Jack is back.
Chinese billionaire Jack Ma’s private equity firm secretly led the latest funding round for Corgi, marking the first time the firm is known to have invested in a startup founded in the US.
Yunfeng Capital, co-founded by Jack Ma and businessman David Yu, funded Corgi with about $30 million, according to a source familiar with the matter and correspondence seen by Business Insider. That round valued Corgi at $4 billion, Forbes previously reported last month.
Corgi is an AI business insurance startup that was part of Y Combinator’s summer 2024 cohort. It’s one of the hottest startups in San Francisco, with its valuation almost quadrupling over the last three months. It’s best-known for operating a 24-hour café in San Francisco and touting a 7-day workweek.
Corgi and Yunfeng Capital didn’t respond to requests for comment. Ma’s charitable foundation and Alibaba also didn’t respond.
Geopolitical tensions between Washington, D.C., and Beijing have made cross-border tech investment increasingly fraught.
Publicly, Yunfeng Capital largely touts Chinese companies in its portfolio.
It’s also a rare overseas bet from Ma, who has kept a much lower profile in recent years. The Alibaba cofounder disappeared from public view after criticizing Chinese regulators in 2020. Last year, Ma reemerged in China as the country’s government embraces AI.
China has exerted greater control over outbound capital and technology, for example, ordering Meta to unwind its acquisition of AI agent startup Manus.
The US has also tightened scrutiny of Chinese investment through the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.
Prior to the tensions, Alibaba actively invested in US companies, including Lyft in 2014 and Magic Leap in 2016. Ma stepped down as Alibaba’s chairman in 2019.
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