GCV Powerlist 2016: Michael Liao, Qihoo 360

In July 2014, China-based security company Qihoo 360 Technology set up a US-based corporate venturing group in Silicon Valley, California, run by Michael Liao, director of strategic initiatives.

Liao told the Wall Street Journal at the time: “In the end, we are strategic investors. We are not in this for the financial returns.” He said he invested in startups when he found those that could enhance his company’s mission to provide digital security.

“We think about security in the larger sense. Where are your kids? Is the garage door open? We think about where the internet is going to be a few years from now,” he said.

Since moving to the US and establishing an office in Palo Alto, California, in 2013, Liao had invested in EyeVerify and four unnamed companies developing products for big data, smart hardware and family safety apps.

Liao is on the board of EyeVerify, a biometric technology startup in Kansas City, which raised $6m in a series A round in August 2014, with other corporations, Sprint and Wells Fargo, part of the round.

Liao reports to Beijing-based Edward Tsai, head of strategic development and a former investment vice-president at DCM, a $2bn early-stage venture capital firm.

Qihoo 360 has also committed to Israel-based venture capital firm Carmel Ventures, which closed a fourth round at $194m in 2014.

Qihoo 360 had raised money from VC firms Highland Capital Partners, Sequoia Capital China, Trustbridge Partners and Redpoint Ventures and corporations, including GMO, in 2006 before going public on New York Stock Exchange five years later and then going private again at the end of last year.

Previously, Liao himself was managing director of CSV Capital Partners for nine years, having run marketing and investment projects since the late 1990s after studying engineering at University of Michigan until 1997.