The content is integrated from: Sina Finance, Financial Entropy, and Fortune Old Hunter.
The founder resides in Singapore permanently. Can China's science and technology innovation enterprises still believe in "Sequoia China"?
According to reports, Shen Nanpeng, the founder of Sequoia China, has been granted permanent residency in Singapore.
In recent years, the frequency of Shen Nanpeng's public appearances has decreased significantly compared with the past. There is constant speculation that Shen Nanpeng seems to be deliberately staying away from everyone's sight. Now, the reason for Shen Nanpeng's reduced appearance seems to have been found.
Overseas sources disclosed the details of Shen Nanpeng's immigration to Singapore. According to the report, Shen Nanpeng had applied for and obtained Singapore permanent resident status more than four years ago. The source quoted a person close to Mr. Shen as saying that the choice was due to "personal reasons."
"The decision to open the Singapore office was made for commercial reasons and was not related to the personal affairs of any of our executives," Sequoia China said in a statement. ”
In fact, not only Shen Nanpeng, but also many Chinese business people such as Boyu Capital co-founder Sean Tong, Tencent co-founder Tony Zhang, and Dianping founder Zhang Tao have moved to Singapore in recent years and expanded or opened offices in Singapore.
In June 2022, Ray Dalio, the founder of Bridgewater**, asked Shen Nanpeng this question: "If you had $2 billion to invest in a region other than China or the United States, where would you invest it?" Shen Nanpeng's answer was: "Southeast Asia." ”
The advice is clear: it's in "Singapore" and not in other regions, not even other countries in Southeast Asia; It's setting up an "entity" and not just doing business overseas.
In September 2023, Sequoia China made a big move - liquidation **Meituan, **Meituan-w** 26.35 million shares, involving about HK $3.4 billion. As early as 2006, Sequoia China invested in Dianping, and four years later invested in Meituan's Series A round. After that, before Meituan's listing, Sequoia China did not miss any of Meituan's financing. is such a partner who has been with Meituan for more than 17 years, and has continued to cash out after Meituan's listing, which has exceeded 50 billion Hong Kong dollars.
At that time, some people in the investment circle were still playing for Sequoia China: it had been held for a long time, it had already made good returns, Meituan's performance was not good at that time, and it released funds for investment in other projects. Now it seems that Sequoia China is suspected of having a golden cicada shell.
Founder Shen Nanpeng has moved to Singapore, so what will be the future of Sequoia China? Some institutions have found that the pace of investment in Sequoia China has slowed down in recent years. Sequoia China has the potential to "retreat".
According to the agency's statistics, Sequoia China's equity investments from December 2022 to November 2023 were publicly disclosed in 75 investments, and the investment in the same statistical period in the previous year was about twice that of the statistical period.
Click to enter the official website of Sequoia China, which reads: Sequoia China is committed to discovering and cultivating "towering trees" in the industry. The question is, when these potential "little saplings" really grow into "towering trees" with the support of Sequoia China, then what is the ownership of these trees? Is it China, or is it Singapore?
For Chinese companies that are committed to technological innovation, these companies also want to promote their growth through the help of investment institutions. If these Chinese companies insist on putting down roots in China and do not want to obtain "permanent residence" in Singapore or other parts of Southeast Asia, as Shen Nanpeng did, will these Chinese companies dare to vote of confidence in Sequoia China, as they have done for the past decade or so?