Bean, William Bao

William Bao Bean

Investment Partner at SOSV and Managing Director of Orbit Startups the first and longest-running startup program in Asia and General Partner of SOSV the #1 most active venture capital investor in the world 4Q22 with US$1.5bn in assets under management.

Travels from Shanghai

SOSV is a US$650m evergreen fund known as the “Accelerator VC” with six partners running five global accelerator programs: HAX for hardware in Shenzhen, Indie.bio for biotech in San Francisco and Ireland, Food-X for food in New York and Chinaccelerator for Internet in Shanghai. SOSV invests in over 140 companies per year and over its 22 years has a net realized IRR of 36% putting it in the top 3% of VCs in the world.

SOSV invests in 150 startups per year in a wide range of verticals. The focus is on helping companies from China and across Asia enter the global market and companies from across the world enter China and SE Asia.

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William Bao Bean explains how his VC-firm SOSV became the no.1 accelerator in Asia at MOX in Taipei, 2019

William Bao Bean on NBC in 2019: from imitation to creation. What does it mean to be on China speed.

William Bao Bean was managing director of Singtel Innov8 between 2010 and 2014. Singtel Innov8 is focused on investing in and driving innovative services and technology from around the world, especially China, to its 350m subscribers in Asia and Africa.
Before that, William Bao Bean was for three years a partner at Softbank China & India Holdings, an early stage venture capital firm that is backed by Softbank of Japan and Cisco and focused on the technology, media and telecom sectors. William began his investment career 12 years ago as a technology analyst in Taiwan. Most recently at Deutsche Bank, he was responsible for Internet and Telecom Equipment across Asia as well as China technology including telecom equipment, Internet, media, PCs, display, handsets and software. Prior to this, he covered Telecom Equipment and Digital Media companies with Bank of America Securities in San Francisco. William also worked as an associate analyst with the team covering PCs, Enterprise Hardware, Handhelds, Storage and Semiconductors at Bear Stearns in New York.

In 2006 he was ranked #3 All-Asia analyst for Technology/Software and IT Services by Institutional Investor Magazine Asia. In 2005, he was ranked #1 stock picker in Technology, Media and Telecom, and #3 overall for Hong Kong/China by Forbes/SCMP/Starmine as well as was a ranked analyst by Institutional Investor Magazine Asia. William is a regular presenter at industry conferences and has authored a number of white papers including: The Digital Home Handbook – Intelligence At The Edge and China Internet WVAS – The Second Coming. He currently sits on the boards of advisors/directors for companies including Punch Entertainment, Radiance, Tokiva, TalkDaTalk, Iotum, iTalki and the Music Matters and ad:tech China conferences. He holds a BA from Bowdoin College.

2018: William Bao Bean explains how his “mobile-only” approach helps startups access four billion users in developing nations.

2017: William Bao Bean summarizes his 22 years of connecting Asia and China, working in banking, technology and the internet

2017: William Bao Bean answers 42 questions on his day job, running the Chinaccelerator

William Bao Bean explains an American audience the advantages of China’s social commerce

And the extended edition (from Germany) is here:

e27 published in their interviews “Meet the VC´s” also the life story of William Bao Bean. Click here for the first part. Part two is here.

William Bao Bean explains how mobile payments by 600 million Chinese are hurting traditional banks and credit card companies

What can governments do to stimulate innovation? William Bao Bean: get out of the way and give visas

Has Facebook become a clone of WeChat? William Bao Bean discusses

Tencent is organized in a different way than most traditional large companies. William Bao Bean discusses the Tencent structure.