CAS Investment, a Chinese technology-focused fund management firm, has reached the first close of a new RMB fund series to invest in disruptive startups in artificial intelligence (AI), cleantech, and biotech.
Beijing-based CAS Investment, which counts the Chinese Academy of Sciences as a major shareholder, announced on Tuesday the first close of the Guoke Ruihua Phase IV Equity Investment Fund at 3 billion yuan ($420.5 million).
The new fund series consists of two parallel funds incorporated in Beijing and Shenzhen, respectively, each with 1.5 billion yuan ($210.3 million) in dry powder, said the firm. Both funds are under the management of CAS Investment, known as their general partner (GP).
Parallel funds refer to fund entities that are set up under the same structures to invest side-by-side with similar themes, strategies, and risk management approaches.
The fund series will focus on core innovations in AI, cleantech, and biotech, as well as areas where the three technologies intersect. They look to invest in innovative startups with “disruptive innovations and global competitiveness”, said CAS Investment.
The first close saw the Guoke Ruihua Phase IV Equity Investment Fund rope in different types of limited partners (LPs), including large financial institutions, government guidance funds and local state-owned enterprises in China, as well as investors from the private sector.
Large insurance firms contributed to about 30% of the total committed capital, said CAS Investment.
Up to 49% of existing LPs subscribed to the new fund series. Some of them have been investing alongside CAS Investment since 2008, with commitments to all three prior fund series, according to the firm.
It did not name the LPs of Guoke Ruihua Phase IV Equity Investment Fund. But its network of LPs includes China Development Bank, China Merchants Group, China Everbright Limited, CICC Capital, China Pacific Insurance Company (CPIC), Japan’s ORIX Corporation, and Israeli insurance giant Harel Group.
The history of CAS Investment goes back to 1987 when the Chinese Academy of Sciences co-founded the fund management company as one of China’s first to provide loans to homegrown tech companies.
Its business has evolved over the years. The firm pivoted to angel investments between 1997-2006 before shifting its focus to early- and growth-stage equity investments after 2007.
Its early years of loan offerings and angel investments supported some 280 startups in bringing academic breakthroughs and lab research achievements to the market. After 2006, its equity funding efforts enabled the firm to build a portfolio of almost 140 companies, including 30 or so listed on stock exchanges at home and globally.
With offices in Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Silicon Valley, CAS Investment invests across intelligent manufacturing, AI infrastructure and application, and healthtech.
It is an investor of Shanghai-based chassis control system maker LeeKr Technology, which closed its 1-billion-yuan ($140.2 million) Series C round in June. In the same month, CAS Investment-backed commercial launch firm Space Pioneer raised over 1.5 billion yuan ($210.3 million) in a Series C+ round.
The firm is also a seasoned investor in semiconductors, with portfolios including Shanghai-listed semiconductor fabrication equipment maker Kingsemi.
