GGV reaches $1.2b final close on Sino-US VC fund

The main fund, GGV Capital VI, and a parallel top-up vehicle have a combined corpus of $900 million. The GP has raised a further $250 million for GGV Discovery I, which will focus on early-stage opportunities in China. Finally, the $50 million GGV Capital VI Entrepreneurs Fund allows members of the GGV network - primarily Chinese start-up founders - to participate in deals.

Institutional LPs in the new fund include National University of Singapore (NUS), Northwestern University, Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association (LACERA) and Oregon State Treasury. 

"GGV Capital leverages its experience in the US, China and Asia broadly to gather sector insights that enhance its ability to invest beyond local economic cycles and to consistently deliver top-tier returns to its investors. We are thrilled to invest again with one of the top performing global venture capital firms," Andy Hayes, private equity investment officer at Oregon State Treasury, said in a statement.

GGV closed its fifth fund in April 2014 at $620 million, comprising an institutional tranche of $600 million plus an entrepreneur fund. GGV Capital Select, a top-up fund of $457 million dedicated to follow-on investments in portfolio companies from Funds IV and V, closed in May 2015. GGV Capital IV closed in 2011 on $520 million and then raised an additional $105 million from Chinese investors.

GGV, which has more than $3.8 billion in assets under management, was founded in 2000 and has offices in Silicon Valley and Shanghai. The firm is led by managing partners Jixun Foo, Jenny Lee, Hany Nada, Jeff Richards, Glenn Solomon and Hans Tung.

The fact that GGV is dividing its new fundraise into various parts, with a dedicated early-stage vehicle, reflects the increased focus among China VC firms on growth and even late-stage technology deals. About 80% of GGV Discovery I will be used to back Chinese entrepreneurs in seed and early-stage rounds, while the rest will go to globally-minded founders in the US and other markets. The main fund, meanwhile, will continue to support early- and growth-stage companies.

The GP will target three main sectors - social and mobile commerce, internet-of-things (IoT) and robotics - plus software-as-a-service (SaaS) and cloud technology. Since 2011, more than 70% of GGV's investments have been at the seed, Series A or Series B stages, and investees have become increasingly cross-border in their orientation.

At present, 15 privately-held companies in GGV's portfolio are valued at more than $1 billion, and half were at Series B or earlier when the GP initially invested. Since inception, GGV has seen 28 portfolio companies go public, including US-based Square in 2015 and Zendesk and Nimble Storage in 2014. On the M&A side, its portfolio companies completed more than $15 billion transactions last year.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Venture
• Fundraising
• Technology
• Expansion
• China
• Venture
• Fundraising
• GGV Capital
• TMT
• USA
• Growth capital