Hong Kong's richest man has just gotten richer after tech communications company Zoom's shares skyrocketed this year, with the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic giving it a significant boost.

Early bets in Zoom by HK tycoon pays off

Li Ka Shing, an early investor in Zoom, holds a stake of roughly 8.5 per cent of the company, worth approximately US$11 billion (S$15 billion) according to Bloomberg.

That's about one-third of Li's wealth.

The 92-year-old tycoon first invested in the tech company in 2013, just two years after it was set up.

When Zoom started publicly trading in the United States (U.S.) in April 2019, Li's stakes were worth around US$850 million (S$1.158 billion), reported SCMP.

After the Covid-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, the teleconferencing company's shares soared, and Li's stakes were worth roughly US$3 billion (S$4.087 billion) in April 2020.

On Aug. 31, Zoom reported a 355 per cent jump in sales in three months between May to July 2020, according to Deadline.

The sales report boosted the stock further by 41 per cent in a single day, with Li's stake increasing by US$3.2 billion (S$4.36 billion) in one day.

As of Sep. 1, Li's net worth was worth US$32.6 billion (S$44.42 billion). It has since dropped to roughly US$31.7 billion (S$43.19 billion).

Li's stakes in Zoom are held by three investment vehicles, one of which is Horizons Ventures, according to Bloomberg.

Returns from investments through Horizons Ventures are allocated to the Li Ka Shing Foundation, a charity set up by the tycoon himself in 1980.

Zoom sets up shop in Singapore

The video conferencing app opened its new data centre in Singapore last month in August, in its first expansion into Southeast Asia.

Zoom's head of international, Abe Smith, was further quoted by Bloomberg as stating that the company plans to hire several new engineers and sales staff, as well as offer new services to scale the business up in Southeast Asia.

Top image via Visual China Group/Getty Images, Zoom