Cathay Capital’s venture capital unit has raised €320m for the first close of its second venture capital fund.
The firm said Cathay Innovation is looking to close the vehicle on €500m, substantially more than the €287m raised for Cathy’s first fund.
The fund has secured commitments from Accor, BioMérieux, Dassault, JCDecaux Holding, Kering and Pernod Ricard.
Previous investors including Bpifrance, Groupe ADP, Groupe SEB, Michelin, Valeo and GL events also committed to the fund.
Cathay will tap Fund II to invest in digital trends across a number of industries, with a particular focus on commerce, new consumer tech, B2B services, platform opportunities, healthcare, FinTech, mobility and energy.
The firm is targeting startups at the beginning of the market expansion stage, located in North America, Europe and China.
“Cathay Innovation offers an approach that resonates among our investors as we manage to create trust and a collaborative environment between investors, corporates and start-ups,” said, Cathay Innovation co-founder Mingpo Cai.
“In today’s world, all players must accelerate the diffusion of their innovations to quickly scale up globally, and we have proven that connecting the key ecosystems of innovation in Europe, China and the United States creates value.
Cathay Innovation was launched in 2015 and has invested in more than 30 early stage companies.
Earlier this year, Cathay joined a $200m Series D round for US mobile banking startup Chime, after previously investing in its $70m Series C last year.
The firm also partcipated in a $48m funding round for big data company Trifacta, a €5m in Series A for data processing platform Saagie and a $75m Series B for Crypto wallet security solution Ledger.
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