[99-11-02] Asian Java Fund Finances Singapore Start-Ups
By Michelle Phoon, IT Daily.
HONG KONG, CHINA,
02 Nov 1999, 11:06 PM CST
Asian Java Fund Finances Singapore Start-Ups 11/02/99 HONG KONG, CHINA, 1999 NOV 2 (NB) -- By Michelle Phoon, IT Daily. The new Asian Java Fund will see at least 15 percent of its funding going to Singaporean companies, according to the venture capital firm managing the fund, AsiaTech Ventures.
James Yao, executive director at AsiaTech explained on Tuesday that it was mainly to satisfy the Singapore government's National Computer Board, which is the driving force behind the fund.
However, he added, "This does not mean we will invest no more than 15 percent." He was not prepared to give a figure for the Hong Kong market.
In the announcement on Tuesday, two companies were named as the fund's first Hong Kong recipients. They are Chinese community portal Renren.com, at renren.com , and online trading developer QuotePower.
Ted Sze, managing director of QuotePower would not give the amount that it was receiving in funding, but said it would be in the millions of Hong Kong dollars.
Other technology developers contributing to the fund include Richard Li's Pacific Century Cyberworks, as well as property developer Sun Hung Kai Properties. Other supporting technology giants are Japan's Fujitsu and NTT DoCoMo, telecommunication providers Cable & Wireless HKT and Singapore Telecom as well as the Singapore government's Technopreneurship Investment Fund of Singapore; venture capital firm Nomura/JAFCO Investment (Asia) (NJI) and Japanese trading company Mitsui and Co.
Java founder Sun Microsystems has invested US$3 million in the fund.
AsiaTech would not share the exact amount that each were investing, but said that between Japan, Greater China and the Southeast Asia it was roughly one-third of the HK$375 million ($48.26 million) fund per region.
"We are not looking for additional investors," said Yao.
Hanson Cheah, executive director for AsiaTech Ventures said that the object of AsiaTech was to bring "young start-up companies and take them to the peak" as AsiaTech logo shows the two Chinese words, beginning and peak.
The organization already handles HK$522 million ($67.17 million) in funds.
The Java Fund started in the US and was managed by Kleiner Perkins, but this US-based venture group did invest overseas.
Sun Microsystems took the idea to the NCB in Singapore in order to help spread the Java message in the Asia Pacific region. The fund is open to any company which develops Java applications for use in the Asian market.
The first organization to receive funding is BizTone, a Malaysian firm that specializes in providing Internet based service applications.
Miko Matsumura Sun's former Java evangelist and now president of US operations for the company said that the fund would be especially successful in Asia due to the fact that Silicon Valley engineers are paid much more than software engineers in Asia.
Matsumura was positive that the fund would be very successful, by providing a "small amount of force" and achieve a "billion dollar momentum".
The fund is expected to grow by 30 to 40 percent annually, said Cheah, adding, "we hope to do much better than that".
Exchange Rate: $1 = HK$7.77
Reported By Newsbytes.com, newsbytes.com
23:06 CST
(19991102/WIRES ASIA, PC, ONLINE/)
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