HarbourVest to open Tel Aviv, Seoul offices

HarbourVest Partners plans to push further into Asia and the Middle East with two new offices in those regions, according to sister publication Secondaries Investor.

The fund of funds manager, which is in market with its ninth dedicated secondaries fund, will open offices in Tel Aviv and Seoul.

HarbourVest managing director Peter Wilson said: “Like all of HarbourVest’s offices, Seoul and Tel Aviv will enhance our powerful global investment platform by focusing on local opportunities across primary, secondaries and direct co-investments, as well as working with local investors on their private market portfolios.”

Ilan Rosen, who has worked with HarbourVest as a consultant for 12 years, will head the Israel outpost as a principal. Rosen has more 22 years of experience in private equity investments and has served as chairman at VocalTec Communications, an Israel-based telecommunications firm, since November 2005, according to his LinkedIn profile. He has held roles in Israel’s private equity sector including as general manager of Adsha, an Israeli investment company traded on the Tel Aviv stock exchange.

Minjun Chung, a principal in HarbourVest’s Hong Kong office, will move to the new Seoul office. Chung focuses on investments and relationships in North Asia and previously worked at Qatar Holdings and Pantheon Capital where he worked on primary, direct, and secondaries investments in the Asia-Pacific region. The firm said he had been “focusing on identifying primary, secondaries and direct co-investments in South Korea over the past five years, as well as establishing relationships with local investors.”

The South Korean office will be the firm’s third in Asia after Beijing and Tokyo, and the Israel bureau is HarbourVest’s first in the Middle East. The firm currently has seven offices, having opened a Toronto branch in April, according to its website.

Wilson added: “Ilan Rosen has worked with us for over a decade and has been instrumental in establishing our local presence in the Israeli market. Similarly, Minjun Chung has developed the firm’s business in South Korea over the past 5 years and we’re confident that under his leadership our growth in the market will continue.”