李嘉誠幫助過的那些初創企業 全球孵化器

In the Autumn of 2007, Facebook was an upstart challenger to the now defunct MySpace.

2007年秋季，Facebook還是一家向MySpace發起挑戰的初創企業。

It was early days for social networks, but a couple of investments put a $15bn valuation on the company, making a paper billionaire out of founder Mark Zuckerberg. One of those investors was Microsoft, the other was a very old, very rich man from the other side of the world, Li Ka-shing.

當時社交媒體網絡剛剛興起，但有兩筆投資對Facebook的估值達到150億美元，這讓其創始人馬克•扎克伯格(Mark Zuckerberg)成爲紙面上的億萬富翁。其中一個投資者是微軟(Microsoft)，另一個是來自世界另一端的年邁的億萬富翁李嘉誠(Li Ka-shing)。

Mr Li, one of Asia’s richest tycoons whose business empire spans property, retail and ports, followed up with investments in Spotify, the music site now heading towards an IPO; Siri, the voice software bought by Apple; Summly, recently taken over by Yahoo; Waze and Deepmind, both taken out by Google in recent months; and Misfits, one of the handful of upstarts leading the way in wearable tech.

李嘉誠是亞洲最富有的大亨之一，其商業帝國涵蓋房地產、零售業和港口等各個領域。李嘉誠在投資Facebook之後的投資包括：目前正準備上市的音樂網站Spotify、被蘋果(Apple)收購的語音軟件Siri、最近被雅虎(Yahoo)收購的Summly、最近幾個月雙雙被谷歌(Google)收購的Waze和Deepmind，以及引領可穿戴技術的少數幾家初創企業之一Misfits。

His early adventures into the world of tech venture capital took a lift when an existing Facebook investor introduced the company to Solina Chau, a close business partner and confidante of Mr Li, who was running the Li Ka-shing Foundation, an $8bn-plus charitable trust dedicated to funding education and healthcare projects.

在Facebook的一位現有投資者向周凱旋(Solina Chau)引薦該公司之後，李嘉誠加大了對科技行業的風險資本投資。周凱旋是李嘉誠的商業夥伴和知己，她執掌着李嘉誠基金會(Li Ka-shing Foundation)，這是一家旨在爲教育和醫療項目融資、規模達到80多億美元的慈善信託基金。

The Facebook investment – in two slugs of $60m in late 2007 and early 2008 – was a winner, returning at least five times its stake when it first listed in 2012. It also followed an earlier investment Mr Li made in Skype.

李嘉誠分別在2007年末和2008年初向Facebook投資了6000萬美元。這些投資獲得了成功，當Facebook於2012年上市時，李嘉誠至少獲得了5倍的投資回報。李嘉誠在投資Facebook之前還投資了Skype。

These deals solidified the idea for Horizons Ventures, also run by Ms Chau, which aside from its remaining Facebook stake, now has more than $350m at work in more than 50 different start-ups.

這些交易夯實了維港投資(Horizons Ventures)投資初創企業的想法。同樣由周凱旋運營的維港投資，除了依然持有Facebook股份以外，還已拿出逾3.5億美元投資於50多家不同的初創企業。

It has had a string of big name successes, particularly over the past two years, which have made the name of Horizons Ventures almost as familiar as those of its ground-breaking tech start-ups.

特別是在過去兩年內，維港投資取得了一系列令人矚目的成功，這讓該公司的名字幾乎和它投資的那些突破性的高科技初創公司一樣出名。

Most of its 56 investments are based in either the US or Israel. So how does a Hong Kong based outfit get itself into all these deals?

在維港投資的56個項目中，大多位於美國或者以色列。那麼一家香港機構是如何參與所有這些交易的？

One Asia-based banker who has worked with the fund says the Facebook investment helped to create a brand for Horizons, which helped attract young companies in search of backers.

與該基金展開合作的一位亞洲銀行家表示，對Facebook的投資使維港創建了一個品牌，這有助於吸引那些搜尋財務後臺的初創公司。

“Out on the west coast, when I talk about Li Ka-shing and Horizons, everyone knows who it is and there’s this idea of quality and success,” the banker says. “If I talk about the Korea National Pension Fund, for example [one of the world’s biggest investment funds], people look at me blankly.”

這位銀行家表示：“在美國西海岸，當我談起李嘉誠和維港投資時，人人都知道這個基金，而且人們認爲它代表着質量和成功。但如果我說起（全球最大的投資基金之一）韓國國家養老基金(Korea National Pension Fund, NPF)，人們會一臉茫然地看着我。”

“Early stage companies want these quality backers because it means other investors will then do less due diligence,” he adds.

他補充稱：“處於創業初期的公司希望獲得這些優質基金的支持，因爲這意味着其他投資者將會減少盡職調查。”

Rather than hunting for specific companies, Mr Li and Horizons have identified specific societal and industrial trends that are coming and that require disruptive technology to solve, according to a person close to the group. They should also offer scope for China.

一位知情人士表示，李嘉誠和維港投資並不搜尋特定的公司，而是識別那些正在浮現的、需要顛覆性技術來解決的社會和行業趨勢。它們還應當在中國具有發展空間。

Mr Li and Ms Chau already had technology interests before their Skype deal. Aside from the various telecoms businesses owned by Hutchison Whampoa, Mr Li’s listed conglomerate, the pair had co-founded their own Chinese online media company, Tom Group, in Beijing.

李嘉誠和周凱旋在投資Skype之前就已涉足科技行業的投資。除了李嘉誠的上市企業集團和記黃埔(Hutchison Whampoa)旗下的多個電信業務以外，這兩人還在北京共同創辦了自己的在線中文媒體公司——Tom集團(Tom Group)。

The pair wanted to invest in new technology, but did not want to appear to be competing or in conflict with Tom Group, in which they both hold large stakes, but which is listed in Hong Kong. So they went overseas.

兩人希望投資於新技術，但不想顯得與各自持有大額股份、在香港上市的Tom集團發生競爭或衝突。因此兩人將目光投向海外。

The business is unlike other venture capital groups, according to a person familiar with Horizons, because it is not a fund. Every investment is funded by Mr Li personally and only if it is headed for commercial success is it passed to the Foundation.

一位熟悉維港投資的人士表示，維港與其他風險資本集團不同，因爲它並非是一個基金。每筆投資都由李嘉誠個人出資，只有當這筆投資明顯邁向商業成功後，它纔會被轉交給維港投資。

Horizons has more than 20 staff working on deals, including long-serving Hutchison employee, Gilad Novik, who became the fund’s chief technology officer in 2010, having worked for 3, Mr Li’s UK mobile phone division.

維港投資有20多名僱員從事投資交易，包括長期效力於和記黃埔的僱員吉拉德•諾維克(Gilad Novik)。諾維克在2010年成爲維港投資的首席技術官，此前他爲李嘉誠旗下的英國移動通信運營商Three工作。

Ms Chau runs the business along with a long-time friend and business partner, Debbie Chang, who was instrumental in Ms Chau’s first meeting with Mr Li and rise from relative middle class obscurity.

周凱旋與老友和商業夥伴張培薇(Debbie Chang)一起運營着維港投資，張培薇促成了周凱旋與李嘉誠的第一次見面和之後的升遷，使其從相對普通的中產階層脫穎而出。

Ms Chau, born in 1961, became good friends in the 1980s with Ms Chang – a cousin of Tung Chee-hwa, Hong Kong’s first chief executive – and the two went into business together. Their big break came with a contract to manage the $2bn Beijing Oriental Plaza construction project for Mr Tung’s property group in the mid-1990s.

出生於1961年的周凱旋在上世紀80年代與香港首任特首董建華(Tung Chee-hwa)的表妹張培薇成爲好友，並一起經商。兩人的重大突破出現在上世紀90年代中期，當時兩人拿下了爲董建華的地產集團管理20億美元的北京東方廣場(Oriental Plaza)建設項目的合同。

The pair made millions on that deal, according to contemporary media reports, but it also led Mr Tung to introduce Ms Chau to Mr Li.

當時的媒體報道稱，兩人在該項目上賺了數百萬，但該項目還使得董建華將周凱旋引薦給李嘉誠。

Mr Li’s own vast network of business, political and social connections is another big draw for start-ups.

李嘉誠自身在商界、政界和社會上的龐大人脈，也對初創企業有着巨大的吸引力。

Josh Tetrick, who runs Hampton Creek, recipient of $15.5m from Horizons last week, was introduced by a friend, Sonny Vu, who founded Misfits, another company backed by Horizons. “When he started talking about the group, the relationships they have, how they can really fuel your business, I got very excited,” he said.

喬希•蒂特里克(Josh Tetrick)運營着最近獲得維港1550萬美元投資的Hampton Creek。他是被一位朋友、同樣得到維港支持的Misfits的創始人桑尼•烏(Sonny Vu)引薦給李嘉誠的。蒂特里克表示：“當他開始談論維港投資，他們之間保持的關係，以及他們如何能夠真正助推你的生意，我變得非常激動。”

Or as another person who knows Horizon puts it: “It’s about his networks. If Li Ka-shing invests in an electronic point of sale business and that company wants to talk to the chief executive of ParknShop [Hutchison’s supermarkets] do you think he’s going to refuse to talk?”

或者正如另一位瞭解維港投資的人所言：“關鍵在於他的網絡。如果李嘉誠投資於一家銷售終端機(POS)企業，而這家公司想要與和記黃埔旗下的百佳連鎖超市(ParknShop)的首席執行官交談，你認爲後者會拒絕嗎？”