Jack Ma Family Office Invests In $735M Lakestar Fund

This week, European venture capital firm Lakestar announced the closing of its most recent fund. The fund now officially closed with a size of $735M. One of the investors is – allegedly – the single family office of Chinese billionaire Jack Ma. The family office is also part of our list of the largest Asian single family offices.

Lakestar as leading European venture capital investor

Lakestar was founded by Klaus Hommels in 2012. The venture capital firm is one of the most successful European startup investors. Hommels was an early backer of tech firms like Facebook or Skype. Investments of Lakestar include Spotify, Oscar, GetYourGuide or SoFi. Through the new fund, Lakestar is gearing up for the heavily increasing volumes of funding rounds in Europe. A third of the fund will be invested in early-stage ventures, the rest in later rounds of growing startups.

Jack Ma Family Office as an investor in venture capital funds

The largest part of the $735M fund is contributed by Singapore’s national investment fund Temasek. Allegedly, other major investors include the European Investment Fund, German chemical company Henkel and Jack Ma’s family office. Jack Ma is the founder and former CEO of Alibaba, one of the world’s most successful internet and e-commerce companies. Ma’s net worth is estimated at $42.5BN. Jack Ma is an active investor in the startup sphere, through third-party funds like Lakestar, as well as through direct investment. Through his family office Blue Pool Capital, which he runs together with Joe Tsai, he invested $20M in “Rent the Runway” in 2018. Besides that, Ma donates to various philanthropic causes.

Sources
Techcrunch, 01.03.2020
Gründerszene, 01.03.2020
Wikipedia, 01.03.2020
Bady Qb, 01.03.2020