New Era of VC and the Innovation Ecosystem

The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank has had a significant impact on the start-up ecosystem. SVB's failure has exacerbated the existing icy environment for tech start-ups which were already struggling with a downturn in venture funding. Investors and entrepreneurs alike have been affected by these uncertainties. But, will Silicon Valley and the innovation ecosystem show resilience again? Looking forward, how do investors navigate these shoals? What are the short-term and long-term strategies for investing in innovation?

Join an esteemed panel of investors on April 19 at 5 p.m. Pacific Time for their thoughts and insights regarding how the next VC chapter will be written. Founder and Managing Partner of Necessary Ventures, Neil Devani, General Partner – Venture Capital at United Talent Agency, Clinton Foy, and General Partner at Race Capital, Edith Yeung will participate in this timely discussion moderated by ASSC Advisory Council member Yiwen Li.

Speakers:

Neil Devani is the Founder and Managing Partner of Necessary Ventures. Devani invests in companies that improve people's lives. He primarily focuses on companies using deep technologies and those in the healthcare, financial services, and education sectors.

Devani is also an advisor to Upsolve, a bankruptcy nonprofit that has helped individuals clear hundreds of millions of dollars of primarily medical debt, and previously to Copia, a venture-backed technology company that has delivered over three million meals to people in need.

He completed his JD at Stanford Law School after working on the Affordable Care Act in the US Senate, attending medical school at Drexel University, and completing a BS at the Pennsylvania State University.

Clinton Foy is the General Partner, Venture Capital at United Talent Agency and fund. He is also investor and advisor at Warburg Pincus, a $60B growth VC and PE fund. He is formerly Managing Director at CrossCut Ventures focusing on seed and early stage venture capital investments in IT, mobile, social, cloud, e-commerce, blockchain, digitalhealth, frontier tech, and the video game space. Foy leverages 15 plus years of experience as an operating executive and business counsel to startups, entrepreneurs, and leading video game, technology, mobile, and internet companies.
As COO, General Counsel, and head of business development for Square Enix, a $2 billion video game publisher, he recruited a top-tier team and built the mobile, social, and online business in North and South America. He managed licensing and strategic partnerships for SPACE INVADERS, FINAL FANTASY, and TOMB RAIDER franchises. In seven years he oversaw more than one hundred product launches across a dozen platforms and grew annual revenues to more than $300 million.

Before Square Enix, Foy practiced law with the Heller Ehrman Venture Law Group in Seattle, San Francisco, and Silicon Valley representing clients including Microsoft, Sony, and Yahoo. Foy earned a BA from the University of Notre Dame, JD from University of Washington School of Law, and MA from Stanford University Graduate School.

Edith Yeung is a General Partner at Race Capital - an early-stage Silicon Valley venture capital fund investing in all things infrastructure. Edith is the seed investor in Solana (has been dubbed one of the best venture investments of all time), Lightning Network, Agora.io, Placer.ai, RapidAPI, and 60 other amazing startups.

Prior to Race Capital, Edith was a partner at 500 Startups, the world's most active early-stage fund and incubator which invested in Twilio, Credit Karma, Grab, and 2000 more companies.

Before 500, Edith was the general manager at Dolphin Browser, a Sequoia Capital - backed mobile browser with over 150 million installs worldwide. Edith also worked with many Fortune 500 companies such as Siebel, AMS, AT&T Wireless, and Autodesk. She frequently speaks on venture capital, women in leadership, China and Silicon Valley technology and investment landscape. She is also a frequent guest lecturer at Berkeley and Stanford and commentator on BBC, CNBC, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, SCMP, Techcrunch, The Information, etc.

Moderator: 

Yiwen Li has over a decade of experience in investing and operation and is well-versed in the venture landscape in the US and Asia. She is a Principal at Alumni Ventures. She was previously Director for Corporate Development at Masimo (MASI). She started her career in private wealth and investment at the Capital Group, then moved to corporate development at NantWorks. Li received her master’s degree in Economics from the London School of Economics and a second master’s degree in Global Studies from the University of Vienna. She is fluent in Mandarin and German.

Li is passionate about connecting east and west, making social impact, and supporting women empowerment. She serves as a board director at several nonprofits and foundations, including Give 2 Asia, Asia Society Southern California, and C-Sweet. In addition, Li is the author of one of the best sellers in China, “Make the World Your Playground,” inspiring Chinese women to follow their unique path. 

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