Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin’s capital investment firm, B Capital Group, has raised USD 2.5 billion to invest in technology companies in China.
B Capital Group, which Saverin founded in 2015 with partner and former Bain Capital executive Raj Ganguly, intends to invest the amount raised only in China, according to the Brazilian press. B Capital already has around USD 1.9 billion in assets under management, and part of this total is invested in Asian startups, mainly Chinese.
Last year, B Capital hired former SoftBank Vision Fund partner Daisy Cai to help it hunt down promising start-ups.Ms Cai will run a team of about 10 investment professionals initially from Hong Kong and focus on Chinese tech start-ups.
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“I see a tremendous opportunity for technology companies servicing enterprises as the digitalization theme is going to play out in large industries,” Ms Cai said in an interview last year with Bloomberg. “It’s very similar to what the US has gone through in the past 20 years.”
The focus is expected to be start-ups serving businesses in health care, financial services and transportation, among others. B Capital’s founders, who also include American venture capitalist Howard Morgan, believe there is no better time to scout for upstarts that could become the Salesforce.com or Oracle of China.
Besides entering China, the firm plans to continue investing in India and Indonesia, two of the fastest-growing technology hubs in Asia. In Indonesia, the company recently led a USD 20 million Series A round for e-commerce platform Ula and a USD 53 million Series B funding for personal finance platform Payfazz. It has also backed Khatabook and logistics start-up BlackBuck, scooter and bike-sharing venture Bounce, delivery company Ninja Van and Bizongo, a B2B marketplace for packaging materials.
E-commerce is one of the segments where B Capital is expected to focus. At the moment, one of the most popular technology segments in China is B2B. Brazil is expected to become the focus of one of the next B Capital funds.
Co-founder and one of Facebook’s largest individual shareholders, Saverin has a net worth estimated USD 12.2 billion, mostly in shares of the social media company. He disputes the title of richest man in Brazil with Jorge Paulo Lemann.
“What we’ve seen so far is just the beginning for an era of innovation in the region,” Mr Saverin said recently. “What’s important to remember is not the venture capitalist like myself but the entrepreneurs and their teams who work tirelessly to solve very big problems.”
