China VC Weekly: Keppel Capital’s New Fund, Pony.ai’s Lofty Valuation and More

In last week’s VC news, a local gene tech firm raises funds from Tencent, Singapore’s Keppel Capital sets its eyes on China’s logistics market, while autonomous driving powerhouse Pony.ai takes its valuation to new highs. 

Gene tech firm Vision Medicals backs $31 million in Series C round

Vision Medicals, a Guangzhou-based gene technology firm, has completed a 200 million yuan ($31 million) Series C round led by Tencent. 

Existing investors, including CICC Capital, CDH Investments, and CASH Capital also joined the round.

Vision Medicals previously raised 200 million yuan in its Series B round last August. The firm has so far served more than 800 medical institutions, including the Shanghai Children’s Medical Center.

About Vision Medicals
The Guangzhou-headquartered company focuses on genetic technology and precision medicine and diagnosis for infectious diseases. The firm works with two core technologies, pathogen metagenomics (mNGS) diagnosis, and gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas12/13) rapid diagnosis.

Keppel Capital raises new fund for expansion into China’s logistics market

Temasek-backed asset management arm of Singapore’s Keppel Group, Keppel Capital announced the creation of a logistics property fund to invest in developing high-quality assets in key logistics hubs in China. Keppel Capital’s subsidiary Keppel Capital China will serve as the fund’s investment manager.

The logistics property fund has secured an initial equity commitment of 1.4 billion yuan ($220 million), with an option to upsize by a similar amount by the end of 2021.

The fund will leverage the experience, network and expertise of Keppel Group, as well as one of the leading Chinese logistics developers and operators, according to Keppel Capital’s press release.

“Driven by rising domestic consumption as well as e-commerce, China’s demand for quality logistics facilities is expanding rapidly,” said Keppel Capital CEO Christina Tan. “Through the fund and our collaboration with our local logistics property partner, we look forward to delivering modern logistics facilities for key cities in the Chinese market, while also generating attractive risk-adjusted returns for our investors.”

About Keppel
Listed on the Singapore Exchange, Keppel Corporation is one of Singapore’s flagship multinational companies with a global footprint in more than 20 countries. Keppel Corporation provides solutions for sustainable urbanization, focusing on energy & environment, urban development, connectivity and asset management.

SEE ALSO: China VC Weekly: Biotech, Autonomous Driving and AI

Self-driving startup Pony.ai reaches $5.3 billion valuation after latest financing round

Self-driving car startup Pony.ai today announced it has raised $100 million in an extension of its series C round. The company has so far raised roughly $1 billion in total, with its post-money valuation reaching $5.3 billion, up from $3 billion a year ago.

Despite needing repeated disinfection, driverless taxies are believed to be a potentially potent means of minimizing the risk of spreading disease.

Last October, Pony.ai partnered with Via and Hyundai to launch BotRide, Pony.ai’s second public robo-taxi service after a pilot program (PonyPilot) in Nansha, China.

About Pony.ai
Founded by a former Baidu chief architect James Peng with Google X’s Tiancheng Lou in 2016, the company aims to build level 4 autonomous cars able to operate without human oversight under select conditions, as defined by the Society of Automotive Engineers.