Japan-based internet and phone conglomerate SoftBank created headlines last year with the resignation of Nikesh Arora, setting up a $100bn venture fund and the acquisition of UK-listed chip maker Arm for $31.4bn.
Meanwhile, Xuan Chen, managing director of SoftBank’s Hopu-Arm fund, has been targeting its $1bn with state-owned China Investment Corporation a reported cornerstone investor.
Based in Shenzhen, China, Chen spoke at last year’s Global Corporate Venturing Academy in Shanghai and oversees the fund’s activities in China and Arm’s Ecosystem Accelerator.
He joined Arm in 2014 having been at software provider Microsoft since 2004, latterly in business development in China for its Azure cloud platform.
Chen said what attracted him to corporate venturing had been understanding “the strategic direction of the industry and the resources that could help portfolio companies to grow”.
He said he was pleased to have developed Arm’s two platforms in China and looked forward to being the “venture investor helping to grow the next Google”.
Chen, who completed his PhD in computer science from University of Southern California before receiving his MBA from Isenberg School of Management, however, feared the relatively slow decision speed of corporations had been his biggest challenge, even if corporate venturing did bring “strong strategic value, flexibility in execution, and self-sustained operation model” when done well.