Official Record
Deal focus: VCs dine on Korea's MangoPlate
Nothing illustrates South Korea's obsession with food better than a new foodie craze called Mukbang.
Deal focus: Qiming sees Tuhu as agent of disruption
When it comes to using technology to disrupt China’s auto industry, private equity and venture capital funding appears to have targeted almost every corner of the space.
Fund focus: InnoSpring builds cross-border bridges
San Francisco's Artisan State faced the classic start-up dilemma: a great idea with no way to make it happen. The firm knew there was demand for professional-quality photo books at affordable prices, but it didn’t have the facilities to produce them....
Fund focus: Shoreline rides the China credit cycle
Ben Fanger, co-founder and managing director at China distress specialist Shoreline Capital, divides credit cycles into four phases: a credit boom or misallocated lending; decelerating growth or credit tightening; the recognition that someone has to take...
Deal focus: Mandarin, Zoomlion team up again in Italy
Having supported Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science & Technology acquisition of Italy’s CompagniaItalianaFormeAcciaio (CIFA) seven years ago, Mandarin Capital Partners (MCP) didn’t hesitate in suggesting that the Chinese construction machinery manufacturer...
Deal focus: RRJ doubles down on e-commerce logistics
When RRJ Capital first committed $250 million to Shanghai Yupei Group in April 2014, Temasek Holdings was its sole partner in the investment. The company had 16 warehouses with a total gross floor area of more than 1.4 million square meters and plans...
Deal focus: Aspada backs India’s agri-tech ‘Uber’
Indian agriculture is woefully inefficient. This is in part due to the extreme fragmentation of land ownership; the UN estimates the average farm holding is 1.6 hectares, or just larger than two football pitches. As a result, the nation’s food producers...
Deal focus: Advantage rings up TeleGuam return
Ties between Japan and the US territory of Guam go back a long way. Much of this is do with their relatively proximity, and the fact Japan held the island during the Second World War. But visitors coming from Japan are much more welcome today. Guam is...
Deal focus: Tata sees logistics angle in India tax reforms
Third-party logistics (3PL) companies have traditionally struggled in India. For example, the country’s fragmented tax system meant that companies moving goods cross-country had to pay multiple tariffs and stop for traffic examination each time they...
Deal focus: Quadrant makes another premium pet play
Quadrant Private Equity's last foray into pet services was relatively short-lived. It bought City Farmers for A$93 million ($84 million) in September 2013 and within 10 months had agreed to sell the business to Greencross for A$205 million in cash and...
Fund focus: Accel, DJI to expand drone ecosystem
Accel Partners' $75 million investment in Chinese drone maker DJI earlier this month - said to value the company at $8 billion - came with an extra component: the two groups agreed to form a $10 million fund that would back other start-ups in the space.
Deal focus: Go Scale out to dominate global LED
Go Scale Capital, a China-based investment fund sponsored by GSR Ventures and Oak Investment Partners, wants to build the world's largest LED company. It has now announced two notable deals in the space, most recently the sale of a majority stake in its...
Deal focus: China's Remix plans to rattle Windows
"Many people look at us and think we're a hardware company. That's actually not accurate," says Jeremy Zhou, co-founder of Beijing-based Jide Technology. "What we really focus on isn't the hardware product but a new operating system (OS) inside the tablet."
Deal focus: Corporate services consolidation play
Each of the world's four largest corporate service providers, which assist with the formation and administration of companies, trusts and funds, has a private equity backer. They are supplying the firepower for a round of consolidation that could see...
Deal focus: CLSA tools up with Astro Products deal
Two years ago CLSA Capital Partners made its maiden investment from Sunrise Capital II, a $210 million Japan-focused fund that launched 16 months earlier. The company was BCN, a used car auction site operator based in Saitama prefecture, which CLSA acquired...
Deal focus: CITIC tries Mark Styler on for size
China's appetite for fashion is massive and growing. A recent report by the Fung Business Intelligence Centre put the country’s apparel retail market at around RMB1.14 trillion ($187 billion) in 2013, up 11.6% from the previous year. China is expected...
Deal focus: Canva’s simple design wins VC support
When Australian entrepreneur Melanie Perkins taught design in schools, she noticed that students struggled when using traditional software such as Adobe Photoshop and InDesign. Clearly there could be a simpler solution.
Deal focus: Warburg Pincus rides with China’s eDaijia
It is estimated that around three shots of soju is sufficient for an adult to attain a blood alcohol content of 0.05% and therefore be in violation of Korea’s laws that prohibit driving while intoxicated. Punishments start at six months in jail or a...
Deal focus: LeapFrog seals debut Indonesia deal
Indonesia's middle class is expected to jump from 70 million in 2012 to more than 140 million by 2020 – representing more than half of the country’s population – according to the Boston Consulting Group. Financial services should benefit from this...
Deal focus: A Sino-French solution to liver disease
Inner Mongolia FuRui Medical Science (FuRui) started out two decades ago as a pure-play drug manufacturer, but then it found its niche developing diagnostic equipment and treatment for liver disease. Looking to bring in overseas technology, it acquired...
Fund focus: Unison hones in on South Korea
Comparisons can be drawn between Unison Capital’s debut Korea buyout fund and its first Japan vehicle raised more than 15 years ago. The targets are small- to mid-size companies that have growth potential but need help realizing it, particularly in...
Deal focus: 2C2P plots regional expansion
Southeast Asia-focused payments provider 2C2P has made substantial progress in Myanmar over the last 12 months. It has introduced the country’s first mobile-based point-of-sale payment solution, issued prepaid cards that link to a mobile app, and launched...
Fund focus: Brandon secures super fund support
With A$78 billion ($61 billion) in assets, AustralianSuper is said to struggle to make fund commitments of less than A$150 million. Yet it is one of several superannuation funds backing Brandon Capital’s latest life sciences VC vehicle, which has closed...
Ticket Monster tools up for e-commerce fight
EBay paid $1.2 billion for a dominant position in Korean online retail in 2009 with the privatization of NASDAQ-listed Gmarket. It was the leading e-commerce marketplace, accounting for KRW3.99 trillion (then $2.6 billion) of the country’s estimated...