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With currently over $21bn of AUM, Baring Private Equity Asia (BPEA) was started in Hong Kong in 1997 by Jean Eric Salata, as the regional Asian PE investment arm of UK-based Baring Private Equity Partners. With $300m in its first fund, it focused on riding China’s economic rise spurred by the country’s market liberalization. In 2000, Salata led a management buyout of BPEA and continues to head the firm today as CEO and Founding Partner. BPEA has invested in more than 100 companies, across healthcare, logistics, IT services, media, education, financial services and retail. It is one of the largest independent PE firms in Asia and has eight offices across the continent.With offices in China, India, Japan, Australia, and Singapore, it currently has around 43 portfolio companies, almost all Asia-based, across multiple business segments in tech and non-tech startups, especially in bricks-and-mortar education establishments. It also makes acquisitions, including most recently of US outsourcing services company Virtusa in February 2021.Other recent investments include in the June 2021 $85m Series C round of Portuguese home physiotherapy tech solution SWORD Health, the world’s fastest-growing musculoskeletal solution, and in the November 2020 $198m Series D round of Chinese computer coding for kids edtech Codemao.