Ex-Baidu executive raises $29m China business services fund

The new vehicle will target investments in business services, Xiang told 36Kr. He expects to launch a second fund in the second half of 2020.

Xiang spent 14 years at Baidu, heading up the search giant's advertising auction and ranking service. This division generates much of the company's online marketing business, which in turn accounted for 80% of overall revenue in 2018. It runs the auctions through which customers bid for priority placement of paid sponsored links in search results.

However, Xiang's departure last year was reportedly tied to concerns about deteriorating customer experience. The company posted its first quarterly loss since going public in January-March 2019. Dou Shen was named head of the mobile business group, which now includes search, as Baidu looks for ways to compete with the likes of ByteDance Technology's Toutiao.

Longzhong will focus on the angel stage investments. Xiang told media in September he had been backing start-ups in a personal capacity since July 2018. He has accumulated a portfolio of more than 20 investments, including math education platform Huohua and e-commerce service provider ZMTNetwork.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Renminbi fund
• Fundraising
• China
• Baidu