Acer founder launches new business

Acer Inc founder Stan Shih (施振榮) on Thursday formally unveiled his new business, the iD SoftCapital Group (智融集團), after retirement from the Acer chairmanship at the end of last year.

The new conglomerate is made up of seven business units, including the core iD SoftCapital Inc which offers advice and strategic planning to customers.

Formed several venture-capital veterans and former Acer senior management, the group manages assets worth NT$33 billion (US$1.1 billion) under Acer's name.

The group has also collected NT$14.8 billion worth of funds from investors, including 20 percent from Acer, while foreign ventures and local financial institutes, including Chiao Tung Bank (交通銀行) and the Industrial Bank of Taiwan (台灣工銀), make up the remainder.

"The fund size is expected to grow to US$1 billion in the next three years," said Philip Peng (彭錦彬), Acer's former chief financial officer, now president of iD SoftCapital Inc.

The iD SoftCapital group will invest money in US companies such as consumer-electronics makers and artificial-intelligence developers, as well as companies located in Taiwan and China, according to the venture capital firm.

In addition, iD SoftCapital is building a talent pool of experienced management experts from Acer and a variety of companies for human resource outsourcing, Shih said.