Morningside Venture Capital rebrands as 5Y Capital

The China-focused firm was established in 2008 by members of Morningside's technology, media and telecom (TMT) investment team, led by Richard Liu and Ken Shi. They started launching independent funds, with the Chan family serving as an anchor LP.

Morningside closed its most recent US dollar-denominated fund in 2018 at $1 billion, a considerable step up in size from the GP’s previous vehicle, which closed at $660 million in 2015. Its funds tend to comprise multiple tranches: a core venture fund, a growth vehicle for later-stage investments, and a co-investment pool.

The firm currently has $3 billion in assets under management across two renminbi funds and several US dollar vehicles. There has been no change in the team following the separation from Morningside Group.

5Y Capital is a version of Morningside's new Chinese name, Wuyuan Capital, which in turn derives from Wuyuan Road, the location of the firm's Shanghai office. Wuyuan translates into English as "five sources." Liu said the Chinese name reflects the collaborative nature of investing. Collaboration and mutual empowerment among individual investors are intended to underpin 5Y Capital's strategy.

“Collective work is much more difficult than making investments as individuals and it also less efficient. But only by combining our personal strengths and exploring early ideas together can we face and overcome significant challenges in the future,” he added.

Morningside was the first institutional backer of mobile phone brand Xiaomi and is said to have realized an 800x return on its investment. Other notable past and present investments include UCWeb, YY, Kuaishou, Huami, Musical.ly, Horizon Robotics, Huya, Pony.ai, and Xpeng. 

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• Topics
• Greater China
• GPs
• Technology
• China
• 5Y capital
• Morningside Venture Capital
• TMT