China-based venture capital firm Banyan Capital has changed its English name to Gaorong Capital, to support consistent brand recognition.
The firm has four funds investing in dollars and four in Renminbi, with a total capital pool of around $1.7bn, according to the company. Earlier in the year, the firm closed its third RMB Fund III on RMB 560m ($65m), to support early stage companies.
Last year, Gaorong closed its RMB Growth Fund on RMB 2.5bn ($294m) to back growth and pre-IPO staged businesses and its USD Fund III on $400m, which will invest in early and growth level startups.
Its funds have received contributions from unnamed US university endowments, family offices, sovereign wealth funds and fund of funds. Alongside this, investors including founders and senior managers of Tencent, Baidu, Taobao, Xiaomi, 360, Focus Media, Sohu, VIP Shop, JD and Meituan have also committed to its investment vehicles.
The firm looks to invests in the TMT sector, including FinTech, AI, consumption and retail, and enterprise software.
Gaorong Capital founding partner Xiang Gao said, “Gaorong team’s value ‘OPEN’ represents ‘Outstanding, Partnership, Entrepreneurship, and Network’. It is important to incorporate the culture of ‘OPEN’ to team, portfolio companies and among our networks. We have faith in the power of companionship and we always stand by our partners and founders, especially in difficult times.”
The firm’s previous investments include big data platform QuantGroup, motor insurance platform Klover InsurTech and POS developer QianbaoCard.
Copyright © 2018 FinTech Global
