KKR, the alternative investment company whose name has long been synonymous with buyouts, is taking concrete steps into the world of early stage investing.
It is considering plans to raise a $300m Technology, Media and Telecommunications fund for Asia, according to people familiar with the matter, supplementing its $9.3bn Asia buyout fund — one of the region’s largest.
Paul Yang, who spearheads KKR’S transactions in Greater China, will oversee the fund. Early recruits include Karen Zhang, who was responsible for General Atlantic’s tech investments in mainland China and before that managed some of Baidu’s investments out of Beijing, the people add.
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Among Ms Zhang’s recent deals was the acquisition of a stake for GA in Bytedance, China’s biggest unlisted start-up, which is now valued at $ 70bn-$ 80bn and is expected to go public next year.
Joji Philip, founder of Deal Street Asia in Singapore, said that in recent years, “many of the largest international private equity firms have had venture capital envy” as they see their far smaller counterparts make fortunes investing in young tech companies on both sides of the Pacific.
David Rubenstein, co-founder of Carlyle, has publicly mulled over buying a venture capital company in Silicon Valley. Warburg Pincus has put its two heads of tech investing in China in charge of the PE group’s overall business there, in large part because of how lucrative their transactions have proved.
KKR’S diversification into tech comes at a time when many executives see a new receptivity to selling control to financial investors, given the economic slowdown in Asia, stock markets that are losing momentum, weakening currencies and company founders who are nearing retirement.
