AAA Global Corporate Venturing Rising Stars Awards 2016: Forest Lin

Global Corporate Venturing Rising Stars Awards 2016: Forest Lin

Before joining Tencent Investment, Forest Lin cut his teeth at Microsoft – joining the US-listed software provider straight after attaining an MBA at Pennsylvania University.

Starting as a senior financial analyst, Lin worked his way up through the ranks before becoming a director of business planning and operation at Microsoft, where he oversaw a team to drive strategic planning, business planning, and operations.

Lin joined Tencent in 2010 as an executive director in its corporate development wing, working on strategic and direct investments as well as mergers and acquisitions in Chinese and global markets. He was promoted to general manager earlier this year and leads Tencent Investment with a similar mandate to seek out investment opportunities in high tech and internet spaces.

In November 2015, Weying, owner of ticketing platform Wepiao and the manager of two entertainment funds, raised $235m in a Tencent and Wanda-backed financing round, while ride-sharing app developer Lyft, backed by Rakuten, Alibaba, Tencent and Didi Kuaidi, was that month reportedly trying to raise a bumper financing round of $500m at a $4bn valuation. At 5% to 10% of the size, Tencent returned to lead the online grocer MissFresh’s $31m series B financing round, having previously backed its $10m series A round.

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