From 1993 onwards, Walden International has helped China's semiconductor start-up companies to successfully launch a large number of venture capital investments in China over the past 20 years, including SMIC, Geco Micro, and Zhaoyi Innovation. The leading companies in the industry have indirectly promoted and shaped the territory of the entire Chinese semiconductor industry. Their investment focus is almost unrivalled.
How is Walden International to create the next miracle of semiconductor investment? Walters International founder and chairman Chen Liwu - born in Malaysia, he has shown a strong mathematical talent since childhood, and studied for a master degree in nuclear energy at the age of 19 at MIT. The "Wen Qing" - how is it step by step to establish Walden International Investment Empire? This article will be announced for you one by one.
Walton International founder and chairman Chen Liwu focuses on global semiconductor industry investment for 30 years
In January 1992, Deng Gong sat on the rolling train and began his trip to the south. In less than two months, the old man visited Wuchang in succession, Shenzhen, Shanghai. In other places, they also delivered important speeches. Shortly afterwards, the southern tour whirlwind began to sweep across China. Everywhere there was a 'Spring story', and a wave of reform and opening up was flourishing.
Walden International, the young venture capital agency founded in 1987 in San Francisco, USA, also began its investment in China under this wave.
According to Chen Liwu, founder and chairman of Walden International, in 1993, Walden International came to China mainland with the recommendation of the Ministry of Finance and the State Science and Technology Commission and became one of the first international venture capital funds to enter China. There is also the novel foreign concept of 'VC'. This 59-year-old Chen Liwu is still active in the venture capital stage as the chairman of Walden International. This person's experience is also quite legendary, but we will wait and say.
In 1994, with the support of the World Bank, Walden International established the first Walden China Fund and began to invest in China. Since then, China Land continued to set up offices in Beijing and Shanghai. The first batch of investment companies are mostly state-owned. The most widely known is the famous washing machine brand - Little Swan.
With the dual support of funds and policies, Little Swan introduced a full set of technology from Japan’s Matsushita Corporation, which allowed the trouble-free operation of the washing machine to reach the leading domestic level. In the early 1990s, Little Swan took the lead in integrating into the market economy and launched the 'satisfied Little Swan'. The famous slogan.
In the following 20 years or more, Walden actively participated in China's emerging technology entrepreneurial market, and its investment projects exceeded 60, involving more than billions of renminbi, many of whom are well-known companies: Sina, Skyworth, Dajiang, and the United States Mission, Dangdang, Mindray, Eagle Holdings... At present, Walden International Investment aims to focus on communications, semiconductors, software and biochemistry, and 90% select early projects.
However, the real magical aspect of Walden is that it has been making unremitting research and investment in the chip and semiconductor industries since its establishment more than 30 years ago. In the past 30 years, Walden International has focused on investing in the global semiconductor industry and is currently global The number of semiconductor companies that have invested has reached 100. Around the year of 2002, with the rise of the semiconductor sector in Asian markets, Walden focused on the assault chip field and invested in companies including China Resources Shanghua, Ankai Technology, Zhixin Technology, and SMIC. At present, Walden Light has invested more than 30 semiconductor companies in mainland China, and its investment in every segment of the semiconductor industry: chip design, manufacturing, packaging and testing, equipment, and downstream system applications... in the semiconductor field , Walden International's investment focus is almost unrivalled.
It is this persistent commitment that has allowed Walden International to establish a strong prestige in the field of semiconductor investment, and has also allowed Walden's 'investment glory chart' to appear on the SMIC, Geko Micro, and Zhao Yi Innovation. Chen Semiconductor and other bright list.
Junior talent: 19-year-old MIT nuclear engineering master, 28-year-old founded Walden International
Walden International has achieved today's results, and its founder and chairman Chen Liwu can claim to be the chief executive of the company. In the past 30 years, under the leadership of Chen Liwu, Walden International's business has expanded rapidly worldwide. The projects currently involved in the United States have been spread across the United States. , China, Japan, Israel, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, India, the Philippines, and other countries, the number of VC funds participating in the management has climbed from US$3 million at the time of its inception to US$2 billion, which has increased by more than 600 times.
At the same time, Chen Liwu’s personal experience is also very legendary. Chen Liwu’s English name is Lip- Bu Tan, born on November 12, 1959 in Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, and lived with his parents in Xinjiabo since childhood. (Wikipedia shows Chen Li The birthday of Wu was January 1, 1960. Chen Liwu showed his amazing talent in mathematics from his childhood. At the age of 16, he entered the Nanyang Technological University of Singapore and completed his undergraduate degree in three years. Majoring in physical.
At that time, I thought that the energy issue was (the world's) most important issue. Under the auspices of 'Go West, Young People', I came to the United States at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). Projects. ('Go West, young people Go west, young man.' John Bl Soule from 1851 to encourage American youth to participate in the development of the West, after the "New York Forum" newspaper founder Horace Gerry Horace Greele is well-known for frequent references.)
In this way, in 1978, Chen Liwu, a 19-year-old genius teenager, sailed across the sea to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on the East Coast of the United States to start studying nuclear energy projects.
However, at 4:00 am on March 28th, 1979, just one day after Chen Liwu entered school, a sharp whistle alarm sounded across the sky over Pennsylvania, USA. At that time, it was built on the Sanshui Island nuclear power station in Susquehanna. The second group of reactors was melted. This accident was called Three Mile Island- 2 and eventually became the worst nuclear power plant accident in the history of the United States. It belongs to the fifth grade of nuclear accidents (nuclear accidents). A total of 7 levels, the higher the level, the greater the damage.)
Although the accident did not result in large-scale casualties, the Sanri Island nuclear accident exposed the danger of nuclear energy. As a result, the nuclear energy industry was affected and the opportunities for the industry were greatly reduced.
At that time, the 22-year-old Chen Liwu had been a chief engineer at EDS Nuclear at a young age, but after earning a master's degree in nuclear engineering at MIT, he finally made a decision - to the University of the San Francisco on the west coast of the United States. And studying for an MBA in Business Administration.
The style of the West Coast of the United States is completely different from that of the East Coast. In this land of watering the Silicon Valley and Hollywood culture, Chen Liwu sees even more colorful possibilities. In San Francisco, Chen Liwu not only tried energy-to-investment companies in succession. In various positions, he also briefly served as vice president of old British music distributor/piano producer Chappell.
After six years of experience, in 1987, Chen Liwu, who was just 28 years old, formally established Walden International in San Francisco. He has a start-up management fund of US$3 million and is focused on early stage technology investment.
Although it is a standard scientific science tyrant, Chen Liwu still has the blood of 'Wen Qing' in his bones. 'Waddeng International' is named by Chen Liwu in the book Walden Walden by Henry David Thoreau. Chen Liwu once said that his goal is the same as that of Thoreau's “contrarian trend, and not just follow the trend Contrarian, rather than just following the trend'.
For the next 30 years, in addition to serving as chairman of Walden International, Chen Liwu has also served as the CEO of the internationally renowned Cadence Electronics Design Electronics (EDA) company since 2009; In the company's investment cycle, Chen Liwu will also enter the board of directors of the investee company as usual, such as Sina, SMIC, Aquantia, etc.
According to Chen Liwu’s previous interview, he only needed 4 hours to sleep every day. He usually used 35% to 40% of the time to supervise the previous projects, 40% of the time to find new projects, and the remaining 20% of the time Corporate Affairs.
Make Venture Capital Successful in China
Although it is a venture capital organization originating in the United States, Walden International has become very popular in Asia, and many of them are flourishing in the Chinese market.
In fact, investing in China is not easy. First, 'risk investing' is originally a foreign concept. It is easy to encounter the problem of orange Huaibei from the other side of the ocean. Chen Liwu stated that there are several challenges in investing in China. One is to withdraw. Strategy; Second, the scalability of the management team, many management teams do not have mature experience; Third, the financial credit, the relationship is also very important, and some relations are related to laws and regulations.
However, besides his own from Asia, Chen Liwu has also been engaged in investment work in Asia for the past 20 years. He has extensive experience in cross-border investment projects from China, India, Japan, and Singapore. A keen understanding of the cutting-edge technology allows Chen Liwu to take charge.
Walden International has a general investment period of 10 years, with 90% selecting early projects, of which the first four years are investment periods, and the last six years are payback periods. The average time to enter the investee company’s board of directors is 8 years; at each company’s The amount of investment is usually between 2 million and 10 million US dollars.
The peak and climax of the semiconductor industry; Expect more AI chip companies to emerge
In general, semiconductors are not a matter of 'paying money'. Especially in the light of the short-term high valuation of Internet companies, semiconductor companies are even more gloomy. As a heavy asset, Technology, a labor-intensive industry, a semiconductor company often takes 9 to 10 years to get a return - this speed is simply not the 'Internet'.
It is precisely because of these three "heavyties" that not only has China's semiconductor industry developed slowly over the past few decades, but also it has made global venture capital institutions less willing to invest in the semiconductor industry in recent years, and young graduates around the world do not have much Willing to enter the semiconductor company. Especially driven by the global Internet wave, young people are more willing to gather in the Internet, social media, mobile platforms and other fast-growing areas.
Chen Liwu once sighed: 'A lot of semiconductor venture capitalists are old and retired. Young people are looking for quick jobs. The semiconductor industry is too difficult. They do not like the hard work.'
However, in recent years, with the upsurge of AI chips and the impetus of the ZTE event, the entire society has begun to shift its focus to the chip and semiconductor industries. Capital and talent have begun to gradually take over. The Chinese government has now focused on the semiconductor industry. To develop industries, the first phase of the National Integrated Circuit Industry Fund (Large Fund) launched in 2014 amounted to RMB 140 billion, and the second phase of the target amount raised and raised in 2018 was as high as RMB 200 billion. At the recently completed Central Government Conference At the top, semiconductor was the first place in the five-year plan.
In terms of chip design, microprocessors, and packaging, China has achieved some successes. However, in the areas of memory, chip OEM, or design software such as Cadence, the Chinese market is currently lagging behind by more than one or two generations.
Regarding the recently normalized AI chips, Chen Liwu said that he expects more AI chip/AI accelerator startup companies to emerge. There were 120 Wi-Fi start-up companies in the market during the peak period, but now there are less than 50 AI on the market. Chip company.
Conclusion: Looking up at the stars, down to earth
Objectively speaking, China has achieved certain achievements in terms of chip design, microprocessors, and packaging, but in the fields of memory, chip OEM, or design software such as Cadence, the Chinese market is currently lagging behind by more than one or two. generation.
Walden International's 30 years of deep plowing in the semiconductor industry, and Tao Liman may bring some reference for the Chinese semiconductor industry. Semiconductor technology as the underlying technology, as the 'core brain' of all electronic products, from some In terms of meaning, it is the root of the normal operation of modern society. As a typical high-tech industry, in addition to constantly breaking new ground in technology, practitioners do need the spirit of 'shelving the bench for ten years' and continue to invest in it. Finally gain.