SOSV is a USD$400 million fund that invests in early-stage companies through accelerators. Known as the Accelerator VC, SOSV runs accelerators across the world in internet, mobile, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, hardware and food. SOSV's Chinaccelerator in Shanghai is the fourth most active blockchain investor based on the volume of investments in the space.
To make the impossible inevitable.
General Partner of SOSV William Bao Bean is also the Managing Director of Chinaccelerator and the Mobile Only Accelerator (MOX), which serves predominantly mobile-first, mobile-only markets in SEA, India and the Middle East. Bean began his career as an equity research analyst at Bear Sterns before moving on to Bank of America, where he assumed a role as Vice President. In 2002 Bean moved back to Asia as VP of Deutsche Bank in Hong Kong - there he was ranked the #1 stock picker in Technology, Media and Telecom. Following his investment banking career, Bean moved into venture capital as Partner at Softbank China and India Holdings. After 4 years at Softbank, Bean transitioned to Singtel Innov8, the corporate investment arm of Singtel. In October 2014, Bean joined SOSV as General Partner and Managing Director of SOSV Chinaccelerator. A year later, he founded SOSV MOX. Partner of SOSV Oscar Ramos is also the Program Director of Chinaccelerator. He is a full-stack innovator, leveraging his technical and business expertise to accelerate startups in China and overseas. He graduated from the Polytechnical University of Madrid (Spain's top ranking technical university) with a thesis in telemedicine networks in rural countries. Afterwards, he was in R&D at top telecom companies in Spain including Ericsson, Telefonica, and Comitas. In 2008, Ramos made the jump to China and founded several companies in the IoT space. He joined SOSV as Program Director of Chinaccelerator in 2016.
SOSV acquires a percentage stake in the companies it invests in. When the company is either sold or lists on a stock exchange, SOSV will redeem the cash value of its shares on the market.
Early and growth-stage companies need funding in order to scale, prove their business models, and ultimately turn a profit.
SOSV Chinaccelerator invests in foreign and domestic Chinese internet companies and brings them to Shanghai for 3 months of acceleration and 3 months of fundraising. Its corporate innovation program also helps pair startups with Fortune 500 companies to solve their problems.
SOSV has invested in over 700 companies to date. SOSV Chinaccelerator is the only accelerator to have a unicorn graduate from the program: BitMEX (offering 100x leverage on Bitcoin futures trading).
Other premier venture capital firms with plans to raise crypto funds will increase competition for deal flow.
Considering the nascent stage of STO, early liquidity for security tokens may be limited, but not insignificant. According to the World Federation of Exchanges database, 2017 saw a total of $77.566 trillion dollars in equity market turnover globally. If the assumption is made that any equity issuer can also be a security token issuer, and if it is assumed that private companies will also launch STO, the total market opportunity for exchanges may exceed $77.566 trillion dollars in turnover per year.
SOSV has deep vertical experience in 6 industries through each of its accelerators. With over 700 investments made to date, its portfolio companies, mentor networks and corporate innovation programs are major attractions for the best early stage startups.
