China’s female millennial millionaires making it big in fintech, activewear, VR and e-comics – where did these 5 self-made entrepreneurs go to university?
From comic-reading app Kuaikan Manhua’s founder Anni Chen to the duo behind activewear brand Maia Active, Lisa Ou Yirou and Mia Wang Jiayin, these inspiring women have shown you can make it big in life, and business, if you have smarts and dedication – but how much role did their education play?
As a result of rapid urbanisation, a cultural emphasis on education and technological advancements, it comes as no surprise that China currently boasts more than half of the world's richest self-made women. Here we salute the entrepreneurial spirit and tenacity of some of these self-made billionaires – from tech to finance – who have made it to the super-rich category, and spell out which universities they attended to help them get there.
Anni Chen
Anni Chen is the founder of Kuaikan Manhua, a leading comic-reading platform in China with more than 40 million active monthly users, 3,000 authors and 3,000 comics. Born in 1992, she always had a passion for drawing but studied economics at the Guangdong University of Foreign Studies.
The 28-year-old first rose to fame in 2014 after she posted her own comic series The 1% Life on the platform. Within two months, Kuaikan became the top free downloaded app in China and recently, in August 2019, tech giant Tencent invested US$125 million in the company.
Lucy Liu Yueting
In the mostly male-dominated fintech industry, Lucy Liu Yueting stands out not only as one of the few female figures, but also as the president and co-founder of Airwallex, one of the fastest-rising fintech unicorns in Australia after it achieved a USS1 billion valuation in 2019.
Liu studied finance and accounting at the University of Melbourne and graduated with both Bachelor of Commerce and Master of Finance degrees. In 2018, she was awarded Female Fintech Leader of the Year from FinTech Australia.