Exclusive | Qiming Venture Partners Launches Internal Investigation into Commercial Information Extraction Incident
The things that matter more than investing.
By Zhiyan Chen
Waves has learned exclusively that Qiming Venture Partners has launched an internal investigation following accusations published by a self-media account that an investor at the firm attempted to extract trade secrets.
On the evening of September 13, a self-media account published an article titled "Investors Stealing Trade Secrets So Blatantly," alleging that during an online pitch between a founder and an investor, the founder of a competing company joined the call under the guise of being a "partner" at the investment firm — without prior notice to the pitching founder, raising suspicions of an attempt to extract confidential business information. The article identified the firm as "QM Venture Capital," describing it as "a very established dual-currency fund," and included an audio recording.
Qiming Venture Partners was quickly thrust into the spotlight. Waves understands that upon learning of the allegations, the firm immediately initiated an internal investigation. A source close to Qiming Venture Partners said the matter is serious and that the firm would not tolerate deceiving entrepreneurs or violating business ethics.
Previously, Duane Kuang, Qiming's founding managing partner, outlined the firm's investment principles regarding multiple companies in the same sector during a media interview: "If the two companies operate in a broad sector but have sufficient differentiation, we can invest in both. But if they're in a zero-sum competition, I won't invest in two or three — you have to accept that either the one I back survives, or the one someone else backs survives."
Image source | IC Photo
Layout | Yunxiao Guo
