ICF Private Equity Colloquium: “VC and Entrepreneurship in China: Is This the Best or Worst Time?”

Yesterday, November 11th, Professor Song Ma was joined by Ms. Tina Tao, MBA ’10, to discuss venture capital and entrepreneurship in China.

Ms. Tina Tao serves as the President and Partner of Sinovation Ventures (SV), leading all daily operations and all the professional services teams at SV, including fund raising, finance, legal, branding, media, human resources, business development, etc. Ms. Tao is also in charge of the incubation function in AI Institute in SV.

Sinovation Ventures is an established Chinese technology-savvy investment firm, started in 2009 by a team led by Dr. Kai-Fu Lee. SV currently manages an over $2B AUM between seven USD and RMB funds in total, and over 400 portfolio companies across the technology spectrum: artificial intelligence, big data, semi-conductor, health care, enterprise service, cloud computing, etc. To fully leverage its advantages as a dual-currency, cross-border venture capital firm, Sinovation Ventures actively collaborates with top research institutes, universities and premier funds in both China and abroad to identify key trends and technologies, source deals, and acquire talents.

Prior to SV, Ms. Tao had worked for years at the headquarters of, in succession, Microsoft, IBM and Google. She has held leadership roles in product management, marketing, strategy and operations. Ms. Tao holds a B.A. and M.A. in Information Management from Peking University and a Master in Business Administration from Yale University.