Chinese venture fund makes a big splash in London

London

"FRANKLY, we invited so many of you because we didn't expect all of you to come," John Zai, the chief executive of Cocoon Networks Ventures joked as he surveyed the hundred or so guests gathered on the top floor of accounting firm Ernst & Young's London offices last Friday.

Mr Zai shouldn't have been surprised: after all, it's not every day that a new venture capital fund rocks up in town with £500 million (S$1 billion) in its purse and an ambitious plan to help British startups in fields from hardware to biotechnology.

Cocoon Networks is one of the first Chinese venture funds to open for business in the UK - and one of the largest of any kind aimed at early stage investment in the country. The firm is funded by Beijing-based China Equity Group, which was an early investor in Baidu, China's popular search engine and Web servic…