Ant Group Co., Jack Ma’s fintech giant, is reportedly set to exit the venture capital firm A&T Capital. The Chinese behemoth’s decision to pull out from A&T Capital’s $100 million fund would mean the end of its bet on the crypto industry. Ant Group’s move comes amid serious allegations against A&T founder Jun YU, who previously served as an executive at Ant.
According to a recent report by Bloomberg, Ant Group’s investment in A&T Capital’s $100 million investment vehicle was a core part of its crypto play. Yu reportedly helped the Chinese conglomerate set up A&T in order to invest in offshore crypto projects and startups. People familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that it was unclear if the venture capital firm would seek new investors following Ant Group’s exit.
A&T Capital, which was described as an early-to-growth stage venture fund for emerging disruptive technologies, announced its $100 million venture fund in April last year. Data from Crunchbase showed that A&T Capital made a total of 24 investments, nine of which listed the venture as the lead investor.
Ant Group and A&T Capital didn’t respond to requests for comment by Bloomberg. A&T Capital’s most recent investment was in the seed round of a company called Artela. Its last lead investment was on May 30, 2023, in the Series A funding round of Degame. The venture capital firm’s most popular investments included crypto lender Matrixport and ConsenSys.
In March 2023, YU was accused of sexually harassing multiple women, including his employees at A&T Capital. The A&T founder, who previously served as the Head of Investment for crypto exchange OKX, initially dismissed the allegations as rumors but later retracted his response. OKX revealed that during YU’s stint at the exchange, no reports of inappropriate behavior were received against him.
