Blue Lake reaches $120m first close on China VC fund
Blue Lake Capital, a China-focused VC firm led by two former GGV Capital and Sequoia Capital executives, has reached a first close of more than $120 million on its second early-stage fund. The full target is $200 million.
Blue Lake Capital Fund II, which was launched in March, received commitments from foundations, family offices and fund-of-funds in the US and Asia, according to a source familiar with the situation. The GP hopes to achieve a final close by the end of November.
Blue Lake was set up in 2014 and raised $150 million for its debut fund. Its founders are Ray Hu, previously a vice president (VP) at GGV and a consultant at the Boston Consulting Group; Alex Yin, who was a VP at Sequoia and a consultant at McKinsey & Company; and Boyu Hu, formerly a VP at DCM. Hu left Blue Lake in August of last year and launched a new VC firm called XVC.
Blue Lake claims to differ from most Chinese VC firms in that it is research-driven, rather than seeking cover every opportunity in the technology space and deploy capital at a fast pace. Leveraging its founders' experience in the consultancy world, the team researches specific industries and constructs investment theses. As such, Blue Lake plans to make no more than 20 investments from one fund.
Concentrating on Series A and B rounds for consumer internet and enterprise services start-ups, the firm typically invests $1-15 million in each deal. It has previously backed agricultural e-commerce platform Meicai, part-time jobs crowdsourcing app Doumi, driverless car software developer Momenta, and enterprise software firm Cloud Helios.
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