Good friend David Scott Lewis has joined Worksoft, a Chinese IT Outsourcing firm. Even more exciting Sequoia is about to invest $ 30 million in their B round. He is moving to Shanghai (he has spent time in many other Chinese cities in previous roles) - an amazing metropolis which combines spanking new technology (17% of the world's cranes are here constructing away at amazing speed some of the most exotic architectures this side of the cities in Star Wars) with centuries old traditions.
He is joining what he calls the "Infosys of China".
But Chinese firms will evolve very differently from Indian ones. They will borrow capital and aggressively make Western acquisitions. Indian firms in spite of huge valuations are still primarily organic in growth and self-funded till they go IPO (with exceptions like Patni which took capital from GA). China offers its firms a lot better infrastructure than India. The talent, at least for now, is cheaper than in India.
Indian firms have a significant global delivery model advantage today. But as I wrote here, give Chinese firms 3 years and they will be giving Indian vendors fits. Tier 1 VCs like Sequoia invest in what they believe are game changers.
