(Bloomberg) -- Stephen Wong, a veteran Goldman Sachs Group Inc. investment banker, will join technology venture capital firm Valley Capital Partners, marking a rare move to the buy-side by one of the US banking giant’s senior Asia bankers.

Wong, the former chairman of Hong Kong investment banking and co-head of real estate for Asia ex-Japan at Goldman, resigned in May and will start at the new firm in August, Valley Capital said. He will join the Menlo Park, California-based company as a managing partner alongside founder Steve O’Hara. 

The 57-year-old will advise portfolio companies on strategy and financing, help scale up their businesses in Asia to attract investors and potential clients, and focus on fundraising.

Departures by Asia Goldman senior bankers to the buy-side have been unusual in recent years. The last major exit was in 2019, when Kate Richdale, former partner and co-chairman of Asia ex-Japan investment banking, joined KKR & Co.

Founded in 2018, Valley Capital specializes in investments in enterprise technology and artificial intelligence-driven companies at seed and series A rounds. It has backed firms such as Yubico AB, Affirm Holdings and Arista Networks Inc.

A collector of baseball memorabilia, Wong joined Goldman in 2005. During his banking career he advised firms including Carlyle Group and Hillhouse Investment Management, as well as Hong Kong conglomerates and developers such as Swire Pacific and New World Development. 

He worked on the New York direct listing of Palantir Technologies Inc. in 2020 and was the top banker for Illumio Inc, a Sunnyvale, California-based cybersecurity segmentation mapping company, and Fanatics, Inc.

In 2020, Wong received Goldman’s John L. Weinberg Award, established in 1990 to recognize an individual’s client commitment, ethics, leadership and mentorship, marking the first time in nearly a decade that the award was granted to any Goldman Sachs employee, according to the release.

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