(Yicai) Dec. 19 -- The private investment fund set up by ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming last year has been given a license to provide asset management services in Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission granted Cool River Venture HK a Type 9 asset management license on Nov. 21, the watchdog announced on its website yesterday. Cool River Venture was established in May last year, with Zhang as its sole director and a business scope mainly focused on investment in technology-related sectors.

The creation of private investment funds has burgeoned among China’s tech entrepreneurs, as they enable them to manage their wealth more flexibly, make venture capital investments, drive technological innovation, or pursue personal interests.

Blue Pool Capital, a Hong Kong-based investment firm backed by Alibaba Group Holding's Chairman Joseph Tsai, has Type 4 and Type 9 licenses from the SFC. Its investments span hedge funds, real estate, and private equity, mainly focusing on the tech, media, and telecoms sectors.

Zhang, 41, has kept a low profile and has rarely appeared publicly since stepping down as chief executive of ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, in 2021. He did, however, issue an open letter after OpenAI's ChatGPT was released late last year.

“I thought I could say goodbye to the public eye and influence China's social and educational landscape more diversely and potentially,” Zhang said in the letter. “But on Nov. 30, 2022, a 'singular event' occurred in the field of technology entrepreneurship that cannot be ignored by the media, tech circles, or venture capital circles -- the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT, developed with billions of US dollars invested in the GPT-3.5 model.”

Editor: Martin Kadiev