Tsou joins expanding Carlyle

Wayne Tsou has left Warburg Pincus to become head of Asia Venture for global private equity firm The Carlyle Group. His new role will see him lead a team of ten investment professionals and oversee the opening of a new office in Shanghai. He will be based in Hong Kong.

The Carlyle Group is probably better known for its late-stage buy out type investments, including such high profile deals as Koram Bank in Korea. But according to Tsou it has been involved in early-sage venture investing in Asia since 1998. It now has ten venture companies in its portfolio including such success stories as Ctrip in China and e-Access in Japan.

The firm runs two venture funds in Asia with a total of $350 million of investments. Of this $100 million is uninvested. Tsou says the firm is also looking to raise a new fund soon. The focus will very much be on China with additional efforts being made in Korea and India.

Tsou is currently on holiday and assumes his new position on March 1.