Gobi Partners (Gobi) is an Asian venture capital (VC) firm headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Hong Kong. The firm focuses mainly on investments in China and Southeast Asia.
History
Gobi was founded in 2002 by Thomas Tsao, Lawrence Tse and Wai Kit Lau who were previously employees at WI Harper, a San Francisco VC firm. The three who had different professions in banking, engineering and law before by training were all Chinese speakers which gave the team an advantage in negotiations and conference calls. They registered the firm in the Cayman Islands and named it after the Gobi Desert. The co-founders funded Gobi with $3 million of their own money and agreed not to take salaries until an investment paid off. It took six months of research before the firm made its first investment.[1][2]
In 2003, Gobi started fundraising for its inaugural fund. The fundraising closed in October 2005 with $50 million raised. Sierra Ventures joined Gobi Partners as a strategic partner and invested $10 million in the fund. Gobi's co-founders were set to return to return the capital they raised to limited partners but the firm's partnership with Sierra Ventures ended that notion. Other investors included