With more than 9 billion USD In assets under management, GGV Capital is one of the largest and most prominent venture capital firms. The 22-year-old company invests in seed-to-growth startups across multiple sectors, including consumer, internet, enterprise/cloud, and fintech.
This year has been one of the toughest the startup world has ever seen, as it forces investors and founders alike to adapt to a completely different market than 2021.
To better understand GGV’s position in a challenging venture environment, I sat down with managing partner Hans Tung to get his thoughts on the state of investing today, and why he believes it. that “there are more big fintechs under construction” and that raising capital down the ring “isn’t the end of the world.”
“It’s not the end of the world if you go up one round down. The only thing that matters is that in the end you will have a good result.” GGV’s Hans Tung
Principal Robin Li also joined the conversation, sharing why she thinks embedded fintech will play an important role in financial services in the years to come.
As an investor for over two decades, Tung has backed the likes of publicly traded BNPL giant Affirm, real estate fintech Divvy Homes, IDwall, Karat, Rupeek, Mexico’s Stori and Turtlemint. Having gone through a few cycles, Tung is perhaps less worried about the current downturn than some other venture capitalists. Li led Karat Financial and Novo.
[Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.]
Robin Li and Hans Tung of GGV. Image credits: Capital GGV
How has this year been for you as an active fintech investor?
Tung: We are not trying to time the market. So last year we didn’t overinvest. There is a lot of inner push to keep up with others. I think things are going well because we have plenty of dry powder left and more time to consider this year. We also had time to double our existing portfolio. That said, we may have slowed the pace of investment in our global portfolio by about 50% this year compared to last year.
