Chinese VC firm Eastern Bell raises US$2b for latest yuan and dollar funds

[SHANGHAI] Chinese venture capital firm Eastern Bell Capital has raised more than US$2.04 billion in its latest funding round, boosting the firm's investment firepower in the world's second largest economy.

The investor in electric-car maker Xpeng and Uber-like truck startup Full Truck Alliance Co raised the money through a yuan-denominated fund and a dollar fund, the company said in a statement on Tuesday (Dec 28), without giving a further breakdown.

After the latest close, Eastern Bell Capital's total assets under management reached 27 billion yuan (S$5.74 billion).

The yuan fund attracted investment from government funds, banks and insurers, known as limited partners, while the dollar fund drew overseas sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and family funds among others, it said.

China's venture capital and private equity firms set up 7358 new funds in the first 11 months of this year, raising a total of US$645.8 billion, according to a research note by CVINFO, an institution tracking the venture capital and private equity industry in China.

That was a recovery from 2020, when US$451.8 billion was raised, the smallest amount in 5 years, CVINFO said.

Eastern Bell Capital said it would continue to invest in industrial digitalisation and consumption upgrades.

REUTERS