Glory Ventures, a cross-border venture capital (VC) firm that invests in China and Israel, announced on Monday that the firm has closed its second USD-denominated fund at $120 million to focus firepower on the next-generation IT industry.
Glory Ventures, which now manages three RMB funds and two US dollar funds, said in a statement that the new vehicle was “largely oversubscribed.”
The final close came over one year after its second fund had reached its first close in April 2020. The new vehicle, which initially targeted a fund size of $100 million, brought the firm’s total assets under management (AUM) to an equivalent of over 2 billion yuan ($314.4 million).
Fund II attracted commitments from limited partners (LPs) including global investment institutions, companies in the fields of financial consumer electronics, and data centre, as well as several Internet entrepreneurs. Unicorn Capital Partners, a fund-of-funds (FOF) platform that focuses on VC funds and direct investment opportunities in China and Asia, is a cornerstone investor, according to the statement.
Prior to the US dollar fund, Glory Ventures announced in May 2020 the final close of its third RMB-denominated fund at 682 million yuan.
Founded in August 2015, Glory Ventures sources deals in the next-generation IT industry with a focus on data awareness, transmission, storage, computing, and applications across segments like intelligent vehicles, consumer electronics, data centre, and cloud computing. It mainly invests in startups at their angel rounds to Series A rounds.
By far, the firm has built a portfolio of over 50 companies. Some of its prominent investees include Nasdaq-listed Innoviz Technologies, which makes sensors for self-driving vehicles; and deep learning chip maker Hailo in Israel; as well as artificial intelligence (AI)-based chip developer Biren Technology; Neolix Technologies, a developer of level 4 autonomous driving vehicles; and vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) solutions firm Vertilite in China.
“We are currently in the best era to make investments in the next-generation IT technologies. New technologies are giving rise to a wave of informatisation and intellectualisation at a global scale, bringing massive opportunities in the disruption of an incremental market,” said its founding partners Jerry Bai and Eric Yang in the statement.
“As domestic brands continue to lift their competitiveness and diversify supply chain, China is a huge market [for businesses] to realise independent and controllable operations, as well as import substitution,” they said.