亚洲科技初创公司成投资者新宠

Asian Tech Start-Ups Quietly Earn Backing
亚洲科技初创公司成投资者新宠

HONG KONG ― The rise of a mobile software company from nothing to a $1 billion valuation in just over a year from its first product release would typically draw rapt attention, and jealousy, inside Silicon Valley.

香港――在第一个产品发布仅一年多以后，一家移动软件公司就从一无所有变成了一家估值10亿美元的企业。通常情况下，这样一家公司肯定会在硅谷内引起广泛的关注和嫉妒。

Yet the Apus Group, one company with such a stratospheric rise, is largely unknown in Silicon Valley. That is because the company is based more than 6,000 miles away, in China.

然而，硅谷却基本没人知道发展速度如此之快的互联网公司Apus(Apus Group)。这是因为这家公司远在6000多英里以外的中国。

Across Asia, investments in technology start-ups have escalated at the same swift pace and to the same heights as in the United States. In the first six months of this year, 46 Asian start-ups, including Apus, have had fund-raising rounds of $100 million or more, just short of the 48 in North America, according to the research firm CB Insights.

在整个亚洲，针对科技初创企业的投资在以与美国一样的速度和规模增加。根据调研公司CB Insights统计，今年上半年，Apus等46家亚洲初创企业已经获得了至少 1 亿美金的投资，该数字与北美今年上半年 48 家初创公司获得的投资规模相比，差距已十分有限。

The focus of investors in Asia ― China and India in particular ― reflects an increasingly decentralized reality in global technology investment. Asian banks, private equity firms, venture capital funds and hardware and Internet giants are all willing to invest in domestic start-ups. And American investors are increasingly willing to back Asian players with advantages in their home markets.

亚洲投资者――尤其是中国和印度投资者――的关注点，反映了国际科技投资领域日益加剧的去中心化趋势。亚洲的银行、私募股权公司、风投基金，以及硬件和互联网巨头，都愿意投资国内的初创企业。美国投资者也越来越愿意支持在国内市场有优势的亚洲企业。

The turmoil in China’s stock market in recent weeks, though, raises new questions about whether the pace of investments will continue. The sharp rise of stocks in China over the previous year helped support many of the big fund-raising rounds. But the steep fall over the past month could keep large Chinese investors and private equity firms away from big rounds because of difficulties with other investments.

然而，中国股市最近几周的暴跌，对这种投资速度是否能够持续提出了新的疑问。去年，中国股市的暴涨为许多大型融资提供了支持。但是，由于其他投资所面临的困难，股市上个月的暴跌可能会使重要的中国投资者和大型私募股权公司，回避大宗的融资环节。

Last week, the Chinese ride-hailing app Didi Kuaidi said it had raised $2 billion in two weeks when the stock markets were at their worst. The company originally set out to raise $1.5 billion, but it received so much interest, it was able to raise an extra $500 million.

上周，中国打车应用滴滴快的表示，公司在两周内筹得20亿美元，而当时正是股市情况最糟的时候。滴滴快的原计划融资15亿美元，但是因为很多机构都对它颇感兴趣，公司才额外筹集了5亿美元。

Kai-Fu Lee, chief executive of the start-up incubator Innovation Works and a former vice president at Google, predicted that the downturn would not halt the big investments, even if there were some hiccups. He said even if valuations decreased a bit, any downturn would be cushioned by the large number of investors coming from America, and because many of China’s biggest tech stocks like Alibaba were listed on American stock exchanges.

创业孵化器创新工场(Innovation Works)首席执行官、前谷歌(Google)副总裁李开复认为，股市的暴跌不会阻止大笔融资，尽管中间会出现一些困难。他表示，就算估值缩水了一些，来自美国的大量投资者也会为这些下跌提供缓冲，而且中国最大的许多科技企业的股票都是在美国的交易所上市的，如阿里巴巴等公司。

“Also, top funds still have plenty of venture capital,” Mr. Lee said, “so good tech companies will continue to be able to demand fair valuation.”

“此外，顶级基金还持有充足的风险资本，”李开复说，“所以好的科技企业可以继续索取合理的估值。”

China and India have two of the world’s largest smartphone markets, and investors are particularly interested in finding ways to make money from these giants. Small hardware companies that use their knowledge of China’s electronics supply chain to make sensors and novel devices like drones are also drawing attention ― realms of technology not yet dominated by the current power players in the industry, namely Apple, Google and Microsoft.

中国和印度是世界上最大的两个智能手机市场，如何在这两个潜力巨大的市场中挖到金矿，是目前投资者最感兴趣的事情。一些小型硬件企业也吸引了人们的注意，它们凭借自己对中国电子产品供应链的了解，来制造传感器和无人机等新颖设备，而这些领域还没有被苹果(Apple)、谷歌和微软(Microsoft)等行业巨擘垄断。

“There are maybe two or three global platform players that are the exception, and most opportunities are Balkanized,” said Fritz Demopoulos, an investor and founder of the travel site Qunar.com. “The Chinese, the Indians, the Indonesians can all raise money to exploit chances within their respective markets.”

“除了大概两三个在全球性的平台上运作的企业之外，大多数投资机会都分散在不同的市场，”旅游网站“去哪儿”的投资者兼创始人弗里兹・泽莫普洛斯(Fritz Demopoulos)说。“中国人、印度人、印度尼西亚人都可以得到融资，在他们各自的市场里寻找机会。”

The huge homegrown Internet companies Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent ― each is one of the world’s 10 largest Internet companies by market capitalization ― have set the pace in major investments. All three have spent billions over the last two years making strategic investments and acquiring smaller companies that complement their core businesses within China.

百度、阿里巴巴和腾讯等巨型本土互联网企业――从市值来看，它们都属于世界十大互联网企业――决定了大型投资的步调。过去两年，这三家企业已斥资数十亿用于战略投资，并收购了一些规模较小的企业，以补充它们在中国境内的核心业务。

Twice as many Chinese investors have participated in $100 million or larger fund-raising rounds in China than American investors have in China. Already, that money has helped numerous start-ups reach valuations of $1 billion or more; these companies are now called unicorns. In 2014, 13 new unicorns were created by private investment in Asia compared with 30 in North America, according to CB Insights. So far this year, Asia has generated 11 unicorns to North America’s 19.

在中国，参与1亿美元及以上规模融资的中国投资者数量，是美国投资者的两倍。这些资金已经帮许多初创企业达到了10亿美元及以上的估值；这些企业目前被称作“独角兽”。根据CB Insights的统计数据，2014年，亚洲的私人投资缔造了13家新的独角兽企业，而北美为30家。今年到目前为止，亚洲共产生11家独角兽企业，北美为19家。

“Industries that will be huge are e-commerce and the sharing economy, and you’ve got people writing huge checks in order to be big players in the years to come,” said William Bao Bean, a partner at SOSventures and managing director of Chinaccelerator, which invests in and mentors software start-ups.

风投公司SOS创投(SOSventure)合伙人、中国加速(Chinaccelerator)董事总经理宾威廉(William Bao Bean)说，“前景广阔的行业是电子商务和分享经济，人们开出巨额支票，为的就是在未来几年成为强大的竞争者。”中国加速为软件初创企业提供投资和指导。

The rise of the Apus Group illustrates how the market has been working.

Apus的崛起印证了这个市场一直以来是如何运作方式的。

Within three months of the July 2014 release of the company’s original app ― which works as a skin, or visual interface, that makes the Android operating system easier and more efficient to use ― the company had 40 million downloads, many from users in countries like Indonesia where users of cheap Android phones sought out the software to improve their phones’ functionality.

2014年7月，公司发布了最初的应用，这款应用能给 Android 手机更换皮肤，或是提供互动的视觉特效，使得Android系统的更易于操作。这款应用推出三个月内，下载量就达到了4000万，许多下载者都是印度尼西亚等国的用户。在那些国家，廉价的Android手机用户，希望能用这个软件增强手机的功能。

With the increasing pace of adoption, Li Tao, Apus Group’s founder and a first-time entrepreneur, looked to raise money. He talked to a dozen major investors within 45 days and ended up raising $100 million from three venture capital firms with a speed and ease that surprised even Mr. Li.

随着下载量增加，Apus的创始人、初次创业的李涛打算融资。45天里，他接触了十几家大型投资方，最终从三家风投公司筹得1亿美元。连李涛本人都对融资的速度和轻松程度感到吃惊。

Today, more than 200 million people use Apus apps, which now include a mobile browser and a flashlight, along with the app that improves the performance of a user’s phone.

如今，已经有超过 2 亿人正在使用 Apus 系列应用。除了能改善用户手机性能的应用之外，还包括一款移动浏览器和一款手电筒应用。

In India, the two largest investments were made by the American hedge fund Tiger Global Management and the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. Alibaba and its finance affiliate Ant Financial invested $575 million in the Indian mobile commerce company One97, while Tiger made a $500 million investment in India’s leading e-commerce site, Flipkart. Tiger Global has yet to make an investment in the United States this year and has focused 82 percent of its new investments in India at companies in their early stages, according to a June report from CB Insights.

在印度，规模最大的两笔投资分别来自美国的老虎全球基金(Tiger Global Management)和中国电商巨头阿里巴巴。阿里巴巴及其从事金融业的附属公司蚂蚁金服，向印度移动商务公司One97注入了5.75亿美元，老虎基金则为印度领先的电商网站Flipkart提供了5亿美元的投资。CB Insights公司6月的报告显示，老虎基金今年还没有对美国做出过投资，而它在印度新做出的投资中，82%都流向了起步阶段的企业。

“India is one of the youngest countries, and their mobile penetration is low,” said Michael Dempsey, an analyst for CB Insights. “With more than a billion people, why wouldn’t it be one of the next major tech hubs? That’s what investors are thinking.”

“印度是比较年轻的国家之一，其移动设备使用率比较低，” CB Insights分析师迈克尔・邓普西(Michael Dempsey)说。“这里有10多亿人，那么它为什么不能成为下一批主要科技中心中的一个？这就是投资者的想法。”

Though many in China agree that this environment has inflated the prices of some start-ups, few are worried about any sort of bubble, at least so far.

尽管在中国许多人都同意，目前的环境使得一些初创公司的估值过高，但很少有人担心这些泡沫，至少目前是这样。

Neil Shen, a founding and managing partner of Sequoia Capital China ― which has been one of the most active venture capital investors in China over the last six months ― likened the current situation to that of 15 years ago, when he founded the online travel site Ctrip in China. At the time, he said, many investors put money into companies that failed, and yet out of that period came giants like Tencent and Alibaba, and other smaller businesses like the online media company Sina and the gaming company Shanda.

过去半年，红杉资本中国基金(Sequoia Capital China)一直是中国最活跃的风投机构之一。红杉中国创始及执行合伙人沈南鹏(Neil Shen)认为，目前的情况与15年前很类似――他那时在中国创立了旅游网站携程。他说，当时有许多投资者把钱投进了失败的公司，但那个时期产生了腾讯和阿里巴巴等大型企业，以及在线媒体企业新浪和游戏公司盛大等规模较小的企业。

“I don’t think you can avoid bubbles when people are all enthusiastic about the segment. It’s the process of natural selection,” Mr. Shen said, adding that investors and companies that are not sufficiently wise, no matter how well funded, naturally fail.

“既然人们都对这个领域热情高涨，我认为出现泡沫也在所难免。这是自然选择的过程，”沈南鹏说。他还表示，对于那些不够明智的投资者和企业，不管拿到多少投资，最后都会一败涂地。

He says he finds good reason to continue investing.

但他说，有很好的理由继续投资。