Bill Qian, formerly head of cross-border M&A at China-based e-commerce firm JD.com’s financial technology spinoff, JD Finance, was promoted to general manager of corporate ventures in July this year.
Qian currently oversees investments in enterprise services, industrial internet-of-things and consumer internet technologies. He has overseen investments in digital contact platform Jiatui Technology, collaboration software developer FangCloud and news aggregation platform Qutoutiao.
Having joined JD in July 2015 as head of crowdfunding business strategy, Qian initially concentrated his efforts on equity crowdfunding as part of a year-long stint in which it raised more than RMB1.1bn ($162m) for 89 startups.
Concurrently, Qian helped JD Finance launch JD Innovation Ventures, the early-stage fund now renamed Qianshu Capital. Qianshu typically pursues series A deals and earlier for consumer-focused startups, in areas such as lifestyle, fashion, cosmetics, health and entertainment.
Some of Qian’s portfolio companies from this time included retro radio manufacturer Mao King, honey and bee product supplier Dengfenglai and suitcase producer 90Fun, all of which have online stores on the JD platform.
Qian moved across to head JD Finance’s cross-border M&A in February 2017, helping form joint ventures in Thailand with retail conglomerate Central Group and Singapore-based principal investment firm Provident Capital in September the same year.
Photo of Bill Qian courtesy of LinkedIn.
