The Columbia Alumni Association of Beijing (CAABJ) starts the Year of the Monkey with a new salon event.

We turn our attention to China's tech funding and startup outlook in 2016. With the second half of last year seeing a slowdown in funding, we ask leading local investors of their view on the current tech industry climate. What's driving the slowdown and how long will it last? How has it impacted local startups and investor funding critieria? What tech sectors are out of favor, what new ones are up and coming?

Our panel speakers will include Karen Zhang (BUS '07), Executive Director at Baidu Investments and who for the past year led the company's strategic investments with a focus on the O2O and mobile sectors. Karen started her investment career at Goldman Sachs, and also worked with JAFCO Asia and Merrill Lynch’s investment arm.

Also joining is Alex Zhou (BUS '11), Principal at Qiming Venture Partners, a leading China VC and where Alex specializes in early and inflection stage investments in mobile, cloud, big data and wearable technology. Prior to this role, Alex worked for KPCB in China and Silicon Valley, and was a co-founder of Rethink Technologies.

In addition, we have David Zhu (CC ’12), Partner and CFO at CareerDream, a Beijing based startup in online recruitment and training for financial institutions. David is a serial entrepreneur with four previous startup experiences in education, venture capital and elderly care. David started his career at Goldman Sachs, and also worked at UBS Asia’s Affinity Equity Partners.

Take this opportunity to learn about tech and meet with Karen, Alex, David and fellow Columbians!

As with previous salon talks, attendance is limited to the first 30 confirmed RSVPs.

Event details: 

• Agenda: Panel discussion and Q&A, followed by casual social
• When: Saturday, Feb 27, 3:00-5:00 p.m
• Location: Near Sanyuanqiao district (exact location provided upon RSVP confirmation)
• Cost: Free to attend. Cash bar

RSVPs:

• Complete the eventbrite sign-up form: https://caabj-salon-feb27.eventbrite.com
• Seating on a first come, first serve basis. All others will be added to waitlist
• Once we confirm your RSVP, we will separately email you the event location details
• Attendee may bring up to one non-Columbian guest (please indicate in your rsvp)