Hony closes debut China VC fund at $130m
Chinese private equity firm Hony Capital has closed its first venture capital fund at $130 million after approximately four months in the market.
Hony said the vehicle was oversubscribed and received commitments from multiple global institutional investors. It offered no further detail on the composition of the LP base.
The firm has already made several investments across the digital consumption field, including cosmetics brand Perfect Diary, skincare brand Ximuyuan – also known as Simpcare – fresh produce delivery service Dingdong Maicai, and online art education platform Meishubao. Yatsen Holding, the parent company of Perfect Diary, recently filed for a US IPO. Hony led the company’s Series A round in 2017. It did not specify which fund participated in this deal.
Hony Ventures did back Ximuyuan, Dingdong Maicai, Meishubao, and Zhongli Yuhua, a short video platform. The new fund’s investments will focus on digital-driven consumer brands, new retail and digital content platforms for specific verticals, leveraging China’s position as the world’s leading consumer market, largest supply chain, and most advanced digital infrastructure ecosystem.
“The two core consumption forces, the generation Z demographic and emerging middle-class families, are driving structural changes in demand. At the same time, the transition from traditional centralized media to decentralized, personalized, and lean mobile social media provides faster and more accurate user access. China has the opportunity to give birth to a new generation of consumer brands and retail channels,” said Tianshi Wang, a managing partner at Hony Ventures, in a statement.
The firm will also seek opportunities in B2B services, concentrating on industrial digitization. Computing and connectivity, smart devices, and data-driven applications. Hony hopes to bring to bear the experience and operational expertise of its private equity operation in this area.
Established in 2003 and sponsored by Legend Holdings, Hony has $12 billion in assets under management across private equity, real estate, mutual fund, and hedge fund strategies. The firm closed its most recent flagship private equity fund in 2016 at $2.7 billion, comprising US dollar and renminbi tranches.
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