The story
Wang Jingbao worked in the private banking division of Xiangcai Securities. In August 2005, she and her colleague Yin Zhe lead a management buyout of the division. The division was spun out as an independent company and was renamed to Noah. The company was launched with 3 million RMB in capital and worked out of a small office on Shanghai furnished with second-hand furniture purchased from an online market.
In 2007, Noah accepted an investment from Sequoia Capital.
In March 2010, Noah set up its asset management subsidiary, Gopher Asset Management which specialized in fund of funds management of alternative investments.
On 10 November 2010, Noah held an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange for $12 apiece. The stock climbed 33% to nearly $16 on its first day.
In early 2012, Noah launched its overseas expansion. It first set up an office in Hong Kong then set up additional offices in Taiwan, Silicon Valley, New York and Singapore.
In October 2016, Sequoia Capital acquired a $52 million stake in Gopher Asset Management. In October 2017, Noah bought back Sequoia's stake.
In July 2022, Noah was cross-listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Wang being a devout Christian named the company after Noah's Ark. Gopher Asset Management was named after Gopher wood which was used to build Noah's Ark.
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Initially Noah was mainly a distributor of financial products where it sold wealth management products developed by other institutions to high-net-worth individual clients for a commission fee. However it later formed its own investment products to sell.
From Wikipedia’s article on Noah Holdings, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.7