Why One Chinese Firm Will Likely Invest $50M In Israeli Tech This Year

Xueling Cao, Director of  Shengjing Group and Shengjing Fund of Funds, which will likely invest $50M this year in Israeli hi-tech startups. Photo Credit: Simona Weinglass 

The Chinese are eager to do business in Israel, says Xueling Cao, Senior Partner at Shengjing Group, because each have something the other needs

There are periods in history when opportunity is so close, it feels tangible.

Such was America’s Gilded Age from 1870-1900, when the number of U.S. millionaires jumped from 20 to 40,000 as entrepreneurs seized opportunities in railroads, mining, retail and finance.

Such has been China of the last three decades, where the rate of growth averaged over 10 percent per year.

“China is developing so fast,” Xueling Cao, Director of Shengjing Group, breathlessly told Geektime at a beachside table at Tel Aviv’s Royal Beach Hotel.

“But time is limited. Chinese companies and Israeli hi-tech need to find a position in the market as quickly as possible.”

Referring to the popular acronym for Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent, the Chinese equivalents of Google, Amazon and Facebook, she says, “look at BAT.”

“You cannot make another company with the same business model as a BAT, they already seized their position and there’s no opportunity anymore.”

Xueling Cao is not a representative of BAT. On the contrary, her company, Shengjing Group, provides financial and management consulting in China for over 10,000 small and medium businesses.

The elegant 26-year-old, who won a Goldman Sachs scholarship to China’s premier business school, is here in Israel for the tenth time in a year.

Her clients, companies with yearly net profits between $2 million and $10 million (not so small and medium-sized for many countries’ standards), have heard of the “Startup Nation,” and “Innovation Nation,” and they want to get in on the action.