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In the Autumn of 2007, Facebook was an upstart challenger to the now defunct MySpace.
2007年秋季，F(xiàn)acebook還是一家向MySpace發(fā)起挑戰(zhàn)的初創(chuàng)企業(yè)。
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(dāng)時(shí)社交媒體網(wǎng)絡(luò)剛剛興起，但有兩筆投資對(duì)Facebook的估值達(dá)到150億美元，這讓其創(chuàng)始人馬克•扎克伯格(Mark Zuckerberg)成為紙面上的億萬(wàn)富翁。其中一個(gè)投資者是微軟(Microsoft)，另一個(gè)是來(lái)自世界另一端的年邁的億萬(wàn)富翁李嘉誠(chéng)(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(chéng)是亞洲最富有的大亨之一，其商業(yè)帝國(guó)涵蓋房地產(chǎn)、零售業(yè)和港口等各個(gè)領(lǐng)域。李嘉誠(chéng)在投資Facebook之后的投資包括：目前正準(zhǔn)備上市的音樂(lè)網(wǎng)站Spotify、被蘋(píng)果(Apple)收購(gòu)的語(yǔ)音軟件Siri、最近被雅虎(Yahoo)收購(gòu)的Summly、最近幾個(gè)月雙雙被谷歌(Google)收購(gòu)的Waze和Deepmind，以及引領(lǐng)可穿戴技術(shù)的少數(shù)幾家初創(chuàng)企業(yè)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(xiàn)有投資者向周凱旋(Solina Chau)引薦該公司之后，李嘉誠(chéng)加大了對(duì)科技行業(yè)的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)資本投資。周凱旋是李嘉誠(chéng)的商業(yè)伙伴和知己，她執(zhí)掌著李嘉誠(chéng)基金會(huì)(Li Ka-shing Foundation)，這是一家旨在為教育和醫(yī)療項(xiàng)目融資、規(guī)模達(dá)到80多億美元的慈善信托基金。
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(chéng)分別在2007年末和2008年初向Facebook投資了6000萬(wàn)美元。這些投資獲得了成功，當(dāng)Facebook于2012年上市時(shí)，李嘉誠(chéng)至少獲得了5倍的投資回報(bào)。李嘉誠(chéng)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(shí)了維港投資(Horizons Ventures)投資初創(chuàng)企業(yè)的想法。同樣由周凱旋運(yùn)營(yíng)的維港投資，除了依然持有Facebook股份以外，還已拿出逾3.5億美元投資于50多家不同的初創(chuàng)企業(yè)。
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(guò)去兩年內(nèi)，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(chuàng)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(gè)項(xiàng)目中，大多位于美國(guó)或者以色列。那么一家香港機(jī)構(gòu)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(kāi)合作的一位亞洲銀行家表示，對(duì)Facebook的投資使維港創(chuàng)建了一個(gè)品牌，這有助于吸引那些搜尋財(cái)務(wù)后臺(tái)的初創(chuàng)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(guó)西海岸，當(dāng)我談起李嘉誠(chéng)和維港投資時(shí)，人人都知道這個(gè)基金，而且人們認(rèn)為它代表著質(zhì)量和成功。但如果我說(shuō)起（全球最大的投資基金之一）韓國(guó)國(guó)家養(yǎng)老基金(Korea National Pension Fund, NPF)，人們會(huì)一臉茫然地看著我。”
“Early stage companies want these quality backers because it means other investors will then do less due diligence,” he adds.
他補(bǔ)充稱：“處于創(chuàng)業(yè)初期的公司希望獲得這些優(yōu)質(zhì)基金的支持，因?yàn)檫@意味著其他投資者將會(huì)減少盡職調(diào)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(chéng)和維港投資并不搜尋特定的公司，而是識(shí)別那些正在浮現(xiàn)的、需要顛覆性技術(shù)來(lái)解決的社會(huì)和行業(yè)趨勢(shì)。它們還應(yīng)當(dāng)在中國(guó)具有發(fā)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(chéng)和周凱旋在投資Skype之前就已涉足科技行業(yè)的投資。除了李嘉誠(chéng)的上市企業(yè)集團(tuán)和記黃埔(Hutchison Whampoa)旗下的多個(gè)電信業(yè)務(wù)以外，這兩人還在北京共同創(chuàng)辦了自己的在線中文媒體公司——Tom集團(tuán)(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.
兩人希望投資于新技術(shù)，但不想顯得與各自持有大額股份、在香港上市的Tom集團(tuán)發(fā)生競(jìng)爭(zhēng)或沖突。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(fēng)險(xiǎn)資本集團(tuán)不同，因?yàn)樗⒎鞘且粋€(gè)基金。每筆投資都由李嘉誠(chéng)個(gè)人出資，只有當(dāng)這筆投資明顯邁向商業(yè)成功后，它才會(huì)被轉(zhuǎn)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多名雇員從事投資交易，包括長(zhǎng)期效力于和記黃埔的雇員吉拉德•諾維克(Gilad Novik)。諾維克在2010年成為維港投資的首席技術(shù)官，此前他為李嘉誠(chéng)旗下的英國(guó)移動(dòng)通信運(yùn)營(yíng)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(yè)伙伴張培薇(Debbie Chang)一起運(yùn)營(yíng)著維港投資，張培薇促成了周凱旋與李嘉誠(chéng)的第一次見(jiàn)面和之后的升遷，使其從相對(duì)普通的中產(chǎn)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.
出生于1961年的周凱旋在上世紀(jì)80年代與香港首任特首董建華(Tung Chee-hwa)的表妹張培薇成為好友，并一起經(jīng)商。兩人的重大突破出現(xiàn)在上世紀(jì)90年代中期，當(dāng)時(shí)兩人拿下了為董建華的地產(chǎn)集團(tuán)管理20億美元的北京東方廣場(chǎng)(Oriental Plaza)建設(shè)項(xiàng)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(dāng)時(shí)的媒體報(bào)道稱，兩人在該項(xiàng)目上賺了數(shù)百萬(wàn)，但該項(xiàng)目還使得董建華將周凱旋引薦給李嘉誠(chéng)。
Mr Li’s own vast network of business, political and social connections is another big draw for start-ups.
李嘉誠(chéng)自身在商界、政界和社會(huì)上的龐大人脈，也對(duì)初創(chuàng)企業(yè)有著巨大的吸引力。
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(yùn)營(yíng)著最近獲得維港1550萬(wàn)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(chuàng)始人桑尼•烏(Sonny Vu)引薦給李嘉誠(chéng)的。蒂特里克表示：“當(dāng)他開(kāi)始談?wù)摼S港投資，他們之間保持的關(guān)系，以及他們?nèi)绾文軌蛘嬲颇愕纳猓易兊梅浅＜?dòng)。”
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?”
或者正如另一位了解維港投資的人所言：“關(guān)鍵在于他的網(wǎng)絡(luò)。如果李嘉誠(chéng)投資于一家銷(xiāo)售終端機(jī)(POS)企業(yè)，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(zhí)行官交談，你認(rèn)為后者會(huì)拒絕嗎？”
