Trade organisation Electronic World Trade Platform (EWTP) has launched a $600m investment fund featuring e-commerce group Alibaba and its financial services affiliate Ant Financial as anchor investors, China Daily reported on Wednesday.
EWTP was first proposed by Alibaba co-founder and chairman Jack Ma in 2016 to help lower trade barriers and support the expansion of small and medium-sized enterprises’ international activities by helping them operate online.
The EWTP Technology and Innovation Fund will seek to invest in companies expanding internationally and will support technology startups across the world. Alibaba will provide expertise on logistics, payment and e-commerce.
The fund will also identify projects closely related to the Belt and Road Initiative, a Chinese government policy that seeks to strengthen economic ties throughout Eurasia.
Yu Yongfu was revealed as founding partner and chairman of the EWTP Fund in November 2017 having previously served as chairman of Alibaba’s Digital Entertainment Group. EWTP opened its first hub outside China, in Malaysia, the same month.
Yu said: “The vision of our EWTP Fund is to redefine “local” by eliminating barriers to global expansion for local companies.”