BlueRun closes $500m China early-stage VC fund

The two vehicles, which were both oversubscribed, will make seed to Series A round investments in local start-ups, BlueRun said in a statement posted on its official WeChat account. The latest fundraise brings the firms' assets under management to $2 billion globally. It has also promoted investment directors Wei Cao and Jiajie Wu to managing director level.

Founded in 1998, Silicon Valley-based BlueRun focuses on mobile software, services and financial technology. Its China operation was started in 2005 and operates out of offices in Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong. Its previous China-focused VC fund closed at $200 million last April after a few months in the market.

Weiguang Chen, a partner at BlueRun, said in the statement that the firm has adopted an industry research-driven investment approach over the past 10 years, resulting in commitments to the likes of Ganji, Meilishuo, PPTV, EasyStack and Spring Doctors. The new fund will continue a similar investment strategy.

"Some industry peers might find it hard to believe that we will deploy all $500 million into early-stage startups. But that's our mission: we want to support the best entrepreneurs, proving more capital to help them learn and grow from mistakes," Chen said.

The days of developing a mobile app and simply monetizing it through smart phone platforms are gone, added Tianyu Zhu, another partner at BlueRun. "Chinese start-ups are reaching a turning point in terms of technology innovation. Whether it's healthcare, finance, retail, industrials or services, they all have to connect to artificial intelligence (AI), big data and cloud-computing technology," he said.

"We also expect to see the convergence of different segments, such as the internet of things, AR [augmented reality] and VR [virtual reality], in the next 10-20 years."

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Venture
• Fundraising
• Technology
• Early-stage
• China
• TMT
• BlueRun Ventures
• seed