What do Facebook, Spotify, BitPay, Summly and Siri have in common? They all got early stage private-equity backing from Asia’s richest man, Hong Kong’s Li Ka-shing.
The octogenarian multi-billionaire made his money from some of the oldest and simplest businesses going: property and ports – where people live, work and trade, the basics of any economy. But Mr Li’s Horizons Ventures has since 2006 made tens of millions of dollars of investments into some of the most uncertain and novel ideas for businesses around, ranging from the trivial to the frightening.
For instance, his most recent investment is a $3m punt on Bitstrips, a company that simply allows you to create a cartoon character of yourself. He also put a similar amount into Affectiva, one of whose products allows a computer to measure your emotional reaction to advertising.