An investment house with the instincts of an industrialist.
We were founded to carry a century of building into a new era — pairing operator judgment with applied intelligence to create businesses of enduring value.
Welkin was founded in 2009 by eight prominent Asian industrialist families, united by a shared conviction: that the best investors are builders first.
For more than a hundred years, these families built foundational industries across Greater China and beyond — in sugar and textiles, banking and aviation, semiconductors and pharmaceuticals, steel, optics and publishing. They did not trade businesses; they created them, scaled them, and stewarded them across generations.
By the late 2000s, a new opportunity was clear. Asia's most ambitious founders needed more than capital — they needed partners who had operated at scale, who understood supply chains and factory floors as well as cap tables. Welkin was created to be that partner: an investment house with an industrialist's edge, investing its own capital alongside the world's leading institutions.
Today that edge is being amplified. We apply data, automation and applied intelligence to how we source, diligence and build — extending a century of operating instinct with a new layer of machine capability. The mission is unchanged: to deliver sustainable returns by building businesses that last.
We are entrepreneurs at heart, with a deep passion for investing in interesting businesses and making them better by leveraging our industrialist resources.
Eight families. A century of building. One continuous thread of enterprise — carried forward, today, by a single firm.
Foundations of industry
Our founding families pioneer modern industry in the region — building some of the first large-scale sugar refineries and textile mills, and laying the foundations of Asian manufacturing.
Enterprise & ideas
The families establish one of China's largest publishing houses and create consumer brands and banks that still endure today — shaping commerce, finance and culture.
Banking & connection
A founding family co-establishes one of Hong Kong's foundational banks and pioneers early regional air and ferry links — connecting the cities of a fast-industrializing Asia.
Markets & landmarks
The families help found one of Asia's leading stock exchanges and a major financial group, and build and operate landmark hospitality and one of the region's largest property developers.
Frontier technology
A founding family co-establishes one of Asia's earliest semiconductor fabs, while another becomes one of modern China's first foreign investors — backing technology and openness ahead of their time.
Scale & competition
The families build national high-technology champions and break entrenched monopolies — including founding a new airline that opened the region's skies to competition.
Global champions
Through ambitious combinations, a founding family builds one of the world's largest textiles groups and a leading biosciences company, while another assembles a global optics champion.
Welkin is founded
In 2009, the families establish Welkin — an institution built to transcend any single family or generation, and to keep building and growing innovative businesses and technologies for the century ahead.
Building on our Asian industrialist roots, the Welkin partnership blends decades of institutional investing with deep operational expertise and local knowledge. A selection of our senior team:
Johnny S. Kong
Chief Executive Officer & Managing Partner
Sets firm strategy and leads investment direction across Welkin's businesses, drawing on the operating heritage of the founding families.
Christopher Fong
President & Partner, Real Assets
Oversees the firm's businesses and institutional relationships, aligning capital, operations and governance.
Justino Liang
Partner, Investment Solutions
Leads the firm's customized portfolio mandates and relationships with institutional and private clients.
Jiang Pu
Partner, Venture & Growth
Leads the firm's venture and growth investing, partnering with founders building category-defining companies.
Nicholas Tung
Partner, Real Assets
Leads real-asset investments across digital infrastructure, hospitality and residences.
David Chang
Partner, Venture & Growth
A partner of the firm, contributing across investment strategy and the operating heritage that underpins it.
Jason Koo
Partner, Corporate Buyouts
Leads buyout investments across private and listed companies, from acquisition through active ownership and value creation.
A curated selection of Welkin's leadership. Our full team spans investment, operations, capital markets, finance, legal and risk across Hong Kong and Shanghai.
Four commitments shape how we invest and how we behave.
Build, don't just back.
We are operators who invest. We earn our returns by making companies measurably better, not by timing markets.
Align completely.
We invest our own capital alongside our partners. Our incentives and our clients' are the same.
Think in decades.
We measure success across cycles and generations, not quarters. Enduring value is the only value we recognize.
Compound intelligence.
We pair a century of operating instinct with data and applied intelligence — so every investment makes the next one sharper.
Let's build something that endures.
Whether you are raising capital, allocating it, or deciding where to spend the next chapter of your career — we'd like to talk.
Contact us