For the past two years, Iris Cong has been a senior investment manager at Bertelsmann Asia Investments (BAI), corporate venturing subsidiary of the media, education and service group. She focuses on investment opportunities in the mobile, consumption, retail, entertainment and education sectors.
Founded in January 2008, BAI manages more than $3bn in funds and takes the boutique route, looking for market leaders, innovative pioneers and trend leaders in early to growth-stage companies. Taking advantage of the group’s global resources and networks, it helps entrepreneurs develop their activities.
BAI said in the nomination of Cong: “Iris has focused on China-based internet group Tencent’s messaging app WeChat’s ecology for many years and has invested in good performance portfolio companies such as WeChat platform service provider See, online video editor MiniCake, mini-game studio Black Room and auto-vehicle solution provider HoloMatic.”
Of Cong’s deals, she feels proudest of MiniCake, a multimedia-album platform that targets users over 50 in the WeChat ecosystem. She said: “The Chinese elderly population was already over 241 million by the end of 2017, but there were few internet products tailored for them. There is a huge potential for development in this market. The company’s performance after the investment actually confirmed my judgment, reaching 80 million users by October 2018.”
Cong was previously a journalist at China-based media company and business services provider 36Kr, which supports technology innovation and entrepreneurship in the country.
