GIC sees China as Silicon Valley's equal

(Mar 23): After hitting pay dirt with investments in Alibaba Group Holding and Xiaomi, Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC is giving China as much attention as it does Silicon Valley in the search for the next big thing in tech.

Valuations for some tech companies globally may be too high but the ability to discern that differentiates a good investor from an average one, Chief Executive Officer Lim Chow Kiat said in an interview. GIC invested in Alibaba before its 2014 IPO -- the stock has since almost tripled -- and also backs smartphone maker Xiaomi, which plans to go public this year with a valuation of as much as US$100 billion ($131.5 billion).

"It’s so impressive in China that we give it equal attention in terms of our team,” Jeremy Kranz, head of the technology investment group at GIC, said in the same interview on Tuesday. In recent years, GIC’s investment in growth-stage tech startups range from "on one extreme single-digit millions and on the other extreme, single-digit billions," he said.

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