Simply the best: 17 years of the AVCJ Awards

For 17 years, the Awards have largely continued in this vein, highlighting the leading firms, professionals, investments, exits and fundraises, while honoring them at an intimate and enjoyable presentation dinner attended by their peers and investors.

As 2017 marks the Asian Venture Capital Journal’s 30th anniversary, I thought that it would be an opportune time to share some thoughts and tidbits about the Awards and, perhaps, get some feedback about how we can move it forward.

As some of you may recall, the Awards were established in gloomy 2001, when the venture capital community – along with many in private equity – was pondering the future in the wake of the dotcom crash. Lip-Bu Tan of Walden International proposed the idea to Dan Schwartz (then owner of AVCJ and now state treasurer of Nevada). Everyone agreed that holding the dinner around the AVCJ Forum in Hong Kong would be ideal, and hey presto, the first AVCJ Awards was born in November of that year.

Since then the Awards have evolved numerous times to the current format of 15 categories that recognizes achievement across a range of disciplines. The inaugural iteration featured a mere three categories – Firm of the Year, Professional of the Year, and Entrepreneur of the Year –representing the simpler times of the nascent Asian private equity industry.

Times have changed, and like everything else, the Awards has had its share of growing pains. One frequent criticism is that high-profile firms and individuals feature more frequently than lesser-known counterparts. This could be seen as reflecting the fact that talent often – but not always – gravitates towards such organizations.

However, I would argue that the winners (and the nominees) are more diverse than meets the eye. The last four winners of the Firm of the Year award include Australian mid-market player Quadrant Private Equity as well as Affinity Equity Partners, Bain Capital, and KKR. They also highlight the extraordinary scope of talent this industry attracts. Neil Shen, twice a winner of the Venture Capitalist of the Year award, first featured in 2004 as Entrepreneur of the Year.

It goes without saying that a strong brand name helps in a competition that is decided in part by public vote. Even better is a willingness to provide the transparency our researchers, judges, and voters need to make informed decisions. While we may be aware of most deals, in some instances there are significant details that, if more widely known, would win over the judges and voters.

One last thing: We admit we’ve had our share of misses. Without naming names, seasoned industry participants would surely be able to spot some firms, deals, and individuals that look questionable today. (Disclaimer: Past performance is no indication of future performance.) Overall, though, the Awards have been and continue to be a bellwether of the stars of the industry.

As always, we are interested in hearing your views on the Awards and would welcome any suggestions as to how we can improve. Please reach out to Tim Burroughs (tim.burroughs@acuris.com), AVCJ’s managing editor, or myself (allen.lee@acuris.com). And we hope you enjoy the 2017 Awards supplement that appears with this week’s issue.

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• Performance
• AVCJ Awards