Hidden Hill Capital, a growth equity investment firm backed by GLP China, announced on Tuesday that its partnership with the government-owned Hong Kong Investment Corporation Limited (HKIC) is a venture capital (VC) mandate of HK$300 million ($38.6 million).
Under this mandate, Hidden Hill will invest in “early-stage, high-growth companies that align with HKIC’s mission to foster entrepreneurship and transformative innovation in Hong Kong”, the firm said in a statement.
HKIC, which manages HK$64 billion ($8.2 billion), recently appointed Hidden Hill along with nine other asset managers to invest in the 2025 batch of capital of the Investment Portfolio (CIES IP) under Hong Kong’s New Capital Investment Entrant Scheme (New CIES).
Established in 2022 to consolidate the management of investment activities of the Hong Kong government, HKIC works with external fund managers to invest capital pooled from the Hong Kong New CIES.
This is a 2024 relaunch of an investment immigration programme, where individuals invest at least HK$30 million (close to $3.9 million) in permissible Hong Kong assets to gain permanent residency. An eligible applicant under the New CIES is required to place 10%, or a minimum of HK$3 million, into the CIES IP.
Besides Hidden Hill, the other nine selected asset managers span venture capital, private equity, private credit, and hedge fund strategies, including Abax Global Capital, Beyond Ventures, CMC Capital, FirstLight Capital, M Capital, Polymer Capital, Primavera Capital, Trustar Capital/CITIC Capital with Vision Capital Investment Management Limited, and Value Partners.
The CIES IP places emphasis on nurturing home-grown or Hong Kong-based asset managers with commercial and strategic potential.
According to the latest estimation of the HKIC, the capital size of the 2025 batch of CIES IP under the New CIES is expected to be at least HK$3 billion ($385.6 billion) by the end of 2025. The capital will be evenly allocated to 10 appointed asset managers, meaning each managing a mandate of HK$30 million. The relevant investment work is expected to commence in the first quarter of 2026.
“We will leverage our deep expertise in identifying competitive technologies and scalable services across new economy sectors, including logistics supply chain, AI, and renewable energy, to drive the synergistic and sustainable expansion of the HKIC ecosystem,” Higashi Michihiro, Hidden Hill’s founder and managing partner, said in the statement.
As of June 30, 2025, Hidden Hill has deployed about $2.4 billion of capital across more than 110 portfolio companies from venture, growth to buyout stages.
The selection of the latest 10 fund partners came after HKIC appointed four institutions a year earlier to manage the debut 2024 batch of capital of the CIES IP under the new immigration scheme. These included Betatron Venture Group, Inno Angel Fund, MindWorks Capital, and Radiant Tech Ventures Limited.
