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Kobe Bryant Hopes To Leverage Appeal In Asia With New Venture-Capital Tech Fund

Former NBA player Kobe Bryant on Monday unveiled his new $100M venture-capital tech fund, and while he "acknowledges he's no expert on the tech industry," there are "areas where he's been prescient, including Asia," according to Dave & Lien of the L.A. TIMES. His partner, Jeff Stibel, said that Bryant has been "going to China since many of us realized it would be an economic powerhouse." Bryant has been "no stranger to China, where he spends big to sponsor youth sports and education programs." He and Stibel also "invested in Chinese online shopping giant Alibaba before it went public." Two months ago, Bryant "crossed the Pacific to meet" with a Chinese online education startup, Vipkid, which "aims to give Chinese children a virtual North American elementary school experience." Bryant said that it "took only five minutes of listening to decide he wanted to invest." Meanwhile, the firm, dubbed Bryant Stibel, so far is "not seeking outside investors." Two companies the firm invested in have "already been acquired: Custom Ink bought fundraising service Represent in February" (reportedly for $100M) and Brand Networks acquired marketing software developer Shift for $50M last year. Stibel said that he and Bryant have "written mostly multi-million dollar checks," and he declined to say "how much cash remains." Stibel: "If we had it our way, we wouldn’t have gone public." Bryant said that he "first got into the tech world to learn about people and companies." But it became clear his advice and cash "could help the businesses" (L.A. TIMES, 8/23).

THE WORLD IS FLAT: ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith said of Bryant starting a VC fund, "The NBA is one of the top two globalized brands in the world, in all of sports, whatever sport you want to pick. ... Kobe is one who took it to another level. It was Kobe that was with the crew in 2008 at the Games in Beijing, literally talking to them about being businessmen and not just basketball players." ESPN’s Max Kellerman: "Kobe’s going to be a mogul, by the way. This guy doesn't do things to fail" (“First Take,” ESPN2, 8/23).

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