Alibaba's biggest investments of 2015

Tech in Asia explains what kept Jack Ma and Co. busy this year

When Alibaba invests, it invests big. None of this softball million-dollar crap. If the sums aren’t in the hundreds of millions – or even billions – of dollars, it’s barely worth Jack Ma getting out of bed.

Even limiting our scope to disclosed investments that broke the $100 million dollar mark, we’re not left with a short list. 

Mei.com

$100+ million

In July, Alibaba shoved more than $100 million into the pockets of Mei.com, an ecommerce platform focusing on flash sales of luxury and fashion goods.

According to a statement released at the time, a team within Alibaba’s Tmall will help Mei.com expand its user base, logistics, and product offerings. Mei.com has connections with international luxury brands like Longchamp, Armani, and Zegna.

SoftBank Robotics

$118 million, matched by Foxconn

SoftBank’s ‘emotional robot’ named Pepper must have caught Alibaba’s attention when it was unveiled in June of 2014. One year later, Alibaba announced that it was throwing $118 million into SoftBank’s robotics programme.

The investment was joined by another $118 million coming from Foxconn, Pepper’s manufacturer. SoftBank is hardly strapped for cash but these ties with Alibaba could be extremely helpful if the company decides to bring its robotics into mainland China.
 

Kabam

$120 million

Alibaba snagged a 10% stake in the American mobile gaming company Kabam in January, for a mean $120 million.

Kabam has been responsible for a number of games, most notably those with movie tie-ins like The Hobbit and Fast and Furious. The company is based in San Francisco, but has had a China presence for some time. That presence will likely expand as Kabam takes advantage of Alibaba’s massive China network for its future releases.

This is an excerpt from Tech in Asia. You can read the full article here.