Guidelines
Elate’s investment interests are along its two business lines:
- Western Investment:
- Hard asset-based deals that have “intrinsic values” of their own, for example mines, oil field, certain real estate;
- Businesses with potential synergy with China;
- Fixed income products, IPOs, private placements for public companies;
- We generally shy away from businesses that rely on services for revenue due to a lack of expertise.
- China Expansion:
- Technology-based businesses that could be transferred to China sometime in the future (regardless whether the US operation is kept intact or not);
- Other businesses that could transferred to China sometime in the future (regardless whether the US operation is kept intact or not).
Sector/Industry-Based Interests
- Alternative energy: especially revenue-generating solar and wind farms; technologies that make solar and wind energy more efficient and cost-effective; battery and other energy storage technologies; energy harvesting;
- Green technology: especially large-scale pollution measurement and reduction; energy efficient building technology; waste recovery/processing;
- High-end manufacturing: especially those having to do with industry 4.0/smart manufacturing, robotics; high-tech automobile;
- New materials: especially nanotechnology, graphene; advanced composite materials;
- Life sciences, medical and biotechnology: especially late-stage new drugs; mobile health; senior care; non-invasive diagnostics; advanced medical equipment; cancer treatments;
- Modern agriculture: especially food safety and traceability; IT/internet-integrated farming/transportation/distribution; organic and virus-free fertilizer; diet-friendly farming; “big health”; agriculture e-commerce;
- Aerospace and defense: especially unmanned ariel vehicles (not subject to US export control); piston- and turboprop- general aircraft manufacturing; piston-, turboprop- and diesel general aircraft engine manufacturing; full avionics systems manufacturing; existing FAA and EASA type certificates; microwave communications devices and systems; military- and security-grade display technologies;
- Real-estate development: especially development projects with unique value propositions, possess or are close to entitlement approvals, and experienced teams;
- Financial Technology: especially unique P2P technologies; payment settlement technologies; crowfunding applications;
- Oil, Gas and Traditional Energy: enabling technologies for lower exploration/production/distribution costs; new petrochemical technologies;
- Internet of Things (IoT), "smart hardware" and Virtual Reality.
Asset Type-Based Interests
- Hard asset-based: assets have “intrinsic value” and potential for cash flow primarily from the assets themselves (rather than heavily dependant upon services with little or no underlying assets):
- Oil and gas: either with unique technology or depressed value;
- Infrastructure: such as road, bridges, ports;
- Mines: gold/silver, copper, iron, rare earth, with good valuation;
- Real estate and REITs: located at population centers, with good valuation and steady cash flow. For REITs, good return along with convincing business plan/team;
- Financial assets: private placements of public company stocks and bonds, IPO placements (including exhange switches)
- Technology-based:
- Generally hardware and/or manufacturing based, including those with software as core technology with hardware components.
- Infrastructure-level software/middleware (not application software).
Currently Looking for...
- Startups in smart hardware, internet of things, virtual reality, big data and data mining;
- Specialty real-estate: airports, Manhattan real estate development/renovation projects;
- Aerospace and defense: piston- and turboprop- general aircraft manufacturing, piston-, turboprop- and diesel general aircraft engine manufacturing, full avionics systems manufacturing, existing FAA type certificates, microwave communications devices and systems, military-grade display technologies;
- Modern Agriculture: IoT in Agriculture, IT/internet-integrated farming/transportation/distribution; organic and virus-free fertilizer; diet-friendly farming; “big health”; agriculture e-commerce; food safety and tracking.