平安成立基金投资全球金融和医疗保健技术

Ping An is launching a $1bn fund to invest in financial and healthcare technology globally in a sign of the Chinese insurance group’s desire to expand its brand and business outside its home market.

中国平安(Ping An)将推出一支10亿美元的基金，投资全球金融和医疗保健技术。这一迹象表明，这家中国保险集团渴望将其品牌和业务拓展至本土市场之外。

The insurer, the world’s largest by market capitalisation and fourth largest by total assets, has been building a reputation for tech investing in related fields, most notably developing Lufax, the Chinese wealth management platform valued at $19bn and Good Doctor, the health app worth $3bn in a 2016 funding round.

平安是全球市值最大、总资产第四大的保险公司。它一直在打造在相关领域开展科技投资的声誉，其中最令人瞩目的，是开发了估值190亿美元的中国理财平台陆金所(Lufax)、以及在2016年一轮募资中估值30亿美元的保健应用平安好医生(Good Doctor)。

The new fund, named Global Voyager, will be headed by Jonathan Larsen, an 18-year veteran of Citigroup, who also becomes the Ping An group’s chief innovation officer.

这支名为平安全球领航基金(Global Voyager)的新基金，将由罗中恒（Jonathan Larsen，见上图）主管。他是一名曾在花旗集团(Citigroup)供职18年的资深人士，现还兼任平安集团的首席创新官。

“Ping An is predominantly Chinese but they are at the point where they are interested in looking at expansion opportunities and this fund potentially provides a way of accessing these,” he said. “We think there’s a very substantial opportunity here.”

他说：“平安的主要落脚点在中国，但他们正处于有意寻找扩张机遇的节点，该基金可能会提供获得这类机遇的途径。我们认为这方面存在巨大的机会。”

Mr Larsen was most recently global head of Citi’s retail banking operations where he led many of the bank’s digital innovations such as voice biometrics for authenticating customers, which launched in Asia before a global roll-out.

平安这支新基金的初始规模为10亿美元，罗中恒预期三四年内这10亿美元会全部投出。投资对象从处于早期阶段的初创企业，到准备扩大规模的企业。

Ping An’s new fund will begin with $1bn that Mr Larsen expects to be fully invested in three to four years. Investments will range from early-stage start-ups to ventures ready to scale up, either from stand-alone financing or from being adopted by the insurer itself.

罗中恒表示：“平安拥有大量资源，我们在这方面有充分的考虑。这家公司的发展动力是有机的，其传统的基础业务产生了巨大的现金流。”