The Top 25: #25 Chibo Tang, Gobi Partners
“Chibo is most definitely a Rising Star. In fact, I would say he is a star already,” said Thomas Tsao, co-founder and managing partner at China-based venture capital firm Gobi Ventures, in his nomination of Chibo Tang.
In Hong Kong, Gobi acts is a general partner for the Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund, a sole-limited partner fund backed by China-based e-commerce company Alibaba. The fund is Alibaba’s HK$1bn ($130m) non-profit organisation which provides capital, mentoring and training to young Hong Kong and Taiwan-based entrepreneurs who intend to launch startups based on Alibaba’s e-commerce platforms.
Tang was promoted in 2018 as the main partner managing this fund and oversees its portfolio of more than 20 investments to date. Gobi, despite being an independent fund manager, has a long history of working closely with corporate investors. Tang said: “Alibaba, UK-based consumer goods producer Unilever, Japan-based electronics manufacturer Sony, Germany-based industrial technology and appliance producer Robert Bosch, US-based computing technology provider IBM, US-based networking equipment producer Cisco are all limited partners in our own traditional venture capital funds.
“However, in Hong Kong, the Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund that we manage has a very different structure and one that is more similar to that of an in-house CVC. The fund is branded Alibaba and portfolio companies have full access to the rest of the Alibaba ecosystem. As such, there are some clear advantages that we as the investment manager can leverage – branding and strategic synergies foremost among these. As an investor competing for the best deals, I am grateful to have access to these resources.”
One of Tang’s notable accomplishments at Gobi is leading its investment in Australia-based cross-border payments technology provider Airwallex. Having achieved unicorn status in late 2018, Airwallex’s latest $80m series B round featured China-based internet group Tencent and VC firms Sequoia Capital China and Hillhouse Capital as investors. He said: “I drove Gobi’s investment to lead Airwallex’s pre-A round in 2016. It now represents a nearly 60-times return.”
In addition, Tang also drove Gobi’s single-largest fund investment in fast fashion retailer Urban Revivo China, later sold to fashion brand Heilan Home in 2017 for a four-times return. He added: “Several investments out of the Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund have also been high profile, including Hong Kong-based unicorns peer-to-peer lending marketplace WeLab and delivery services provider GoGoVan, China-based local champions such as recipe platform DayDayCook, genetic testing services provider Prenetics and virtual reality-based entertainment services technology provider Sandbox VR.”
After Tang completed his undergraduate studies in applied mathematics and economics at Harvard College, he started his career in management consulting at Monitor Group. Tsao, who is also a Harvard alumnus and has known Tang for nearly a decade, recruited him in 2009. During his first eight years at Gobi, Tang was an investment manager in Shanghai investing in the latest technologies and business models in China, before being appointed in 2017 to managing director in Hong Kong.
