【英语财经】中科招商4亿美元投资美国初创企业 $400m of China seed money set aside for US

A group of China private equity investors set aside $400m to pour into early investments in new US businesses, marking a large rise in the amount of capital chasing seed investments.

The investment vehicle represents a step up from an earlier $25m fund raised to back investments through AngelList, an internet-based service for organising seed investments.

Interest in backing high-growth tech start-ups has brought large amounts of money to established private companies that have proved they have a workable model.

But it has been harder for outsiders to get in on the newest business ideas at the earliest stage.

Seed investments are usually done in amounts of less than $1m, and are made by individuals, known as angels, making it hard for institutional investors with more capital to get involved.

The total amount of seed-stage investments in the US last year was $1.33bn, according to research firm CB Insights, though that was still up about 50 per cent from the year before.

Naval Ravikant, AngelList founder, said the availability of much larger amounts of money was a result of the excess liquidity in financial markets.

The new fund is almost twice as big as the $205m that has been invested through AngelList in the past two years.

AngelList said it was led by China Science and Merchants Capital and included the three biggest private equity investors in China.

Mr Ravikant said it was independent of the online marketplace but was committed to putting the entire amount to work in AngelList investments.

“It’s up to us to make sure it doesn’t create a bubble,” he said of the China investment vehicle.

The fund might have topped $1bn but was capped to limit its impact on the seed market, he said.

一群中国私人股本投资者拿出4亿美元，对新生的美国企业进行早期投资，标志着追逐种子投资的资本数额大幅提升。

这一投资基金意味着在一个早先规模为2500万美元的基金基础上上了一个台阶，后者通过AngelList进行投资。AngelList是一家组织种子投资的互联网服务平台。

投资者对投资高成长性科技创业企业的兴趣，为那些已证明自身模式可行的成熟私人企业吸引来了大笔资金。

但对外部投资者而言，在最早期阶段参与最新商业构想历来难度更大。

种子投资金额通常低于100万美元，投资者主要是被称为“天使投资者”的个人，这令资金量更多的机构投资者难于参与进来。

研究公司CB Insights的数据显示，去年美国的种子阶段投资总额为13.3亿美元，不过，这一金额仍比前年高约50%。

AngelList创始人纳瓦尔?拉维康特(Naval Ravikant)说，更高额种子投资的出现，缘于金融市场的过度流动性。

AngelList创始人纳瓦尔?拉维康特

这只新基金的规模几乎是过去两年里通过AngelList达成的2.05亿美元投资的两倍。

AngelList表示，这只基金由中科招商(CSC)领头，包含中国三个最大的私人股本投资者。

拉维康特表示，这只基金独立于其在线平台，但承诺用全部资金参与AngelList组织的投资项目。

“我们负责确保不引发泡沫，”他在谈起这只中国投资基金时表示。

他说，这只基金本来可能超过10亿美元，但最终其规模受到限制，以控制其对种子投资市场的影响。

译者/何黎