The corporate revealed it has backed 600 companies, more than 100 of which achieved $1bn-plus valuations, and it will now move further into industry-based deals.
Internet group Tencent has invested a total of RMB100bn ($14.4bn) in more than 600 companies, more than 100 of which are unicorns, with a $1bn valuation, DealStreetAsia reported today.
Tencent operates a wide-ranging ecosystem concentrated on its WeChat and QQ messaging platforms that mainly takes in gaming and consumer mobile services. It has been one of the most active corporate venturers in recent years, both in deal numbers and size.
The figure was disclosed by Zhan Wei Biao, managing director of investments for Tencent, at the corporate’s Tencent Global Partner Conference. In addition to the existing figures, he revealed that Tencent is looking to expand its investment strategy.
Tencent will look to strengthen its investment presence in areas covering technologies like education, smart retail, corporate finance, automotive services and software that can help automate and digitalise traditional industries.
The shift will take place as part of a larger restructuring process that will involve Tencent leveraging technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data and cloud computing in order to move into industry-focused areas like healthcare and autonomous cars. Its market cap dropped by some $220bn between January this year and early October.
The 100 unicorns include ride hailing services Didi Chuxing and Go-Jek, local services platform Meituan Dianping, e-commerce marketplace Flipkart and game studio Epic Games.
The corporate has also backed more than 50 media companies through the Topic fund it set up in November 2017, according to Hou Xiaonan, vice-president of its mobile internet division.
