China VC Weekly: EVs, Food and China Renaissance’s New Fund
China Renaissance’s Huaxing Growth Capital raises new $600 million fund
Beijing-based investment bank China Renaissance announced that it has closed its Huaxing Growth Capital USD Fund III raising more than $600 million.
According to the firm’s official statement, investors based across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East committed capital for the fund with the consortium of investors comprising sovereign wealth funds, commercial banks, family offices as well as individual investors.
The size of the USD Fund III will allow Huaxing Growth Capital to make single investments of up to $50 million.
“Over the past seven years, China Renaissance has invested in over 100 New Economy entrepreneurs and home-grown champions, and helped more than 30 of these companies go public in China and international markets. China’s structural changes continue to create significant new investment opportunities,” China Renaissance CEO and Huaxing Growth Capital Founding Partner Fan Bao said in the statement.
Prior to the USD Fund III, China Renaissance raised over 6.5 billion yuan for its last year’s RMB Fund III.
About Huaxing Growth Capital
An investment offshoot launched in 2013 by China Renaissance, Huaxing Growth Capital focuses on Chinese companies within the technology, media, and entertainment sectors, and manages a total of six private equity funds, split equally as three USD funds and three RMB funds. The firm has so far backed the likes of Meituan Dianping, DiDi Chuxing and MiningLamp.
WM Motor bags $73.1 million from SAIC parent
Shanghai Automotive Industry, the parent company of state-owned SAIC Motor, has invested 500 million yuan ($73.1 million) in WM Motor, the Paper reported today.
The NEV maker is mulling an initial public offering as soon as this year on Shanghai’s year-old Nasdaq-style Star Market, Bloomberg News reported on July 24, citing people familiar with the matter. The Shanghai-based firm would aim for a valuation of more than CNY30 billion (USD4.39 billion), it added.
Three compatriot rivals have recently wrapped up their New York IPOs. The first, Tencent Holdings-backed Nio, raised USD1 billion last September and said on Aug. 31 that it will issue more shares on the New York Stock Exchange to garner a further USD1.7 billion.
Li Auto, which has Meituan Dianping at its back, raised USD1.1 billion via a Nasdaq listing in late July, while Alibaba-backed Xpeng Motors raised USD1.5 billion via an NYSE offering last month.
WM Motor netted CNY3 billion (USD438.7 million) in a Series C round of funding in March 2019, led by tech titan Baidu.
About WM Motor
Founded in 2015, WM Motor is a provider of emerging new energy vehicles and mobility solutions in China. WM Motor is committed to growing the popularity of intelligent electric vehicles and determined to become a service provider for the new ecology of intelligent mobility with the development of intelligent hardware driven by data.
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Health food brand Sharkfit closes CNY15 million series A round
Chinese health food brand Sharkfit completed a series A round of financing worth CNY15 million led by Plum Ventures, 36Kr reported.
The company whose offerings span healthy meal replacements, supplements and snacks, has grown rapidly within the past year. The company raised its CNY10 million angel round of financing only 3 months earlier, in June 2020.
About Sharkfit
Established in 2017, Sharkfit went viral among Gen Z with its star product – instant chicken breast, which topped the T-mall chicken breast products chart for 17 consecutive months.
