Melbourne consultancy launches $50 million fund to connect wealthy Chinese investors with “offbeat startups”

A Melbourne-based wealth management firm and consultancy is setting up a $50 million fund to link high net-worth Chinese investors with “offbeat startups” in Australia.

BMY Group, led by co-founders Eric Gao and Julius Wei, has already raised $10 million at launch and is expecting to close the round in mid-2017.

The duo says there is a growing appetite among Chinese investors to diversify their portfolios from traditional asset classes like property, which is in turn forging new interest in startups and high-growth ventures.

“There is a huge misconception in Australia that wealthy Chinese are only interested in buying property,” says Gao.

“Young investors want to take on more risk.

“They are already on the hunt for new business ideas to support and this new fund will simply facilitate this.”

This fund will target pre-IPO companies in industries like consumer goods and clean technology.

BMY Group is also planning to launch a second startup fund in 2017 aimed at early-stage ventures.

“We want to provide our clients with opportunities already available to Australian investors, as well as give them a more local insight into what they are actually investing in,” says Wei.

This article was first published by StartupSmart.