Beijing-based China Creation Ventures (CCV), a venture capital (VC) fund, announced the completion of its latest $200m fundraising phase, in its bid to continue investing in early-stage startups in China’s Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) innovation field. This latest development brings CCV’s total funds raised close to RMB 3b ($440m), inclusive of one RMB fund and two USD funds.
Founded in April 2017, CCV’s founder Wei Zhou, who is a former managing partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) China, established the firm to leverage on the maturity of Chinese technology firms. To date, the VC firm has raised capital from family foundations and institutional investors.
CCV focuses mainly on both early-stage and growth-stage investments in China’s TMT ranging from technology and finance to entertainment. CCV claims to differentiate itself from other VCs through a strategy it terms “group-hunting” that focuses on future growth sectors, which it believes to be a more efficient strategy.
In an official statement, Zhou said, “We make sure that everyone has a deep understanding of the industry to be invested and makes their own contributions. We do not rely on a certain celebrity investor and our team is stable.”
CCV channels 70 per cent of its investments into Series A financing rounds, with nearly 30 per cent of them becoming unicorns. Examples include the likes of the Chinese e-commerce retailer JD.com and its financial arm JD Finance, Chinese online audio platform Ximalaya FM, Tan Tan Mobile Social, a social networking platform, and Chinese fintech firm Rong360. Recently, it exited a number of its investments over the past 8 months.
A key determinant of CCV’s investment thesis is that startup ventures must possess quality and have the ability to grow into a platform-like company. With an approach based on the belief that the current generation – used to mobile payments – is the main consumer group in the future, the firm reckons the growth of this group will drive the earnings & revenue of internet companies.