Redpoint China Ventures has reached the first close of its second Chinese yuan fund at 660 million yuan ($101.7 million) to invest in early-stage startups in corporate IT services and advanced technologies, the firm announced on Monday.
The China team of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Redpoint Ventures said that the first close was backed by limited partners (LPs) including government-guided funds located in Shanghai and eastern China’s Yangtze River Delta, RMB-denominated funds of funds, university endowments, family offices, and others. Some LPs of its RMB Fund I also committed to the new vehicle.
The fundraising milestone comes less than three years after Redpoint China in January 2019 announced the closing of two US dollar funds with $400 million in total capital commitments. With a focus on China-based consumer, enterprise, and emerging frontier tech startups, the previous two vehicles are a $300-million China II Fund for early-stage deals and a $100-million Opportunity Fund for growth investments.
Its maiden RMB-denominated fund hit a final close at 700 million yuan ($107.8 million) in March 2018.
Established in 1999, Redpoint Ventures started its local office in China in 2005 – the same year when US VC giant Sequoia Capital set up Sequoia Capital China; and Zhang Lei created what is now Asia’s private equity (PE) major Hillhouse Capital Group.
Redpoint China is led by managing partner David Yuan, a versatile investor with over 20 years of experience in entrepreneurship, corporate management, and investment. The firm in October 2016 launched its first China fund, a $180-million US dollar fund that the China team manages independently.
By far, Redpoint’s total assets globally have grown to over $6 billion, including $1 billion of assets managed independently by its China team.
With offices in Beijing and Shanghai, Redpoint China has built a portfolio of over 100 domestic consumer Internet and enterprise IT companies. Some of its more prominent investees include news and video aggregation app Qutoutiao, cybersecurity software giant Qihoo 360, game firm iDreamSky, autonomous driving startup Pony.ai, artificial intelligence (AI) chipmaker Enflame, and server security specialist Qingteng Cloud Security.