The duo sprang from the same era, the late 1990s, when China was discovering the Internet, and for years they built giant businesses more or less out of each other’s way. “For all these similarities, Tencent and Alibaba are sharply distinct companies, as different in culture, style, and approach as Apple is from Google. Finally, both touch an astounding percentage of the world’s most populous country: Alibaba’s various online marketplaces count 552 million active customers Tencent’s WeChat messaging service recently surpassed 1 billion accounts. Each is the pride of their not-quite-first-tier hometowns: Alibaba of the ancient city of Hangzhou near Shanghai and Tencent of shiny-new Shenzhen across the border from Hong Kong. Both are aggressive investors inside and outside China. Both command sectors of the rapidly growing Chinese digital landscape: Tencent owns the leading gaming and messaging platform, while Alibaba rules e-commerce. “ have market capitalizations that hover around half a trillion U.S. My colleague Adam Lashinsky wrote a spectacular feature on the relentless competition between two of the world’s richest and fastest-growing companies. At the summit, Tencent CEO Huateng “Pony” Ma compared his nemesis Alibaba CEO Jack Ma to a greedy landlord, saying that Alibaba’s market-leading Taobao e-commerce site charges merchants listing fees. TENCENT: When I attended Fortune’s Global Forum in Guangzhou last December, one thing was clear - Alibaba and Tencent are locked in a heated rivalry for domination of China’s digital economy. In this case, financing stage and check size matter.ĪLIBABA VS. Armed with a $500 million war chest, the investment bank could write larger checks and pump additional capital into companies trying to accelerate growth. This is the gap that Goldman Sachs could potentially help fill. So I don’t know the answer to that until the larger investors really take this seriously and put money behind it.” While female- and minority-led companies could technically be well-funded in the early stages of the venture process, the funding tends to dry up as founders go out to raise further capital necessary to grow.Īs Backstage Capital founder Arlan Hamilton told Fortune in January, “The reality is that the best and brightest and most deserving - even with the numbers, even with the traction - are being shut out. In other words, a $50 million fund has less cash to dole out than a $500 million fund.

However, female-led and female-focused firms are relatively small when compared to the more traditional firms on Sand Hill Road. XFactor Ventures invests in companies with at least one female founder in their ranks, Female Founders Fund backs female-founded tech companies, Backstage Capital invests in companies founded by underrepresented entrepreneurs, BBG Ventures invests in startups with least one female founder, and Melinda Gates’ Pivotal Ventures is putting money behind female-led or minority-focused venture firms. The program, along with its 10,000 Women Initiative, aims to close the gender funding gap. The program will also help clients invest directly in private, late-stage companies or provide seed capital for women starting their own funds. GOLDMAN’S PLEDGE: Goldman Sachs will invest $500 million into companies led, founded or owned by women.

Fortune understands the sale price to be ~$500 million in Stellar’s digital currency Lumens.Ĭhain previously raised more than $43 million in venture funding from investors including Khosla Ventures, RRE Ventures, Blockchain Capital, Pantera Capital, Nasdaq, Visa, Citi Ventures, Thrive Capital, BoxGroup, and Haystack. SCOOP: Stellar is in talks to acquire Chain, the San Francisco-based startup building blockchain technology for the financial industry, according to people familiar with the deal.

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