Ma Yun Launches Smart Agriculture Business... Establishes Company with Former Executives

Alibaba founder Jack Ma has made a full-fledged entry into the related field by investing in a smart agriculture company. Having kept a low profile after falling out of favor with authorities, Ma has recently resumed external activities and is effectively back in management.

On the 31st, China's Pengpai News reported that a company called "1.8 Meter Marine Science and Technology" was recently established, showing Ma's new area of interest. The company's registered capital is 110 million yuan (approximately 19.67 billion KRW), and its business scope includes agricultural product sales, intelligent logistics equipment, intelligent agricultural management and supply chain management services, marine aquaculture, and manufacturing of marine biological resource equipment.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The company’s shares are held by 1.8 Meter Technology (80%), Hangzhou Dajingtou 212 Cultural and Art (10%), General Manager Deng Zhonghua (2.5%), Chairman Hu Xiaoming (5.5%), and individual shareholders Chen Zisong (1%) and Lin Zifeng (1%). Among these, Hangzhou Dajingtou 212 Cultural and Art is 99.9% owned by Jack Ma. Pengpai News also reported that most of the other investors share names with former Alibaba executives and employees. Hu Xiaoming is the former CEO of Ant Group who retired in 2021, and Chen Zisong was a product expert at Alibaba Cloud who left the company in 2019.

Pengpai News stated, "We inquired with Alibaba about the connection to this company, but received no response," and cited a source familiar with the investment explaining that 1.8 Meter Marine Science and Technology is not a company within the Alibaba system. It added, "Alibaba is coordinating related businesses, including establishing a large-scale agricultural office in 2019."

Furthermore, "Jack Ma has shown interest in agriculture over the past few years and personally visited agricultural research institutions in the Netherlands, Japan, and Thailand to investigate agricultural and fishery technologies," and "At the University of Tokyo, where Ma currently holds a special appointment as a professor, his research field is sustainable agriculture and food production," the report said.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.