Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China on May 12 announced the initial close of Ping An Voyager Partners LP, a growth-stage venture fund that will make investments in fintech, health tech and related businesses around the world. Targeted at institutional investors, Voyager Partners has secured about US$200 million in commitments towards its planned US$475 million offering.

Voyager Partners will be managed by Global Voyager Fund (HK) Company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ping An with a significant track record in venture investing in fintech and digital health. In 2017, Ping An committed US$1 billion to support Global Voyager's investment strategy. Global Voyager is an investment manager licensed by Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission and today comprises 22 professionals.

Global Voyager focuses on investment opportunities with fintech, digital health and related businesses that have achieved product-market fit, have meaningful revenues and viable unit economics, and are on a clear path to widespread commercial traction. Typically, such businesses have been in existence for more than five years and are at a Series C funding stage or beyond. Voyager Partners will continue this strategy, investing between US$15 million and US$35 million per target.

Jonathan Larsen, chief innovation officer for Ping An Group and chairman and CEO of Global Voyager, says: "There is no doubt that the digital revolution in finance and health is here to stay. Ping An is well-placed to identify and bring value to promising new companies in these sectors. We have achieved considerable success investing in growth-stage fintechs and digital health companies and are confident we can bring this experience to bear at Voyager Partners."

Businesses where Global Voyager has led recent funding rounds on behalf of Ping An include iCapital Network, a US-based financial technology platform for alternative investing; Laiye Technologies, a China-based artificial intelligence (AI) and robotic process automation (RPA) platform; PlusDental, a German tele-dentistry business; and Snapsheet, a US-based provider of cloud-native insurance claims management software.

In addition to financial backing from Ping An, Voyager Partners' first close includes, among others, two leading North American insurers and a top-tier insurer based in Europe.

Global Voyager's chief investment officer Donald Lacey says: “Ping An believes that fintech and digital health are now at an extremely appealing inflection point, driven by mainstream user adoption and traditional financial institutions' aggressive embrace of new technologies, such as AI and cloud-native core operating platforms. One of the ideas behind Voyager Partners is to combine Ping An's capabilities with resources from other leading financial institutions around the world, creating a vehicle that will be even better placed to add value to the businesses we invest in."

Ping An anticipates a final closing for Voyager Partners in the third quarter of 2021.