Brief: Chinese insurance giant eyes global tech investments with $1b fund

Photo credit: 401k.

The news:

• Chinese insurance giant Ping An is launching a US$1 billion global fund to invest in financial and healthcare tech, reports the Financial Times.
• The fintech and healthcare interest is because Ping An runs Lufax, China’s biggest peer-to-peer lending platform, and has an interest in Good Doctor, a popular medical app.
• Jonathan Larsen, a veteran of Citigroup, will head the fund – dubbed Global Voyager – and becomes Ping An’s chief innovation officer.

Why it matters:

• Ping An is the world’s largest insurer in terms of valuation – and the fourth in terms of assets. It’s part of an escalating series of overseas moves by huge Chinese companies, from Jack Ma’s Alibaba to search engine firm Baidu.
• “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,” Larsen told the paper. “We think there’s a very substantial opportunity here.”
• The sizeable fund will have an impact on startups working in two of the hottest tech niches.