China VC Weekly: Biotech, Open-source and New Hefty Funds
Last week saw two prominent Chinese VC funds – Future Capital and Qiming Venture Partners – raise new US dollar funds. In other news, biotech firm D3 Bio bagged $200 million to expand its product portfolio, while open-source software developer Zilliz closed an investment round of $43 million.
SEE ALSO: China VC Weekly: Biotech, Autonomous Driving and AI
Biotech Startup D3 Bio Raises $200 Million in Series A round
D3 Bio, a Chinese biotech startup specializing in precision medicine development, has closed its Series A funding round raising $200 million to support the development of its portfolio in oncology and immunology.
Investors in the round included Chinese private equity firm Boyu Capital, Matrix Partners China, Sequoia Capital China, Singapore state investor Temasek and more.
“D3 Bio intends to create a robust portfolio comprised of internal core assets that can be leveraged for follow-on development as well as in-licensed early-stage clinical assets,” said Chen, co-founder of the company and oncological research veteran.
About D3 Bio
D3 Bio was co-founded by George Chen, an oncologist veteran who previously held senior positions at firms such as Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, and the National Institutes of Health. The other co-founder, John Jin, is a founding partner at healthcare-focused PE firm Hanne Capital and a former executive at Chinese biotech firm BeiGene and Taipei-based TaiGen Biotechnology.
Early-stage VC Firm Future Capital Closes $187 Million US Dollar Fund
Chinese early-stage venture capital firm Future Capital reported it has completed the final close of its fourth US dollar fund at roughly $187 million.
Some of its limited partners include global funds, family offices, foundations, and high net worth individuals from the US, Europe, and the Asia Pacific.
The firm’s USD Fund IV will continue to invest in early-stage enterprise technology (including enterprise software and software-as-a-service), as well as consumer technology companies in the Greater China region.
“With China’s accelerating industry digitalization, we see huge growth potential and incredibly strong demand for enterprise technologies that enable digitized work, business automation, smarter supply chains and logistics,” said Mingming Huang, founding partner of Future Capital.
About Future Capital
Founded in 2014, Future Capital currently manages three US dollar funds and one RMB fund, and has over $600 million of assets under management. It has invested in over 150 companies, including electric vehicle manufacturers Li Auto and Niu Technologies, mobile internet company Newborn Town, big data analysis firm Sensors Data, self-cleaning robot mop and vacuum cleaner maker Narwal and more.
Qiming Venture Partners Closes $1.2 Billion Fund VII
Qiming Venture Partners has announced the final close of its Qiming Venture Partners Fund VII raising nearly $1.2 billion in capital commitments.
The fund will target early-stage companies in the healthcare, technology, media and telecom sectors.
About Qiming Venture Partners
Founded in 2006, Qiming Venture Partners is one of the leading China venture capital firms with offices in Shanghai, Beijing, Suzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Seattle, Boston and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Open-source Software Developer Zilliz Bags $43 Million in Series B Round of Financing
Three-year-old Chinese startup Zilliz – a company specialized in building open-source software for processing unstructured data – recently announced it has closed a Series B round of $43 million.
The investment brings Zilliz’s total funding to roughly $53 million. Investors in the company include private equity firm Hillhouse Capital, who led the round, as well as Trustbridge Partners, Pavilion Capital and existing investors 5Y Capital (formerly Morningside) and Yunqi Partners.
Zilliz plans to deploy its fresh capital in overseas recruitment, expanding its open-source ecosystem, as well as for research and development in its cloud-based products and services, which will eventually become a revenue driver as it starts monetizing them in the second half of 2021.
About Zilliz
Zilliz builds open-source data science software for the era of AI and IoT. The company was founded in 2017 and operates as a distributed team with offices in both the U.S. and China.
