Legend Star closes fifth renminbi fund on $123m
Legend Star, the China-based venture capital arm of Legend Holdings, has closed its fifth renminbi-denominated fund with more than CNY 900m (USD 124m) in commitments.
More than two-thirds of the capital came from existing LPs, including commercial fund-of-funds, government guidance funds, family offices, and high net worth individuals, according to a PE Daily report that Legend Star re-posted on social media.
The firm noted that government guidance funds have become the driving force of renminbi funds, but it looks to limit their participation in its funds so as not to inhibit investment scope. Mingyao Wang, a managing partner at Legend Star, added that the firm deliberately capped the size of the fund. “We don't want the investment team to be too aggressive,” he said.
Legend Star has raised 11 funds to date with nearly CNY 5bn in assets under management. This is its largest to date. The third and fourth local currency vehicles, which closed in 2018 and 2020, respectively, both had corpora of CNY 800m. Fund III marked the first time Legend Star had raised capital from third-party investors as an independent business. Before that, it spent 10 years as a wholly captive unit.
Wang said that distributions to paid-in (DPI) for the first three funds are above 1x, while Fund I has returned more than 5x.
Fund V has already made 19 investments across semiconductors, new energy, biotech, and digital healthcare. These include Syngenemed, Yizhu Technology, CarbonSilicon AI Technology, X-imaging, SeekGene, and Startorus Fusion.
Legend Star, which has invested in more than 400 companies since inception, continues to rely on an incubation-plus-early-stage investment model. Its three main areas of coverage are hard technology, healthcare, and technology, media, and telecom.
More on Greater China
Latest News
Asian GPs slow implementation of ESG policies - survey
Asia-based private equity firms are assigning more dedicated resources to environment, social, and governance (ESG) programmes, but policy changes have slowed in the past 12 months, in part due to concerns raised internally and by LPs, according to a...
Singapore fintech start-up LXA gets $10m seed round
New Enterprise Associates (NEA) has led a USD 10m seed round for Singapore’s LXA, a financial technology start-up launched by a former Asia senior executive at The Blackstone Group.
India's InCred announces $60m round, claims unicorn status
Indian non-bank lender InCred Financial Services said it has received INR 5bn (USD 60m) at a valuation of at least USD 1bn from unnamed investors including “a global private equity fund.”
Insight leads $50m round for Australia's Roller
Insight Partners has led a USD 50m round for Australia’s Roller, a venue management software provider specializing in family fun parks.