Venturous, Lioncrest launch $200m China smart city fund

They expect to generate $800 million in co-investment opportunities alongside the Venturous Hero Fund. The goal is to deliver asset-backed venture-like returns by backing companies at the nexus of real estate and technology. Smart city deals in China to date have largely sought to deliver local services and utilities more efficiently through hardware, cloud services, and mobile applications. Venturous aims to leverage digitization, the internet of things, artificial intelligence, and 5G.

The firm was established in 2013 by Benson Tan (pictured, third right), who previously helped set up Fidelity Asia Ventures – now Eight Roads Ventures – in China. He claims to have invested in the likes of Alibaba Group, WuXi AppTec, and AsiaInfo Holdings during his 10 years with the firm. Before that, Tan worked for Electra Partners and Helman & Friedman.

"There is a war ongoing between new and old, and new unicorns and ecosystems are being built, and we will be at the very epicenter of this transformation," Tan said in a statement. "Merging with Lioncrest Global allows Venturous to work with a very seasoned and experienced group of investment professionals who know what today's family offices are looking for."

Lioncrest was founded in 2016 by three former colleagues from UBS Wealth Management: Peter Tung, who was responsible for ultra high net worth individual coverage in Greater China, Valerie Chou, head of global family offices for Asia Pacific, and Johan Riddergard, head of the CEO office for Asia Pacific.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Venture
• Technology
• Real estate
• Fundraising
• China
• Venturous Group