Emerging Leaders Q&A – Tony Tung, Gobi Partners

Chibo Tang, a managing partner for Hong Kong-based venture capital firm Gobi Partners, said of Tony Tung: “Tony is a managing director of Gobi Partners. He joined Gobi in 2016 and has helped build out Gobi’s Greater Bay Area practice as the first investment professional in the Hong Kong office.

“Based in Hong Kong, he helps to manage the Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund (AHKEF) and plays an active role in building the local innovation ecosystem in the GBA region. During his tenure in Gobi, he has led or participated in nearly 50 early and growth-stage investments across various industries such as enterprise solutions, fintech, artificial intelligence (AI) and big data, semiconductor, consumer and sustainability. In January 2020, he also helped to realise a full-cash exit of Shopline via strategic acquisition, which represented a 4-times return, and net IRR of over 40%.

“Amongst his key contributions in building the GBA ecosystem, Tony leads all the investment activities for the Hong Kong AI Lab. The HKAI Lab is an accelerator program established in 2018, and is a partnership between the Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund, SenseTime and Hong Kong Science and Technology Park. Through the programme, Tony has screened and coached over 300 entrepreneurs and startups in the AI sector, including AI experts and researchers to help with technology transfer and commercialisation.

“Outside of the HKAI Lab, he also works with the various technology transfer offices and entrepreneurship centres of top universities in Hong Kong, including Hong Kong University, Chinese University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He sits on the assessment panels of these research commercialization funding schemes, providing business advice and consulting to research laboratories and offering business and entrepreneurial training to university students.

“Since 2017, he has also played a key role in JumpStarter, one of the world’s largest international startup platforms, which has attracted the participation of over 900 investors and industry experts, as well as over 5,000 startups from 100-plus cities on five continents around the world. He leads Gobi’s investment team to screen and evaluate all of the competition entrants and drives the investment process for the winners.”

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 have been with Gobi Partners, helping to cover the Greater Bay Area investment opportunities and to manage the global investment activities of the $130m AHKEF for the past four years.

2.What attracted you to CVC?

I am attracted to CVC as it is challenging to deliver both financial return and strategic value at the same time. It is relatively easy to bring strategic value from corporate limited partners (LPs) to startups, but requires extra effort to find startups that can offer strategic value to corporate LPs.

3. What have been your greatest successes at your unit?

My greatest successes have been building the Hong Kong office of Gobi Partners from day one and helping Alibaba to create the Hong Kong startup ecosystem globally through our core VC investment activities, and other community-building initiatives such as JumpStarter and HKAI Lab.

In terms of VC performance, I invested in over 50 startups in multiple verticals in Hong Kong, China, the US, Southeast Asia and the Middle East, including three unicorns (GoGoVan, Welab and Airwallex), and a full cash exit with an IRR of over 40%, in the past four years.

4. What have been your biggest challenges?

It is not easy to nurture a startup ecosystem from scratch and bring global entrepreneurs together into one city. In the past year, we have been flying around the world and connecting with tech entrepreneurs from different industries and geographies and trying to bring them together to form an international entrepreneur community in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area, which has never existed before.

5. What is your main professional ambition for the future?

My ambition is always about technology and entrepreneurship, contributing to the growth engine of our firm and consistently delivering value, beyond financial performance, to our LPs.

6. What do you think all CVCs could do better to make it a stronger industry?

Some say “software is eating the world”, and I say “data is transforming the world’s business rules”. I strongly believe that corporates across different verticals will work together on their VC investment strategies (such as co-investing a themed VC fund or being co-GP), bringing cross-discipline industry expertise and resources, to navigate the ever-evolving digitization of the planet. In Gobi, we have already witnessed similar collaborations between corporates from different geographical markets and this trend will only accelerate.

7. What are some of your corporate parent’s technology needs and corporate strategy amid the pandemic, as well as your CVC unit’s pain points?

Amid the pandemic, people’s interaction started to go more online and we have seen that the new normal has accelerated digitization trends, becoming an unprecedented paradigm shift. We observe that CVCs have increased their emphasis on digitizing the value chain of their core businesses through innovative technology, such as in manufacturing process, distribution channels, supply chain and customer relationship management, product and value delivery, as well as automation of internal business processes. The upcoming trend of enterprise solutions, fintech and API economy is a great example of how not only CVCs but all investors, could capture growth opportunities in the short and medium term.

8. And, finally, for colour, what did you do prior to CVC or in your spare time?

I used to be a tech entrepreneur and started two companies: one in financial data and another one in e-commerce data. In my spare time, I read books, do filming, play volleyball and table tennis, go sailing, and brainstorm new business opportunities with entrepreneurs and LPs.