HongShan boss joins Chinese elite moving residency to Singapore

Neil Shen, the head of Chinese venture capital (VC) firm HongShan (previously Sequoia China), reportedly became a permanent resident of Singapore prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, sources told the Financial Times.

One of the sources said that Shen – who was an early investor in Alibaba and Shein – had requested to move his residency a decade ago.

This adds to recent news of Chinese elite moving residencies to the city-state, including Alibaba co-founder James Sheng. There have been reports saying that Chinese tycoons have been quick to turn to Singapore to protect their wealth.

Shen’s shift in residency also comes before the split of VC firm Sequoia Capital, which was announced in June 2023. This created three separate entities: Sequoia Capital (US and Europe), Peak XV Partners (India and South-east Asia), and HongShan (China).

Since this split, HongShan has opened up a local office in Singapore. In a statement to the Financial Times, the investment firm said it expanded into the city-state strictly for “business reasons”, including fulfilling local laws.

At the time of the split, Sequoia had US$56 billion in assets under management (AUM) in China. In comparison, it had US$53 billion AUM across both the US and Europe. TECH IN ASIA