Ruby Lu previously co-founded the China business for DCM Ventures. [Photo/Agencies]

"China is fundamentally different," said Gary Rieschel, a US citizen who founded the China-based Qiming Venture Partners, where four of the nine investing partners are female. "The venture capital industry in the US has been a private men's club. It has been much more of a meritocracy for women in China."

She met Tiger Global founder Chase Coleman in 2003 through mutual connections. He originally recruited her to work at a Chinese e-commerce company he had invested in called Joyo. It turned out that Joyo's CEO was her old high school classmate Lei Jun, who would later become one of the most successful entrepreneurs in Asia as founder of Xiaomi Corp. She returned to China in February 2004 to help the company raise money, but the plans changed when the board decided to sell to Amazon.com Inc.

Still, Coleman saw Chen's potential. They began discussions for her to launch an investment fund specializing in education. Even before she was formally hired, she hit the road to meet with about 70 companies. In October 2004, she officially joined Tiger.