In January, we wrote about tokenizing China supply-chain assets for global investors, via models that rely on regulatory licenses in both mainland China and in Hong Kong. This regulated path enables business to continue despite Beijing announcing earlier this month that it would ban unlicensed forms of tokenization.
The Chinese party behind this structure is Dewu Finance, a Beijing-based, fintech-focused venture investor. Its parent is Dewu, a large e-commerce platform. Through parent Dewu’s supplier-relationship management system, it has data and relationships covering millions of suppliers and many enterprise buyers. Dewu Finance (sometimes also called Dewu Capital), is an early-stage venture investor in fintech and SaaS (software as a service) for enterprises.
Boran DING and Ian LEE Yinghong are managing partners at Dewu Finance, based respectively in Beijing and Shanghai.
Timecodes
0:00 - Boran Ding and Ian Lee, Dewu Finance
02:07 - Why establish Dewu Finance and how to drive fintech opportunities in China, in the post-Alibaba crackdown and China’s strength as a manufacturer
4:51 - Risks for global investors in Chinese supply-chain investing
7:25 - Regulatory risk
9:42 - SaaS in the age of AI, in China versus the US
13:06 - As VCs, what do you look for among China SaaS and fintech companies?
15:31 - How big do you need to be, to invest in AI opportunities in China?
17:40 - The role of fintech versus SaaS for accessing manufacturing and supply-chain flows
18:36 - Adopting tokenization as a strategy to tap foreign investments
20:35 - Goals for the first tokenization scheme, and what’s next
23:52 - Global investor misconceptions about investing in China opportunities
