Goldman heads investment in Taiwan B2B startup

REUTERS in Taipei
Wednesday, June 7, 2000

US investment bank Goldman Sachs will lead a consortium investing US$10 million in Taiwan-backed business-to-business (B2B) electronic commerce startup Best3C Inc, the two companies said.

Shirley Lin, co-head of Goldman Sachs' principal investment area in Asia, said the investment in Best3C, which brokers transactions between electronic hardware makers, was the US investment bank's first B2B investment in Taiwan.

"More than 80 Taiwan hi-tech enterprises were able to sign contracts with them. This is a benchmark that no other B2B company was able to meet," Ms Lin said.

"From our point of view, a Taiwan B2B firm has to perform better than a B2B investment in California or London to enter our portfolio."

California-based Best3C said it serves more than 100 Taiwan firms on the sell side, helping them unload excess inventory, and about 3,000 buy-side clients in Australia, the United States and Southeast Asia.

Best3C president Jack Li said the company hosted US$10,000 in transactions in its first month of operation in January, but the figure had grown to a total of US$600,000 by May and was expected to hit US$25 million by the end of the year.

He said a Best3C senior vice-president was in China setting up a representative office to serve Taiwan electronics firms with factories on the Chinese mainland.

Best3C also planned to open offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, South America and Europe later this year, he said.

Other companies joining the round of institutional funding for Best3C include network equipment maker D-Link, Bank SinoPac, computer manufacturer Mitac and the China Times newspaper group.