Investor Danny Chan continues to look into the potential of innovative education solutions, most recently taking a stake in a company that creates video tutorials to teach NCEA subjects to students.
Chan put about $400,000 into Wellington-based education social enterprise LearnCoach as part of a $1.5m seed round to help scale up its online platform.
It will be a comfortable space for Chan, who founded Academic Colleges Group (ACG) in 1995. That company grew to incorporate preschools, schools and vocational colleges, with more than 13,000 students at 35 campuses across New Zealand, Indonesia and Vietnam.
In 2015, Chan sold about 22% of the company to Pacific Equity Partners – reportedly valuing ACG at $500m. The deal catapulted Chan on to the Rich List that year.
He retains shareholdings and directorships in a wide array of companies from logistics and wine to medical technology and flower exports.
Chan was raised in Wellington and is a third-generation Chinese New Zealander fluent in Mandarin and Cantonese. He went to Victoria University where he graduated in 1973 with honours in commerce.
His early career was in investment and insurance while lecturing part-time at Victoria, before heading overseas as a fund manager with US firm Fidelity.
Returning to New Zealand in 1994 he saw an opportunity in education and set up ACG.
Chan serves on the NZ-China Executive Council Board, and the boards of the Asia New Zealand Foundation and the Confucius Institute based at the University of Auckland.
2018: $195 million