Beijing (PingWest)- Neil Shen Nanpeng, Sequoia Capital China’s founding and managing partner and Chen Xun, managing partner at Softbank Vision Fund, have both leave Qihoo 360’s board of directors, according to a regulatory filing to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
Both Neil Shen and Chen Xun have resigned from the board for personal reason without further explanation.
Yale graduate Neil Shen is a founder and managing partner at Sequoia Capital China, as well as the founder of China’s largest online travel agency Ctrip and accommodation provider Home Inn. There is no doubt that Shen is one of the most powerful venture capital investors in China’s tech industry, he was ranked the first place on the 2020 Forbes Midas List of the world’s best venture capital investors, taking the crown for the third consecutive year.
In his early career, Shen served as an investment banker in Wall Street and joined Citibank and Lehman Brothers in 1992, 1994 respectively. In 1996, he joined Deutsche Bank as director and head of China capital market.
In 1999 Shen founded online travel agency Ctrip and in 2002 he launched Home Inn, which listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market in 1999 and 2006 respectively.
In 2005 Shen established Sequoia Capital China with the support of Sequoia Capital’s Michael Moritz and Douglas Leone.
Headquartered in Beijing, Sequoia Capital primarily invests in Chinese companies ranging from sectors including agriculture, B2B, education, energy, retail, financial services, health care, hotels and entertainment.
Under Shen’s leadership Sequoia Capital China has made investments in over 300 consumer and tech enterprises, some of Sequoia China’s most high profile investments include China’s e-commerce giants Alibaba and JD.com, short video giants ByteDance and Kuaishou, one-stop online service provider Meituan Dianping, Shenzhen-based drone maker DJI and ride-hailing platform Didi Chuxing.
During the Covid-19, Sequoia Capital China moved its investor pitch day online as part of its efforts to reduce the impact on fundraising from the spread of the coronavirus.
China’s largest antivirus and internet security service provider Qihoo 360 was added on a U.S. trade blacklist along with 32 Chinese companies and government organizations for human rights violations and national security issues.
Qihoo 360 has helped U.S companies including Apple, Google, and Microsoft to discover thousands of security vulnerabilities and protect global netizens by offering its solution “the 360 Cyber Security Brain.
Qihoo 360 co-founder and CEO Zhou Hongyi recently made proposals related to 5G security to the Two Sessions, China’s most important political event . One of these proposals is to form a national government-led 5G security strategy that involves multiple stakeholders.
Zhou said 5G is the driver of the industrial internet--linking industrial facilities with big data, cloud computing and other technologies. The new wireless standard is also set to be applied in other IoT applications, driverless cars, telemedicine, smart cities and drones. And all of these things will face new security challenges.
Chen Xun’s departure came at the time when a USD100 billion Softbank’s Vison Fund lost nearly USD18 billion, which driven largely by the collapse of WeWork and the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on other portfolio companies including Uber and Oyo.
Softbank has recently bought back more than 250 billion yen of its share at the end of April, it also pledged to sell down or monetize USD41 billion of its assets to raise cash and lower debt.