of Advisors.
In January 2018, Shen was elected to the 13th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. However, in January 2023, "The Information", reported that he was no longer a member as he was not elected for a second term.
In February 2024, it was reported that Shen had acquired permanent residency in Singapore.
References.
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