Cheetah Mobile, a China-based developer of mobile and internet security software majority-owned by software provider Kingsoft, has launched a $3m seed fund, according to Tech in Asia.
The fund will target Taiwan-based startups and is modelled on angel investors in Silicon Valley, with Cheetah specifically citing accelerator Y Combinator as an inspiration. It will support startups financially and also provide guidance through the early stages.
Cheetah will identify startups which complement its own product suite of security, anti-virus and junk file management apps, and will give developers access to its promotional system where they can get exposure to its 340 million users.
Details about the size of individual investments or how big a stake, if any, Cheetah will take have not yet been disclosed.
Cheetah was spun out of Kingsoft in 2009 and its stakeholders include TCH Copper, a subsidiary of internet company Tencent, investment bank Core-Pacific Yamichi, investment vehicle Fax Vision and private equity firm Matrix Partners.
Fu Sheng, chief executive of Cheetah, said: “If you go to any cafe in Zhongguancun in Beijing, or [the] CBD in Shenzhen, you will immediately hear people discussing startups and investments and dreams. In a cafe in Taipei, you will rarely hear this.
“Taipei lacks this energy and investment environment. So even if Taiwanese youth have dreams, how can they be fearless? There needs to be a base for fearlessness.”