China’s CreditEase reaches first close on Israel fund
CreditEase, a leading Chinese peer-to-peer (P2P) microcredit lender, has reached a first close of $30 million on its debut Israel-focused fund.
The CreditEase Israel Innovation Fund (CEIIF) received LP commitments from high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) who are CreditEase clients.
The fund, managed by a joint venture between CreditEase and two founding managing partners Tayman Kan and Benjamin Weiss, will invest in technology start-ups based in Israel and the US. It will back a mixture of early and later-stage companies in the areas of technology, media and telecom (TMT), healthcare and smart materials.
"The first closing of CEIIF represents a significant milestone for our wealth-management platform. We are encouraged by the confidence our clients continue to show in our new VC/PE investment products," said Richard Williamson, co-head of corporate strategy for CreditEase, in a statement.
Kan and Weiss previously founded iNetworks 360 fund in 2011, which was the first seed investor in Pebbles Interfaces - the virtual-reality start-up acquired by Facebook. They have invested in 10 other Israeli companies, including Corephotonics, Saguna Networks and Silentium.
CreditEase started as a P2P lending site in 2006, linking individual lenders to small-scale borrowers, typically the rural poor and urban micro-entrepreneurs. It received investment from IDG Capital Partners, Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia, and existing backer KPCB in 2011.
The company expanded quickly and now provides a range of consultation services, including wealth management, credit rating and microcredit lending. It claims to have 50,000 employees across more than 100 cities in China, providing lending services to more than one million borrowers.
CreditEase launched a microcredit fund - the IDG CreditEase Financial Innovation Fund - alongside IDG in 2013, with a view to backing Chinese financial services start-ups.
Chinese corporates and financial investors are attracted to Israel in their quest for high-end technology. They have committed funds to Israeli start-ups, and Chinese LPs have also invested in Israeli funds.
Singapore-based Vertex Venture Holdings also plans to get greater exposure to Israeli start-ups, having recently received $600 million from Temasek Holdings to invest in Vertex family funds across the US, Israel and China.
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