Linear Capital, a Chinese investment firm that focuses on data and frontier technology startups, has closed two new funds in just five weeks with $500 million in total capital commitments.
Linear Capital, an early investor of auto chip startup Horizon Robotics and content marketing platform Tezign, raised the capital for its USD Fund V and Opportunity Fund II, the firm’s CEO and founder Harry Wang wrote in a letter to shareholders on Wednesday.
Wang wrote that the firm officially started the fundraising process on October 8 and received a 117% over-subscription by November 15. With markup, the new commitments brought Linear Capital’s assets under management (AUM) to about $2 billion.
The firm attracted commitments from university endowments, sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, foundations with altruistic purposes, family offices, and funds of funds (FoFs).
“We share high bars with our LPs for mutual selection and we don’t have a large LP base. So, we understand it’s not easy for such a big commitment [to be raised] in such a short time,” Wang wrote in the letter. ”
Founded in September 2014, Linear Capital primarily invests in early-stage startups in the fields of data application, data infrastructure, and frontier technology. It typically leads investments in startups from the angel round to Series A round, with the cheque size averaging $3-$8 million, or in the equivalent Chinese yuan.
The firm has built a portfolio of over 80 companies with a combined valuation of approximately $15 billion, according to the latest official statistics.
Some of its better-known investee companies include intelligent risk management & decision-making service provider Tongdun Technology, cloud-enabled home décor unicorn Kujiale, Temasek-backed robotics & AI solutions developer Rokid, and SoftBank-backed intelligent robotics firm Agile Robots.
In October 2020, Linear Capital announced the final closing of its USD Fund IV at nearly $200 million, which was oversubscribed by 20% of the initial fundraising target. It closed the USD Fund III at $70 million in late 2018.
The firm raised its first USD-denominated co-investment vehicle at $100 million this April. The vehicle was oversubscribed by 60%, it said in a statement at that time.