中科招商4億美元投資美國初創企業

A group of China private equity investors set aside $400m to pour into early investments in new US businesses, marking a large rise in the amount of capital chasing seed investments.

一羣中國私人股本投資者拿出4億美元，對新生的美國企業進行早期投資，標誌着追逐種子投資的資本數額大幅提升。

The investment vehicle represents a step up from an earlier $25m fund raised to back investments through AngelList, an internet-based service for organising seed investments.

這一投資基金意味着在一個早先規模爲2500萬美元的基金基礎上上了一個臺階，後者通過AngelList進行投資。AngelList是一家組織種子投資的互聯網服務平臺。

Interest in backing high-growth tech start-ups has brought large amounts of money to established private companies that have proved they have a workable model.

投資者對投資高成長性科技創業企業的興趣，爲那些已證明自身模式可行的成熟私人企業吸引來了大筆資金。

But it has been harder for outsiders to get in on the newest business ideas at the earliest stage.

但對外部投資者而言，在最早期階段參與最新商業構想歷來難度更大。

Seed investments are usually done in amounts of less than $1m, and are made by individuals, known as angels, making it hard for institutional investors with more capital to get involved.

種子投資金額通常低於100萬美元，投資者主要是被稱爲“天使投資者”的個人，這令資金量更多的機構投資者難於參與進來。

The total amount of seed-stage investments in the US last year was $1.33bn, according to research firm CB Insights, though that was still up about 50 per cent from the year before.

研究公司CB Insights的數據顯示，去年美國的種子階段投資總額爲13.3億美元，不過，這一金額仍比前年高約50%。

Naval Ravikant, AngelList founder, said the availability of much larger amounts of money was a result of the excess liquidity in financial markets.

AngelList創始人納瓦爾拉維康特(Naval Ravikant)說，更高額種子投資的出現，緣於金融市場的過度流動性。

The new fund is almost twice as big as the $205m that has been invested through AngelList in the past two years.

這隻新基金的規模幾乎是過去兩年裏通過AngelList達成的2.05億美元投資的兩倍。

AngelList said it was led by China Science and Merchants Capital and included the three biggest private equity investors in China.

AngelList表示，這隻基金由中科招商(CSC)領頭，包含中國三個最大的私人股本投資者。

Mr Ravikant said it was independent of the online marketplace but was committed to putting the entire amount to work in AngelList investments.

拉維康特表示，這隻基金獨立於其在線平臺，但承諾用全部資金參與AngelList組織的投資項目。

“It’s up to us to make sure it doesn’t create a bubble,” he said of the China investment vehicle.

“我們負責確保不引發泡沫，”他在談起這隻中國投資基金時表示。

The fund might have topped $1bn but was capped to limit its impact on the seed market, he said.

他說，這隻基金本來可能超過10億美元，但最終其規模受到限制，以控制其對種子投資市場的影響。