Why GGV Capital’s Hans Tung is OK with 2023 being ‘the year of down rounds’

With implicit $9 billion successful assets nether management, GGV Capital is 1 of task capital’s largest and astir salient players. The 22-year-old steadfast invests successful startups from effect to maturation stages crossed a assortment of sectors, including consumer, internet, enterprise/cloud and fintech.

This twelvemonth was 1 of the astir hard the startup satellite has seen successful immoderate time, arsenic it forced investors and founders alike to accommodate to a drastically antithetic marketplace than they enjoyed successful 2021.

To amended recognize GGV’s presumption during a challenging task environment, I sat down with managing spouse Hans Tung to get his thoughts connected the authorities of investing today, wherefore helium believes that determination are “many much ample fintechs yet to beryllium built” and that raising a down circular “is not the extremity of the world.”

Principal Robin Li besides joined the conversation, sharing wherefore she thinks embedded fintech is going to play a important relation successful fiscal services successful the coming years.

An capitalist for implicit 2 decades, Tung has backed the likes of publically traded BNPL elephantine Affirm, existent property fintech Divvy Homes, IDwall, Karat, Rupeek, Mexico’s Stori and Turtlemint. Having seen a fewer cycles, Tung is possibly little spooked by the existent downturn than immoderate different VCs. Li has led Karat Financial and Novo.

[Editor’s note: This interrogation has been edited for clarity and brevity.]

How has this twelvemonth been for you arsenic an progressive fintech investor?

Tung: We don’t effort to clip the market. So past year, we didn’t over-invest. There was a batch of interior propulsion distant from keeping up gait with others. I deliberation it worked retired good since we person plentifulness of adust pulverization near and much clip to beryllium deliberate this year. We besides person clip to treble down connected our existing portfolio arsenic well. That said, we person astir apt slowed our gait of investing successful our planetary portfolio by astir 50% this twelvemonth versus past year.