IFC proposes $25m commitment to Maison's China fund

IFC said in a disclosure that it expected to have a seat on the advisory committee for Maison Capital III, and that its commitment would not exceed 20% of the total corpus.

Maison was founded in 2004 and established its track record as a renminbi fund manager. It currently runs three local currency vehicles with total assets of RMB1.5 billion ($228 million) as of the end of last year. The most recent two funds are each RMB500-600 million in size. The early funds were primarily backed by high net worth individuals, with Ping An Insurance becoming Maison's first institutional LP in 2011. Other institutional players have since come on board, including renminbi fund-of-funds.

The GP invests in early to growth-stage consumer companies, across three categories: lifestyle, technology and services. Maison was the first institutional investor in drone manufacturer DJI in 2013. The company subsequently received funding from Sequoia Capital, KPCB and Accel Partners; its most recent round - a $75 million commitment from Accel - was at a valuation of $8 billion.

Speaking to AVCJ earlier this year, Roger Wu, a partner at Maison, described the GP's strategy as investing early and holding for a long time. "Once we have identified an appropriate candidate, we observe it continuously and stay in contact with the entrepreneur for about 1-2 years before investing. Our approach is not ‘get them the term sheet on Friday and invest the following Monday.' We really want to understand the businesses we invest in and get to know the management," he said.

Last month, IFC proposed two other investments in small to mid-cap China funds: a $30 million commitment to Hosen Capital's third food and agriculture vehicle, which has a target of $400 million; and $15 million for Long Hill Capital Management's debut China fund.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Growth
• Consumer
• LPs
• China
• IFC
• Maison Capital