平安成立基金投資全球金融和醫療保健技術

Ping An is launching a $1bn fund to invest in financial and healthcare technology globally in a sign of the Chinese insurance group’s desire to expand its brand and business outside its home market.

中國平安(Ping An)將推出一支10億美元的基金，投資全球金融和醫療保健技術。這一跡象表明，這家中國保險集團渴望將其品牌和業務拓展至本土市場之外。

The insurer, the world’s largest by market capitalisation and fourth largest by total assets, has been building a reputation for tech investing in related fields, most notably developing Lufax, the Chinese wealth management platform valued at $19bn and Good Doctor, the health app worth $3bn in a 2016 funding round.

平安是全球市值最大、總資產第四大的保險公司。它一直在打造在相關領域開展科技投資的聲譽，其中最令人矚目的，是開發了估值190億美元的中國理財平臺陸金所(Lufax)、以及在2016年一輪募資中估值30億美元的保健應用平安好醫生(Good Doctor)。

The new fund, named Global Voyager, will be headed by Jonathan Larsen, an 18-year veteran of Citigroup, who also becomes the Ping An group’s chief innovation officer.

這支名爲平安全球領航基金(Global Voyager)的新基金，將由羅中恆（Jonathan Larsen，見上圖）主管。他是一名曾在花旗集團(Citigroup)供職18年的資深人士，現還兼任平安集團的首席創新官。

“Ping An is predominantly Chinese but they are at the point where they are interested in looking at expansion opportunities and this fund potentially provides a way of accessing these,” he said. “We think there’s a very substantial opportunity here.”

他說：“平安的主要落腳點在中國，但他們正處於有意尋找擴張機遇的節點，該基金可能會提供獲得這類機遇的途徑。我們認爲這方面存在巨大的機會。”

Mr Larsen was most recently global head of Citi’s retail banking operations where he led many of the bank’s digital innovations such as voice biometrics for authenticating customers, which launched in Asia before a global roll-out.

平安這支新基金的初始規模爲10億美元，羅中恆預期三四年內這10億美元會全部投出。投資對象從處於早期階段的初創企業，到準備擴大規模的企業。

Ping An’s new fund will begin with $1bn that Mr Larsen expects to be fully invested in three to four years. Investments will range from early-stage start-ups to ventures ready to scale up, either from stand-alone financing or from being adopted by the insurer itself.

羅中恆表示：“平安擁有大量資源，我們在這方面有充分的考慮。這家公司的發展動力是有機的，其傳統的基礎業務產生了巨大的現金流。”