Smart Cities will be the new centres of the new digital economy, representing an enormous opportunity.

At the same time, cities represent a massive challenge. By 2050, 7 billion people will live in cities around the world putting increasing pressure on services and infrastructure. And already today cities contribute 70% of global carbon dioxide emissions and 50% of global waste.

In summary, cities represent the end market for deploying our Citytech solutions.

A Smart City is a city that uses digital technologies, data and connectivity to improve the quality of life for its citizens and enhance the efficiency of its services.

In a Smart City, various systems, including transportation, energy, healthcare and public safety, are integrated and connected through the Internet of Things (IoT) and other advanced technologies to enable more efficient and sustainable urban living. Smart Cities leverage sensors, data analytics and other digital technologies to monitor and manage different aspects of urban life, such as traffic flow, air quality, waste management, energy consumption and water usage.

By analysing the data collected from these systems, city authorities can make informed decisions to optimise the use of resources and improve the overall well-being of their citizens.

Overall, the goal of a Smart City is to create a more sustainable, liveable and efficient urban environment that meets the needs of its residents and supports economic growth.

Citytech refers to technology solutions applied in the urban environment, making cities smarter – more liveable, sustainable and productive.

Game-changing Citytech uses technologies like AI, IoT, augmented reality, digital twin, cloud computing, big data, edge computing and 5G.

According to McKinsey Global Institute's report "Smart Cities: Digital Solutions for a More Livable Future", Smart City applications can improve specific key quality-of-life indicators, such as environmental quality by 10 to 30%, health by 8 to 15%, time and convenience by 15 to 65%, safety by 8 to 40%, and social connectedness and civic participation by 15 to 30%, only to mention a few.

We are building an enduring long-term enterprise focused on Citytech where we will add companies, businesses and partnerships over time.

Our business model is to create, build and invest in and, over time, operate Citytech companies.

A company allows for a more flexible business scope and diversified investment methods such as M&A, joint ventures, strategic partnerships, business incubation, venture capital, private equity, Corporate Venture Capital partnerships, co-investments, management buyouts and pre-IPO deals. Investments can be funded by using our shares as M&A currency.

As our company grows, we can raise capital in stages, including doing our IPO when the time is right for our shareholders.

We deploy most of our capital to private companies in their late-stage phase, sometimes even pre-IPO, when they have a solid track record of both revenue and profit growth.

A smaller portion of our capital is allocated to JVs and early-stage companies which can benefit from synergies of our core companies and the overall network effect. Alternatively, they have an outsized upside potential.

Our key focus sectors are Smart Buildings, Smart Energy and Smart Computing.

These three sectors align with our mission of making cities smarter – more liveable, sustainable and productive. For example, today cities and buildings contribute 70% and 28% of global carbon dioxide emissions respectively. In the case of China, these sectors also benefit from government support and play a key role in achieving China’s carbon neutrality goal before 2060. As part of China’s digital infrastructure, these sectors are crucial to its digital economy. We also believe these sectors represent lower-risk investments while offering attractive long-term compound returns.

In addition, we deploy smaller amounts of capital to select Citytech sectors which can benefit from our focus sectors or represent exciting new opportunities to explore.

So far, our investment per company has spanned from as little as US$70,000 to more than US$60 million.

To date, all our investments, joint ventures and partnerships have been in China, but we see ourselves as a bridge between East and West, between China and the rest of the world.

From a practical standpoint, this means that we will increasingly partner with companies not from mainland China, like we have done with Arup and CLP Group, to explore opportunities in China and beyond. It also means we will work with our companies to make them more international by expanding overseas.

Smart Cities is a fast-growing US$4 trillion market in China, as more than 800 Chinese city districts are being upgraded into Smart Cities supported by robust government initiatives.

China is also experiencing accelerating urbanisation. More than 200 million people are moving to cities over the next two decades. It has a massive digital consumer population and a US$7.1 trillion digital economy.

Our Founder, Benson Tam, and key team members have long and successful track records from operating and investing in the China tech space.

Our Founder and Co-Founders are collectively the single largest shareholder ensuring that we have skin in the game and are aligned with other shareholders.

Fidelity China Special Situations PLC, the UK’s largest China investment trust, is our largest investment company shareholder.

CLP Group, one of the largest investor-owned power businesses in Asia Pacific, is our largest corporate strategic shareholder.

Savio Kwan, former President, COO and Chief People Officer of Alibaba Group, and member of Venturous Group’s Advisory Board, is the company’s largest external private shareholder.

More than US$152 million for our Series A and B combined.

Arup, which is a world-leading firm in engineering, design, planning and project management for the built environment.

iSoftStone Group, the leading software and IT services provider for digital transformation in China with more than 90,000 employees.

CLP Group, which is one of the largest investor-owned power businesses in Asia Pacific.