(Yicai Global) April 14 -- Neil Shen, the founding and managing partner of Sequoia Capital China, has slipped to second place on the 2021 Midas List of the world’s foremost venture capitalists, losing the title which he has held for the last three years, according to the ranking released by US business magazine Forbes yesterday.

Shen was outdone by Chinese American Alfred Lin, partner at Silicon Valley-based Sequoia, who topped the list, propelled by the initial public offering of online housing rental platform AirBnb last year in which he is a seed investor.

Shen, whose bets on TikTok operator ByteDance and other internet startups have earned him a small fortune, was joined in the top ten by two other Chinese venture capitalists, namely Richard Liu, founding partner of 5Y Capital, who came fourth for his investment in smartphone maker Xiaomi, and Zhang Zhen, founding partner of Gaorong Capital, who ranked eighth for backing e-retailer Pinduoduo.

Around one fifth of the 100 investors on this year’s Midas List are Chinese. To make the ranking, companies in the investor's portfolio need to have raised at least USD200 million through a public listing or private sale over the past five years, or to have at least doubled their private valuation since the initial investment to USD400 million or more.

Editor: Kim Taylor