This article is part of Tech in Asia’s partnership with The Jay Kim Show where we publish the revised transcripts from the show’s podcast interviews with top entrepreneurs. This is heavily revised from the original show transcripts. For the full interview, go here.
Click Ventures is an early-stage VC fund that invests in tech startups around the world. It was recently recognized among the top 10 early-stage VC funds in Hong Kong by the Hong Kong Economic Journal.
I sat with the firm’s managing partner, Chris Fisher, to talk about how Click Ventures evaluates entrepreneurs, the verticals they’re interested in, and his opinion on today’s valuations.
Chris Fisher, managing partner at Click Ventures
How did you get into venture capital?
I was doing direct investing early in my career. I was also a CIO at a large conglomerate in the US. Then, I spent about 10 years doing M&As for the Hong Kong company that acquired that conglomerate.
On the side, I was doing some angel investing because I really enjoyed working with early-stage companies. In 2014, I started to see more and more interesting deals in Hong Kong and Asia, so I gradually focused toward full-time angel investing.
Carmen Chan, the founder of Click Ventures, was a person I frequently invested with. The fund was growing nicely and had good deal flow when I decided to join about a year ago.
How did Click Ventures start?
Carmen is a successful entrepreneur, with a couple of good exits. She started angel investing about seven years ago and has since had some success.
She started taking in money from her friends and family, then she eventually brought in some corporate investors and institutional money, raising the second and third funds. I joined for the third fund.
Carmen has basically invested in about 30 portfolio companies over the previous two funds.
What are some of the things that you guys specifically look at?
We’re sector-agnostic because we look for a very specific business model that conforms well with our expertise and the resources that we can bring in to actively help the company.
We’re especially strong in data (e.g. data analytics, big data, etc.). We have data science skills that we can bring to bear. We also have a lot of experience in understanding metrics, ecommerce, and promoting things online.
Is Click Ventures a hands-on or hands-off fund?
It’s quite situational. I think a lot of VCs are generally relatively lazy. They just want to put their money in, make sure to back a really great entrepreneur, be available if the entrepreneur needs something, and basically let the entrepreneur run their business. We’re more on that side of the spectrum. We’re here to help when we’re needed.
When problems arise, we may become a little more active. But in general, we’re pretty flexible in how we work with the team.
How do you determine how much and which stage to get involved?
What is your due diligence process like?
Any verticals that you are excited about?
Valuations these days are a bit frothy. Do they worry you at all?
Jay Kim
