评论
打印
In the Autumn of 2007, Facebook was an upstart challenger to the now defunct MySpace.
2007年秋季，Facebook还是一家向MySpace发起挑战的初创企业。
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.
当时社交媒体网络刚刚兴起，但有两笔投资对Facebook的估值达到150亿美元，这让其创始人马克•扎克伯格(Mark Zuckerberg)成为纸面上的亿万富翁。其中一个投资者是微软(Microsoft)，另一个是来自世界另一端的年迈的亿万富翁李嘉诚(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.
李嘉诚是亚洲最富有的大亨之一，其商业帝国涵盖房地产、零售业和港口等各个领域。李嘉诚在投资Facebook之后的投资包括：目前正准备上市的音乐网站Spotify、被苹果(Apple)收购的语音软件Siri、最近被雅虎(Yahoo)收购的Summly、最近几个月双双被谷歌(Google)收购的Waze和Deepmind，以及引领可穿戴技术的少数几家初创企业之一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的一位现有投资者向周凯旋(Solina Chau)引荐该公司之后，李嘉诚加大了对科技行业的风险资本投资。周凯旋是李嘉诚的商业伙伴和知己，她执掌着李嘉诚基金会(Li Ka-shing Foundation)，这是一家旨在为教育和医疗项目融资、规模达到80多亿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.
李嘉诚分别在2007年末和2008年初向Facebook投资了6000万美元。这些投资获得了成功，当Facebook于2012年上市时，李嘉诚至少获得了5倍的投资回报。李嘉诚在投资Facebook之前还投资了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.
这些交易夯实了维港投资(Horizons Ventures)投资初创企业的想法。同样由周凯旋运营的维港投资，除了依然持有Facebook股份以外，还已拿出逾3.5亿美元投资于50多家不同的初创企业。
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.
特别是在过去两年内，维港投资取得了一系列令人瞩目的成功，这让该公司的名字几乎和它投资的那些突破性的高科技初创公司一样出名。
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?
在维港投资的56个项目中，大多位于美国或者以色列。那么一家香港机构是如何参与所有这些交易的？
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.
与该基金展开合作的一位亚洲银行家表示，对Facebook的投资使维港创建了一个品牌，这有助于吸引那些搜寻财务后台的初创公司。
“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.”
这位银行家表示：“在美国西海岸，当我谈起李嘉诚和维港投资时，人人都知道这个基金，而且人们认为它代表着质量和成功。但如果我说起（全球最大的投资基金之一）韩国国家养老基金(Korea National Pension Fund, NPF)，人们会一脸茫然地看着我。”
“Early stage companies want these quality backers because it means other investors will then do less due diligence,” he adds.
他补充称：“处于创业初期的公司希望获得这些优质基金的支持，因为这意味着其他投资者将会减少尽职调查。”
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，李嘉诚和维港投资并不搜寻特定的公司，而是识别那些正在浮现的、需要颠覆性技术来解决的社会和行业趋势。它们还应当在中国具有发展空间。
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.
李嘉诚和周凯旋在投资Skype之前就已涉足科技行业的投资。除了李嘉诚的上市企业集团和记黄埔(Hutchison Whampoa)旗下的多个电信业务以外，这两人还在北京共同创办了自己的在线中文媒体公司——Tom集团(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.
两人希望投资于新技术，但不想显得与各自持有大额股份、在香港上市的Tom集团发生竞争或冲突。因此两人将目光投向海外。
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.
一位熟悉维港投资的人士表示，维港与其他风险资本集团不同，因为它并非是一个基金。每笔投资都由李嘉诚个人出资，只有当这笔投资明显迈向商业成功后，它才会被转交给维港投资。
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.
维港投资有20多名雇员从事投资交易，包括长期效力于和记黄埔的雇员吉拉德•诺维克(Gilad Novik)。诺维克在2010年成为维港投资的首席技术官，此前他为李嘉诚旗下的英国移动通信运营商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.
周凯旋与老友和商业伙伴张培薇(Debbie Chang)一起运营着维港投资，张培薇促成了周凯旋与李嘉诚的第一次见面和之后的升迁，使其从相对普通的中产阶层脱颖而出。
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年的周凯旋在上世纪80年代与香港首任特首董建华(Tung Chee-hwa)的表妹张培薇成为好友，并一起经商。两人的重大突破出现在上世纪90年代中期，当时两人拿下了为董建华的地产集团管理20亿美元的北京东方广场(Oriental Plaza)建设项目的合同。
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.
当时的媒体报道称，两人在该项目上赚了数百万，但该项目还使得董建华将周凯旋引荐给李嘉诚。
Mr Li’s own vast network of business, political and social connections is another big draw for start-ups.
李嘉诚自身在商界、政界和社会上的庞大人脉，也对初创企业有着巨大的吸引力。
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.
乔希•蒂特里克(Josh Tetrick)运营着最近获得维港1550万美元投资的Hampton Creek。他是被一位朋友、同样得到维港支持的Misfits的创始人桑尼•乌(Sonny Vu)引荐给李嘉诚的。蒂特里克表示：“当他开始谈论维港投资，他们之间保持的关系，以及他们如何能够真正助推你的生意，我变得非常激动。”
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维港投资的人所言：“关键在于他的网络。如果李嘉诚投资于一家销售终端机(POS)企业，而这家公司想要与和记黄埔旗下的百佳连锁超市(ParknShop)的首席执行官交谈，你认为后者会拒绝吗？”
