Charles Li’s Venture Raised $70 Million From H.K. Tycoons
Charles Li’s Venture Raised $70 Million From H.K. Tycoons
(Bloomberg) -- Charles Li, the former head of Hong Kong’s stock exchange, raised $70 million from investors including local tycoons Li Ka-shing and Adrian Cheng in the latest funding round for his new venture.
Micro Connect, a platform to link international capital to small businesses in China co-founded last year by Li and Gary Zhang, has completed its Series B round, taking the total amount raised over the past year to $120 million.
Sequoia China carried on from its previous financing round, joined by Cheng, the chief executive officer and heir of New World Development, as well as Horizons Ventures, a private investment firm controlled by billionaire Li Ka-shing. Other investors included ABC International and Lenovo Capital.
The platform offers a “daily revenue contract” that allows investors to collect returns from smaller firms during their “healthy life-cycle,” Li said in an interview on Bloomberg Television Thursday. This model is “fundamentally different” from the country’s past experience with micro lending platforms which had been cracked down on, he said.
The proceeds will be used to boost the partnership network and its capital deployment capability onshore, and enhance its technology.
The project was first funded by Li and Zhang, the CEO of Hong Kong-listed Oriental Patron Financial Group. It offers institutional investors a way of making equity-like bets on a portfolio of small enterprises and gain a direct share of the revenue. The firm has invested in more than 100 micro and small businesses, and started a China fund earlier this year to bring in global investors.
“It resonates well with an investment thesis we have been developing for the past 2 years, startups that ingrain the concept of ‘respect, dignity and self reliance’ into their business model,” a spokesperson at Horizons Ventures said in a statement.
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