Startup Capital Ventures in China

John Dean and Danny Lui began raising their first fund as Startup Capital Ventures (SCV), a small venture capital firm in 2005. They made a soft commitment to invest 15-20% of their first $25MM fund in China. They made their first Chinese investment in 2005 in Zero2IPO, a Beijing-based market research firm that tracked Mainland china private equity and venture capital markets. The investment has gone well so far, but the venture capital market is changing rapidly. Dean and Lui need to decide whether to continue investing in China, and if so, they must develop a new strategy. This case examines the challenges of venture capital investment in China, given increased competition for deals, significant regulation changes and a rising preference for local teams versus foreign VCs.