Maison Capital, an investment firm that has backed Chinese drone giant DJI, has closed an oversubscribed, new RMB-denominated fund at about 1.5 billion yuan ($231.4 million), it announced on Thursday.
The new fund will help Maison Capital double down on growth-stage enterprises in the fields of healthcare, advanced technology, and consumption upgrade.
The fund, Maison Capital’s fifth, raised capital commitments from limited partners (LPs) including Chinese government-led funds, state-owned enterprises, insurance companies, funds of funds (FOFs), and high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs).
Its investors also include qualified foreign limited partners (QFLPs), which refer to foreign institutions qualified to make private equity (PE) investments in China. Over 80% of LPs in the new fund are institutional investors, it said in a statement.
Founded in 2004, with offices in Beijing, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong, Maison Capital now manages five RMB funds and one US dollar fund. The firm announced in September 2018 the final close of its debut USD fund at $200 million with support from the World Bank’s private sector arm IFC; DEG, a unit of German state development bank KfW; Italy’s top insurer Assicurazioni Generali; and asset manager Schroder Adveq.
It has built a portfolio of firms such as yoghurt brand Simple Love; Chinese state-owned wind turbine maker Goldwind Science & Technology; medical devices manufacturer SonoScape Medical Corp; and Transsion, a Chinese firm that sells smartphones in South Africa; as well as Transsion’s music streaming service Boomplay.
Some of the firm’s latest bets include Insilico Medicine, a Hong Kong-based startup that uses artificial intelligence (AI) for drug discovery; clinical-stage drug maker Elpiscience Biopharma; and biotherapeutics firm HiFiBiO Therapeutics.