China's M31 Capital closes debut fund at $450m

LPs include sovereign wealth funds, university foundations, insurance companies, fund-of-funds, family offices, and entrepreneurs. 

The new fund will invest in 12-15 companies - global businesses as well as Chinese start-ups. M31 Capital is also raising its first renminbi vehicle, which will focus on early-stage investments in healthcare and new technologies.

M31 Capital was founded in 2018 by Lei Zhong, who previously led global investments at Fosun Group and served as CIO at Wanda Group, a leading Chinese commercial property developer. The firm's name was inspired by the Andromeda Galaxy - the largest galaxy visible to humans from Earth - which is also known as M31.

The firm has already invested in mobile internet giant ByteDance, early cancer screening company Grail, and second-hand car trading platform Guazi.com. Illumina, a global gene sequencing player, recently announced that it would acquire the Grail for $8 billion. 

Tian Lin, a managing director at M31 Capital, told the China Investor Future Summit earlier this month that the first closing of the US dollar fund was very smooth. However, getting from first to final close involved meetings with about 200 overseas LPs.

“There are quite a few LPs that we knew might not invest in a first-time fund, but we wanted to establish a connection in advance, so we can approach them again when we raise our second vehicle," Lin explained.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Fundraising
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• M31 Capital