Hong Kong's C Capital secures $250m for latest PE fund

The firm said Private Equity Fund III is its largest PE vehicle to date, noting in a statement that the total comprises capital held in a principal fund and in associated co-investment entities. According to a statement, the target was upsized in response to strong demand. However, last September, when the fund achieved a first close, the target was put at USD 300m.

The first close – on approximately half the targeted amount – coincided with a rebranding of the firm from C Ventures to C Capital. This reflected efforts to diversify into a multi-strategy asset manager. Overall assets under management now exceed USD 1.3bn. These are held in a private credit fund and a blockchain hedge fund as well as in private equity vehicles.

There are more than 20 participating LPs in Fund III, including fund-of-funds, financial institutions, and family offices from across Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Europe. It represents a gradual institutionalisation of the investor base. C Capital was established in 2017 and Fund I was essentially a family office for Cheng. A second fund closed in 2019 with some third-party capital.

Fund III will follow a similar strategy to its predecessors, backing global growth-stage companies across the consumer and technology sectors. Speaking to AVCJ following the rebranding, Ben Cheng, C Capital’s CEO and president, noted that Fund III would make slightly later-stage investments than previous funds.

“This is a time to consolidate market share and that’s why it makes sense to stay away from seed-stage companies,” he said. “I suspect the next 18 months will be quite difficult for entrepreneurs to raise subsequent rounds. We want to bet on the bigger guys with enough cash balance to operate for at least two years.”

C Capital claims that more than one-third of the companies it has backed have achieved unicorn status. These include tech accessories brand Casetify, electric vehicle manufacturers Xpeng and Nio, artificial intelligence specialist SenseTime, overseas-focused fashion retail platform Shein, logistics provider Lalamove, and industrial robotics player Agile Robotics.

Casetify – and chip designer Biren – were cited by Cheng as examples of later-stage activity oriented towards pre-IPO companies. C Capital made single-deal investments of USD 60m and USD 50m in Casetify and Biren, respectively.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Fundraising
• Growth
• Technology
• GPs
• Hong Kong (China)
• C Ventures
• Fundraising