Gobi raises RMB fund for China start-ups
Gobi Partners has formed a RMB600 million ($94.1 million) fund that will focus on seed, pre-Series A and Series A investments in early-stage Chinese companies.
LPs in the fund - known as Gobi Yingzhi II - include several renminbi-denominated fund-of-funds, as well as strategic players such as CreditEase Wealth Management, Fivestar Holdings and Luolai Home Textile. More than 45 start-ups are expected to receive financing over the next four years, with an average deal size of RMB10 million.
This is Gobi's third renminbi fund. It follows the Gobi Hitech Fund, which was established in 2007 with backing from the Tianjin municipal government, and Gobi Yingzhi I, a 2012 vintage vehicle supported by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and several domestic institutional investors.
The Gobi Yinghzi I portfolio comprises 40 companies, over half of which have gone on to raise subsequent funding rounds. They include: food-delivery app Line0, second-hand car-trading site Mychebao, auto repair start-up Kalading, and Autobot, a manufacturer of diagnostic tools for cars.
The new fund will target internet and mobile start-ups in areas such as cloud computing, enterprise solutions, financial technology, the internet of things, online-to-offline services, online tourism and telematics. Partners Don Jiang, Ken Xu and Michael Zhu are leading the fund, assuming more responsibility from Wai Kit Lau and Thomas Tsao, Gobi's co-founders.
"China's venture capital industry is entering a golden age for renminbi funds. In the past, the vast majority of Chinese start-ups opted for US dollar funds due to the composition of investors, availability of capital and exit opportunities. Now, with the emergence of local institutional investors and promising returns from the domestic market, more companies actually prefer renminbi funds and this is an area where Gobi is positioned to excel in," Jiang said in a statement.
Founded in 2002, Gobi has raised six funds to date and invested in more than 100 companies in China and the ASEAN region. It is headquartered in Shanghai and has seven offices across China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.
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