What is BITE?
BITE Investments (UK) Limited is an Alternatives Investment platform. BITE helps investors and advisors access funds that would otherwise be inaccessible because they are either oversubscribed, too illiquid, or have an institutional-level minimum buy-in.
BITE’s management team is supported by a world class set of shareholders and advisors and its on-the-ground team operate within the parameters of some of the world’s most respected regulatory regimes; BITE is majority owned by VCP Advisors, which is regulated in North America (FINRA / SEC), Europe (FCA, UK), Asia (SFC, Hong Kong) and Cayman (CIMA)
We are backed by some of the leading lights in Alternatives, Finance and Technology
Shareholders and Advisors
Delta Capital
Founded in 2010, Delta Capital is a leading venture capital investment firm in China. Delta Capital has a highly experienced team that leverage the firm's extensive operating and investment experience to institutionalize portfolio companies and realize operational improvements. Delta Capital has been recognized as an industry leader having been awarded numerous titles in China, such as the "Top 50 Domestic VC/PE Firms" awarded by Zero2IPO, China Venture, and “Top 20 Domestic VC/PE Firms” by The Capital. Additionally, more than 15 of their portfolio companies have been awarded ’Top Enterprise’ by the professional ranking firms in the VC industry.
VCP Advisors
VCP Advisors (“VCP”) was founded by William Rudebeck and Henry Talbot-Ponsonby in February 2009 as Venture Capital Partners, a London-based corporate finance advisory firm. VCP is a global financial services group specializing in alternative assets with offices in London, New York, Shanghai and Hong Kong and operating partners in Tokyo and Seoul. Since 2012, VCP has provided fundraising and advisory services to private equity, private debt, hedge funds and other global fund managers through its own companies and partnerships in the Americas, Europe and Asia. VCP has advised on fundraisings for companies and funds aggregating over US $13 billion. On the fund side, VCP provides advisory services to some of the world's most sophisticated institutional investors. Clients include single family offices, multi-family offices, national pension funds, equity funds, and large asset management institutions.
Apex
Apex Group Ltd., established in Bermuda in 2003, is a global financial services provider. With over 40 offices worldwide and 3,000+ employees, Apex delivers an extensive range of services to asset managers, allocators and financial institutions. The Group has continually improved and evolved its capabilities to offer a single-source solution through establishing the broadest range of products in the industry; including fund services, bank account opening, depositary, custody and super ManCo solutions. www.theapexgroup.com
Tim Freshwater
Tim is currently non-executive Chairman of Goldman Sachs Asia Bank, non-executive director of Swire Pacific Limited and Savills PLC.He is a former non-executive director of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (2000-2006 and 2012-2018).He served as Chairman and Vice Chairman of Goldman Sachs Asia Investment Bank, Chairman of Jardine Fleming, and partner of Slaughter and May London and Hong Kong.
Kristen Dickey
Kristen had a distinguished 20+ year career with BlackRock Inc, where she served as a Managing Director and member of the Global Operating Committee for the firm. Kristen is the managing partner and investor for a family office fund, Seaview Capital, LLC. She currently sits on the corporate boards for BNY Mellon Investment Management ETF Trust, where she is one of the founding Trustees; Marstone Inc., a digital wealth platform in New York; and Aperture Investors LLC, an investment management firm delivering active management with performance-linked fees. She also sits on the advisory boards for Girls Who Invest and the Council for Economic Education. She is a member of the Board Trustees for Friends of the Highline and chairs the Investment Committee for their endowment.
Carman Chan
Carman is the Founder and CEO of Click Ventures, a Hong Kong and Singaporean based VC, which is one of the top ranked venture managers (in 2019 Preqin ranked Click Ventures as one of the most consistently top performing venture capital fund managers globally). Carman is a renowned serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist, tech columnist recognized by Nikkei Asian Review as a Top 5 Women to Watch in Asian Tech. She has founded and exited multiple successful ventures. Her first start up, EnglishStreet became a business case for a well-run startup in the Harvard Business Review. Carman holds a MSc in Statistics and Probability, and BSc in Pure Mathematics from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
Hugo Van Vredenburch
Currently serves as Executive Chairman of Interactive Investor UK. He joined Goldman Sachs in 1992, where he rose to Managing Director and Partner taking co-leadership of the Pan-European Equities Franchise. In 2005, he served as CEO of Equity Trust. In 2010, he became CEO of TMF Group, which later merged with Equity Trust. Earlier in his career, he was an analyst and subsequently CIO at Tokyo Pacific Holdings.
Henry Talbot-Ponsonby
Henry founded Venture Capital Partners (subsequently becoming VCP Advisors) with Will in 2009. Henry currently acts as CEO of VCP, yet devotes a significant amount of his time advising on the build out of BITE, currently VCP’s largest principal investment, as well as serving on BITE’s Investment Committee. Having founded and grown a globally regulated alternatives asset management advisory business, his advice particularly from a product and regulatory point of view is invaluable. Before launching VCP, Henry worked with Will at Grisons Peak, a financial institutions focused investment banking firm. Henry also worked as a barrister having qualified at Inner Temple, one of the four major law schools in London, UK.
Todd Ruppert
Todd has 40 years of experience in the financial services industry. He retired from T. Rowe Price, the global asset management firm with over $1.0 trillion under management, where he was CEO and president of T. Rowe Price Global Investment Services, co-president, T. Rowe Price International, and a member of the operating steering committee of the T. Rowe Price Group. He is currently a venture partner at Greenspring Associates, a US based venture capital firm with over $9 billion under management. He is also a senior advisor to SenaHill Partners, a FinTech merchant bank, and Motive Partners, an investment firm focused on technology businesses in the financial services sector.
Innospace
INNOSPACE+ is an incubator based in Shanghai. Innospace Angel fund is an early stage investment fund under INNOSPACE+. It focuses on early and growth stage (seed, angel and series A) equity investments in domestic startup companies. It has invested in more than 50 companies, including Wuta Camera, Jiyu Technology, Ziyan Drone, Mi Fang Technology and others. The current focus is on traditional industry upgrade, big consumption and next generation innovative technologies.
Greg Ye
Greg is the founder and managing partner of Delta Capital, one of the leading venture capital managers in China, headquartered in Shanghai. Greg has over 20 years experience in private equity, executive management, start-up and consulting experience. He was formerly with NewMargin, Cadence and PWC, as well as the co-founder of an internet business in China. Greg is the former president of the North American Chinese Semiconductor Association and has a MBA from Harvard, a Masters of Accountancy from Missouri State and a BSEE from the Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
Click Ventures
Founded by Carman Chan, Click Ventures is a seed to series A venture capital fund based in Hong Kong and Singapore, investing in technology startups in Asia and North America. The firm focuses on mobile and internet companies that can acquire scalable assets and create a network effect. Furthermore, these companies act as a strategic investors, supporting Click Ventures portfolio companies through their global networks and Growth Lab.
George Yang
George is a Co-Founder and Partner at Pantheon Asset (‘Pansheng’). Pantheon is one of the largest multi-family offices and leading venture capital and private equity fund of fund investors in China. George has been responsible for investing c.USD3bn of AUM across the alternative space and has advised on c.USD25bn of global investment transactions. George is also an ex. partner of China Grand Prosperity, one of the top privately owned onshore fund of funds in China. Previously George served in various financial and advisory roles at CVC Asia, China Renaissance and Macquarie Bank. George is an alumni of the University of Melbourne, NYU Stern and INSEAD.
Senior Management Team
William Rudebeck
CEO
Will founded BITE in 2018 having previously founded Venture Capital Partners (which subsequently became VCP Advisors) in 2009. VCP has since become a leading Alternatives Asset Management advisory business, which has successfully advised on fundraisings for alternative investment funds aggregating over $13bn. In 2019, Will stepped down from the day-to-day running of VCP to focus 100% of his time on the build out of BITE. Before founding VCP, Will specialised in investment banking within the financial institutions group (specifically advising alternative asset managers) at HSBC, Grisons Peak and Danske Bank.
Vicky Mao
General Manager, China
Vicky (Xiaotian) Mao is BITE’s General Manager in China and is based in BITE’s Shanghai office. Vicky joined BITE in 2019 from VCP, where she rose to Managing Director and Partner and in 2017 moved from London to Shanghai to open and build out VCP’s China business. Before VCP, Vicky worked for Standard Bank in Hong Kong having previously spent a number of years at PwC. She has an MBA from Said Business School, University of Oxford.
Benjamin Zhang
Chief Technology Officer
Benjamin is the CTO of BITE and is located in Nanjing, China. Previously Benjamin Founded Ten Maker Technology and Nutshell Technology, building financial technology for numerous companies, including leading alternative investment manager Pantheon Asset. Before founding Ten Maker and Nutshell, he was Product and Project Director at Suning.com, one of the largest online retailers in China where he led a team of 200 developers.
Farah Esmail
Head of Operations
Farah joined the VCP group in 2016 and is now BITE’s Head of HR and Operations. Farah has over 15 years’ experience working in financial services and has previously worked for Skyline Capital Management, DVB Bank and Hawkpoint Partners in a variety of operational roles. She has a Modern Languages degree from Bristol University.
Henry Reynolds
Chief Operating Officer
Henry is Chief Operating Officer for BITE, having joined from VCP. Previously Henry worked for TMF Group where he held a number of senior roles, including Chief of Staff. Before joining TMF, Henry qualified as an accountant at PWC, having spent four years in the British army leaving as a captain. Henry graduated from the University of Bristol.
Cecilia He
Head of Product, China
Cecilia leads BITE’s product team in China and is based in Shanghai. Cecilia joined BITE from Gopher Asset Management, where she was the Senior Product Manager, having originally joined wealth manager Noah Holdings within their product team. Previously Cecilia had worked at Anbag Insurance group and Bohai Bank. Cecilia is a graduate of Nottingham Ningbo China University and Edinburgh University, UK
Simon Ecclefield
Investment Director (Investment Committee Member)
Simon sits on BITE’s investment committee and is based in the Cayman Islands. Simon has worked in global markets for over 36 years, beginning his career at Kleinwort Benson in 1976 and then moved to Morgan Grenfell in New York. Following positions at BZW, Robert Fleming and Alex Brown, he was approached to help set up Collins Stewart in New York, helping grow the team from 7 to over 100 people. Simon led the Global Sales Trading desk at JP Morgan Cazenove from 2008 until 2014, when he left to take up a limited number of non-executive directorships.
Simon Cawdery
Investment Director (Investment Committee Member)
Simon sits on BITE’s investment committee and is based in the Cayman Islands. Simon has over 20 years asset management experience, beginning his career at Barclays, before moving to ING Bank. In 2003, Simon moved to Cayman where he ran the investment management business for Butterfield Bank and then EFG bank, managing over USD 750mm during this time. In 2013 he founded Helix Advisory Services and HLX Management which operate today and provide investment consulting, family office solutions, fiduciary administration and investment governance services.
Mark Cottenham
Head of Operations, China
Mark leads BITE’s Operations in China and is based in Shanghai. Mark joined BITE from VCP where he previously served as Director. Mark began his career at Morgan Stanley in London, UK, before moving to China in 2010. Prior to VCP Mark was the General Manager of Times Education, Partner of Bridging the Gap China and Deputy Secretary General of the China Kunming Finance and Logistics Association.
Horse Zhu
Technology Director
Horse is the technology director for BITE, having joined from Ten Maker where he participated in various fintech development projects. Horse has more than 20 years of experience in technology development. Before joining Ten Maker, he also worked for Asia Info, BizArk and Sitron Technology in a number of technology management roles.
Zoe Chen
Internet Operation Director
Zoe is BITE’s Internet Operation Director and is based in Shanghai, having joined from Huxin Finance where she was Operation Director. Previously, Zoe was responsible for online marketing at Lead Fund. She has an MBA from Shanghai Jiaotong University.
Charlie von Moll
Managing Director, Head of Europe Sales
Charlie joined BITE from the $35B alternative asset manager Davidson Kempner Capital Management, where he spent almost a decade running multi asset trading for Asia, focussing on corporate M&A, private credit, distressed credit and high yield trading, throughout the region. Before that Charlie was at Odey Asset Management in London, trading on the highly successful flagship global multi-strategy hedge fund, where they were one of the top performing hedge funds globally throughout the turbulent financial crisis years. Charlie started his career at HSBC in London on the equity finance desk.
Anna Hellstrand
Head of Communications and Marketing
Anna is BITE’s Head of Communications and Marketing and is based in the London office. Prior to this, she spent five years working for strategic communications firm Kreab, where she advised clients including prominent European fintech companies, investors and financial services firms on communications and public affairs issues. She is also a former Political Advisor and Head of PR for the Moderate Party in Malmoe, Sweden. In addition to this, she has lived and worked in Sweden, Germany and the UK. Anna holds a BSc in Media and Communication from Lund University, Sweden.
Whitney Li
Quality Control Manager
Whitney is the platform quality control manager for BITE and is based in Nanjing. Whitney has spent the last 10 years working within project testing and quality control roles for both fintech companies and exchanges, most notably for Jiangsu Ziyu Group.
Lynn Shao
Product Manager
Lynn is BITE’s Product Manager, based in Nanjing. She has 10 years of experience in Internet project design and management. She worked for well-known IT service company, Infosys, where she worked on several pioneering projects, including providing customized system services to Ping An China and other well-known enterprises.
Colin Wu
Chief Designer
Colin is BITE’s Chief Designer, based in Nanjing, and has previously worked as a Visual Designer for JSBC and as a Creative Director for Google AdWords Jiangsu Experience. Colin has worked on a number of large scale projects such as the Nanjing Museum, Chery International and XCMG, and his design work has won numerous awards. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Nanjing University of the Arts and also studied in Italy.
Kimi Yang
Senior Sales Director, China
Kimi is BITE’s Senior Sales Director and is based in Shanghai, having joined from Newbanker where he served as Head of Overseas Business. Prior to that, he worked at Longstand Capital as the Family Office GM, co-founded SeaFlame Partners and served as Vice President for LION Finance Group.
Michael Welter
Managing Director, Head of Asia (ex.China) Sales
Michael heads up BITE’s Asia (ex.China) Sales team and is located in Singapore. Michael started his career at Aegon in 1996, before working as Futures Trader at the Amsterdam Futures & Options Stock Exchange. He worked at I-Invest Group AG where he served as a managing director before leaving to set up wealth management firm Topnotch Asia, which he founded. Michael has also held senior sales and management positions at Swiss wealth management company, Wealth Friends and MIGAM, the financial distribution company based in Singapore.
Leslie Liu
Sales Director, China
Leslie Liu has over 20 years’ experience working in high-end wealth management and family office services in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. She joined YuanJu Capital in 2018 as Senior Managing Director and CICC in 2016 as Vice President of Global Family office department, and previously was Director of Family wealth management at Noah Holdings Ltd., and Senior Consultant of Asset Management at Dentons Law Offices. Leslie holds on a Master’s Degree in Finance from Jinan University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from National Chung Hsing University in Taiwan.
Fei Wu
Senior Director
Fei Wu is a professor at the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance (SAIF), teaching on Principles of Finance and Private Wealth Management. Professor Wu has strong relationship with, and advises, some of the leading wealth managers in China. He was selected for "Outstanding Talents in the New Century" by the Ministry of Education and was a Board Member of Asian Finance Association (AsFA).
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