Qiming closes fifth China VC fund at $648m – update

The firm said in a regulatory filing last week that it had raised $620 million for Qiming Venture Partners V, with the remainder comprising the GP commitment. AVCJ understands that the fund, which was launched in November, was oversubscribed, with strong demand from existing investors.

Almost all LPs in Fund V have participated in previous Qiming vehicles, including Princeton University, The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Duke University, Commonfund, Hall Capital Partners, Mayo Foundation and the Dietrich Foundation among others.

"Qiming has built a strong reputation as a leading venture capital firm in China and is notable for its partnership-oriented culture, both within the firm and with entrepreneurs. We are proud to have partnered with Qiming from the very beginning as its anchor investor," Jim Millar, managing director at Princeton University Investment Company, said in a statement.

The VC firm closed Fund III at $450 million in 2011 and then raised a fourth fund of $500 million in 2014. Last year, the GP closed a $75 million annex vehicle with a remit to make follow-on investments in existing portfolio companies from Fund III. This was because of faster-than-expected exhaustion of capital in the main fund that was held back for follow-on investments.

While a number of China VC firms have raised opportunity funds in addition to their core vehicles in order to pursue growth-stage deals, Qiming's LPs advocated a main corpus of regular size with a simple and consistent fund structure, AVCJ was told. As such, Fund V doesn't have no top-up or sidecar vehicle.

The strategy of Fund V is largely unchanged. Qiming focuses on early to growth-stage investments in the internet and consumer - including online-to-offline (O2O) business - healthcare, IT and cleantech areas. There are now five managing partners running the firm, with healthcare specialist William Hu last year joining Gary Rieschel, Duane Kuang, J.P. Gan and Nisa Leung. Two weeks ago, the firm promoted four investment professionals to principal.

Founded in 2006, Qiming has offices in Shanghai, Beijing, Suzhou and Hong Kong. It has over $2.5 billion in assets under management across five US dollar funds and three renminbi funds, and has invested in more than 160 companies since inception. The firm invests in early-stage and expansion-stage deals, over half in early stage companies.

Recent deals include participation in a $100 million Series B round for existing portfolio company Zai Lab, a biotech start-up. Qiming also joined a $50 million Series B for online education app developer Xuebajun and a $100 million round for existing portfolio company Tuhu Yangche, an online-to-offline after-sales auto services provider.

The GP has exited over 30 portfolio companies through IPOs or trade sales. Jiayuan, the US-listed Chinese online dating platform which was backed by Qiming, agreed to be bought by its industry peer Baihe Network, which is listed on the National Equities Exchange and Quotations (NEEQ), at a valuation of $250 million.

Another portfolio company, online shopping and social networking platform Mogujie, agreed to takeover rival Meilishuo.com in a stock-swap deal earlier this month. This follows the unification of rival O2O services platforms Dianping - which is backed by Qiming - and Meituan. The combined entity has since raised $3.3 billion ahead of a planned IPO.

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• Topics
• Greater China
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• Qiming Venture Partners
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