GGV raises $625m for Sino-US fund IV

GGV, formerly known as Granite Global Ventures, is no different.

The US- and China-focused venture capital firmreached a final close at $625 million on its fourth fund - structured by Cooley - last week. Like most of its competitors, the vehicle has set its management fee at 2.5% and carried interest at 20%. It has a standard lifespan of 10+1+1. GGV, which launched the fund in third quarter of 2011, exceeded its target of $600 million with the help of UBS as placement agent.

"Given the current environment, it's a great time for us to invest," Shanghai-based partner Jixun Foo tells AVCJ. "With all the uncertainties and discounts you see in the market, we are actually very excited about the opportunities ahead of us investment-wise."

The new vehicle is larger its predecessor, Granite Global Ventures III, which raised $610 million in 2008 from LPs including the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), Quartilium and the State Universities Retirement System of Illinois.Previous exits by GGV of Chinese portfolio companies include Alibaba.com, AAC Acoustic Technologies, 21Vianet, Tudou and HiSoft Technology.

GGV Capital IV counts Neuberger Berman among its LPs, as well as a broad-based group of endowments, foundations, pension plans, fund-of-funds, family offices, and high net worth individuals. Minimum subscriptions to the vehicle were $5 million, with $520 million of the total raised coming from investors largely based in the US, Europe and Asia, and RMB650 million ($105 million) from LPs based in China.

GGV will continue its practice of investing $5-25 million in growth-stage companies across the internet and digital media, cloud computing and mobile industries in the US, as well as the consumer sector in China. "We see enterprise and cloud opportunities primarily in the US, but also in China," says Foo. "The country has gone through 30 years of high growth due to export-driven labor arbitrage, but increasingly you have to look at productivity growth. We think that internet IT enterprise solutions will become more and more important in the maturing China enterprise market."

Around$10.8 millionof the $520 million total capital raised forms part of a side vehicle known as GGV Capital IV Entrepreneurs Fund.This corpus includes investment from many of GGV's portfolio company CEOs, who it believes can help add value to the companies in which the firm invests.

Fund VI has already made investments in three Chinese companies, namely Shanghai-based food social network Douguo, RYB, an early education provider also located in Shanghai, and Beijing-based women's social network Meilishuo.

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Save this article  
• Send to  

• Topics
• Fundraising
• Venture
• Greater China
• China
• Venture
• GGV Capital
• Fundraising