Tencent has dodged most of China's regulatory crackdown and built an impressive fintech portfolio globally.
There is an elite band of venture investors who have returned more than $100bn in profits from their deals. Ask them who they rate and why always elicits some smart answers.
Their pick often turns to Forest Lin who had taken with Jeffrey Li China-based gaming and internet group Tencent’s corporate venturing portfolio to be valued at nearly $300bn, excluding realisations such as the $16bn of shares in JD.com just before Christmas.
Lin moved just before the pandemic to run as president Tencent’s then-nascent financial technology group and he has been busy ever since (Li stayed as sole general or managing manager of Tencent Plus Partners and became corporate vice-president in summer 2019).
Tencent’s latest deal in this area came just before the new year when it joined a $600m funding round for UK digital bank Monzo, which has about five million customers.
Tencent’s fintech deals include a who’s who…
