Q&A with Angela Wang, vice-president, Ping An Global Voyager Fund
Donald Lacey, chief investment officer for China-headquartered insurer Ping An’s Voyager Partners and Global Voyager Fund, said of Angela Wang, an investment vice-president at the fund: “Angela joined us almost three years ago and was one of the very first hires I made at the fund. She has been an absolute standout for us.
“She is a vice-president at Ping An Global Voyager, where she focuses on building connectivity between the entire Ping An ecosystem and Global Voyager portfolio companies. The reason promising new companies find Global Voyager a desirable investment partner lies in our ability to deliver Ping An – and China – to them, so Angie’s work is critical to the success of our fund.
“In the past year, Angie has been responsible for a lot of very cool initiatives with our portfolio companies that have created a lot of tangible value for those businesses. To give a few examples: she led an initiative to host H2O.ai, a machine learning as a service company we invested in last year, locally in China on Ping An Cloud, opening up a vast new market for H2O.ai.
“She also led a project to expose Ping An OneConnect’s world-leading automotive claims AI SDK in Europe, so that some of our portfolio companies in the insurtech space there could start to use it. Each of these projects requires a ton of cross-cultural coordination, navigation of complex bureaucracy, and working through various legal and regulatory issues. Angie handles all of these matters with a deft touch and has been a key success factor in establishing Global Voyager’s reputation in the market.
“Angie has a bachelor’s degree from the Beijing Institute of Technology and an MBA from York University in Canada. Before joining us, she was an engineer at Hitachi and also worked at Bank of Montreal, making her fluent in both technology and finance.”
1. First, just give us a quick overview of who you work for, what you do, and how long you have been doing it.
I work for Ping An Global Voyager Fund as an investment VP. Ping An Global Voyager Fund is the corporate venture capital (CVC) arm of Ping An Insurance Group, the largest insurance company in the world by market capitalisation.
Global Voyager mainly invests in growth-stage companies globally in fintech and healthtech, and since its inception in 2017 has deployed $300m across 17 companies.
At Global Voyager, I am part of the fintech investment team and my responsibilities not only include pre-investment deal sourcing, deal screening, due diligence, investment committee communication and deal closing but also cover post-investment implementation of strategic initiatives between portfolio companies and Ping An’s various business units.
I have been working at Voyager Fund for nearly three years.
2. What attracted you to CVC?
At Global Voyager, we have been able to leverage Ping An Group’s reputation and unique positioning as a technology pioneer in financial services to attract good investment opportunities. Ping An’s subject matter experts across various sectors have been our valued assets in evaluating investment opportunities. More importantly, we have been able to build strategic relationships between Ping An and our portfolio companies, and generate significant strategic value for them.
3. What have been your greatest successes at your unit?
I was heavily involved and led the team effort to invest in a Beijing-based AI medical image recognition company named Airdoc. Since our investment, I built the connection between the company and Ping An’s life insurance business unit, and worked extensively to re-invent a business model that fits the insurance use case scenario, which has grown to become one of the major revenue streams for the company. In the future, it is also possible for the company to replicate this model with other insurers. The company is now in the process of the next round of fundraising and has received abundant interest from reputable investors.
4. What have been your biggest challenges?
Technology advancements in fintech and enterprise software space have accelerated in recent years. As a VC investor, I need to always keep up to date with the latest findings, trends and developments. It has been a challenge, but it has also been the biggest excitement. I have been fortunate to be always learning new things on this job.
5. What is your main professional ambition for the future?
I started my journey as a VC investor at Global Voyager at the beginning of 2018, and have been involved in a number of deals since then. Some of the portfolio companies have grown and raised subsequent financing rounds. In the future, I hope to be a long-term friend and supporter of portfolio companies. I would like to learn from them, grow with them, contribute to them, and succeed together with them.
6. What do you think all CVCs could do better to make it a stronger industry?
I believe each CVC has its unique investment approach and strategy, and many of the CVCs have been very successful in achieving their goals, be it financial returns or strategic objectives. CVCs commands highly valuable corporate resources, which can be utilized to help their portfolio companies: examples include shared learning, strategic collaboration and brand recognition. I think there is potential for all CVCs to further create value out of such resources, and make CVCs more appealing to good companies.
7. And, finally, for colour, what did you do prior to CVC or in your spare time?
In my spare time, I appreciate independent artists especially in contemporary art and close-up magic. One of my aspirations is to help promote those art forms and contribute to the community.
