China’s largest insurer by market value, Ping An Insurance Group, is scouting for FinTech and healthcare assets in the US, Israel and Singapore as it looks to use a US$1 billion investment fund, reported Reuters, citing a senior company executive.
Ping An Group's Chief Technology Officer and Chairman of the fund, Mr Jonathan Larsen, told Reuters that the Shenzhen-based insurer plans to use the acquired technology and know-how to grow its business in China.
He said "The primary rationale for the fund is strategic...to find capabilities, ideas, business models and technologies that can be valuable to Ping An".
Ping An launched the Hong Kong-based Global Voyager Fund in early May as the sole investor, but did not provide details of which type of start-up companies it wanted to purchase, or where it would look for assets.
The fund will allocate 30% of the capital to growth companies that are at least three years old and have been through the early-stage challenges, with a single investment size of $10 million to $30 million, Mr Larsen said.
Another 30% will be deployed to larger firms with a single investment size of between $30 million and $100 million, while a further 8-10% will be invested in early-stage companies via partner funds.
The rest will be used for special investment opportunities such as buyouts, said Mr Larsen.
"We are at a point where we can very selectively contemplate international opportunities. And the fund could play a role in that mostly through partnerships," he said.
