Grandson Of Hong Kong Property Giant Sun Hung Kai Cofounder Forges His Own Path As A Tech Investor

He was born with a spoon in his mouth. The 41-year-old is a grandson of legendary share trader Fung King Hey, one of the "Three Musketeers", along with Lee Shau Kee and Kwok Tak Seng, who co founded Sun Hung Kai Properties in Hong Kong, one of the world's biggest property

Joseph was able to chart his own path because of his awareness. While the scions of Lee Shau Kee and Kwok Tak Seng stayed in real estate, Joseph is trying to make his own name as an investor.

Joseph says there is a high level of humility. It is not possible to survive or even push your way around with just pure capital in other sectors.

When you grow up with a silver spoon, you think that you can use that capital to continue to be the largest market player in that sector.

Hong Kong has two tallest skyscrapers, the International Commerce Centre and International Finance Centre, as well as the Four Seasons and Ritz Carlton hotels.

Sun Hung Kai Properties had a market cap of $400 million. It is the second-largest Hong Kong company on the stock exchange with a market cap of over HK$300 billion.

After Sun Hung Kai Properties IPO, Lee Shau Kee started another property developer, Henderson Land, and gave the reins to his two sons, Peter and Martin.

Edward and Christopher are the sons of Raymond, the youngest son of the late Kwok Tak Seng.

When pro-Communist riots shook Hong Kong in 1967, King Hey left the city for Canada. In 1969 Sun Hung Kai Securities became the largest Chinese-owned broker in the city after setting up its own firm.

Tony Hey took over his father's business after he died. The Allied Group paid $96 million for a 33.1% stake in the venerable retail brokerage house in 1996.

Thomas was building his own business empire in Canada while his father was away.

After living in Canada for a while, Thomas, his wife and son moved back to Canada in 1984. As Hong Kong residents began to emigrate in droves in the early 1990s, he helped pioneer Asian-style shopping centers like those in Hong Kong's Causeway Bay shopping district.

Thomas is one of the most prominent entrepreneurs in the city, with his group owning real estate, restaurants, and TV stations.

“I was able to build up my own reputation, my own ways of learning and to build up that sense of confidence to my own failures and my own achievements without trying to be benchmarked against my family members.”

Thomas gave the same freedom to his child as he did to others.

He was never given the stress of taking over the business and running it the way he wanted. Joseph said that he was allowed to explore and understand his own capabilities. For myself, I never had the pressure of taking over the family business at any time in my life.

After earning an economics degree from Cornell University, Joseph worked in finance at Citigroup and Morgan Stanley before joining Richard Li's PCCW, where he helped with the communications and media group's content acquisitions. After more than a decade working for someone else, Joseph decided to start his own venture capital firm.

"I was able to build up my own reputation, my own ways of learning and to build up that sense of confidence to my own failures without trying to be benchmarked against my family members." We are given more freedom to fail.

Saltagen is based in Hong Kong and Canada. Saltagen has invested more than $18 million in 20 startups over the past five years.

Joseph Fung is especially interested in life sciences companies that turn science into commercial applications.

Fano Labs is an artificial intelligence startup that was spun off from the University of Hong Kong and funded by Li Ka-shing, a Hong Kong billionaire. Forbes Asia 100 to Watch is a list of notable small companies and startups on the rise in the Asia- Pacific region.

Saltagen has more than $50 million in assets under management and its limited partners include C-level management of large multinational companies in Hong Kong and a billionaire founder of a chip company.

Joseph says that he distances himself from conflicts of interest so that his family is not a big deal. They won't be the ones making the decisions.

Joseph is interested in life sciences companies that turn science into commercial applications and Saltagen invests in a broad range of industries. One of the fastest growing sectors is life sciences.

The life sciences sector has seen increased interest since the beginning of the Pandemic. In June last year, Eduardo Saverin's B Capital Group and Nisa Leung's Qiming Venture Partners took part in a $60 million series D round in Hong Kong.

Joseph has an interest in the life sciences.

The food chemistry aspect of cooking is something Joseph likes to do. He says that was the thing that made him fall in love with it. Understanding chemistry is not just about making a nice dish, but also about understanding the science behind it.

He says that once you understand why and rationale you can build up to your goal.

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