Source: Hong Kong Economic Times
According to information on the website of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), "Cool River Venture HK Limited", a fund under the founder of ByteDance, Zhang Yiming, has obtained the SFC's Type 9 - Asset Management license on November 21, 2024, allowing it to conduct asset management business in Hong Kong.
The company was founded by Zhang Yiming, the 2023 Hurun China Rich List's top richest person, the founder of TikTok and Douyin's parent company ByteDance. It was reportedly registered in Hong Kong in May 2023, with Zhang Yiming as the sole director and Galaxy LLC, registered in the Cayman Islands, as the sole shareholder. The fund's main investment focus is on the technology-related industry.
Zhang Yiming has been involved in the technology industry for many years. In May 2021, he stepped down as the CEO of ByteDance, stating in an internal letter that he would "focus on long-term important matters such as strategic vision, corporate culture, and social responsibility", and that "people are more likely to pay attention to changes in business models and brand channels, but rarely notice the brewing technological changes. Life sciences and scientific computing are already showing the dawn of their impact on human life."
In an open letter released in April 2023, Zhang Yiming clearly stated his intention to bet on AI: "I originally thought I could bid farewell to the public eye and influence the mainland's society in a more diversified and potential way, but on November 30, 2022, an 'singularity event' occurred in the technology entrepreneurship field that the media circle or the technology circle could not ignore - OpenAI invested billions of dollars to develop ChatGPT based on the GPT3.5 model, which entered the public view."
This year, ByteDance's investment in AI has been increasing, and it is a full-force bet. According to a report, a relevant person revealed that Zhang Yiming is "willing to spend money on the AI direction". At the same time, ByteDance is also laying out the relevant industry chain.
Recently, ByteDance, Meituan, and Sequoia China jointly completed an investment in a domestic company, with a total investment of more than $10 million, and ByteDance as the lead investor. This investment is one of ByteDance's few large-scale investments this year after its contraction in venture investment business.
