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Law360 (April 9, 2020, 2:18 PM EDT) -- Chinese venture capital firm Qiming Venture Partners said Thursday that it has closed its latest fund after securing $1.1 billion from investors, with plans to target early-stage investments in the health care and technology, media and telecom sectors.
The closing of the new fund, called Qiming Venture Partners Fund VII, comes as there's significant need for investment in health care and technology companies during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Qiming expects to focus on areas like biopharma, medtech, diagnostics, health care services, information technology, artificial intelligence, enterprise services, consumer internet and e-commerce, according to a statement.
Qiming said in its Thursday press release that the firm is "pleased to be able to close the fund at our target amount and on our initial timetable amidst challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical uncertainties, and historical over-allocation to the venture capital asset class by many [limited partners]."
The fund received capital contributions from investors old and new, and the limited partner base includes endowments, foundations, family offices and private pension funds.
Formed in 2006, Qiming is headquartered in China and has offices in Shanghai, Beijing, Suzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Seattle, Boston and the San Francisco Bay Area. The firm manages nine U.S. dollar-denominated funds and five renminbi-denominated funds that together have about $5.3 billion worth of assets. The firm boasts having invested in more than 350 companies to date, many of which have gone public.
The closing of the new fund comes after a busy 2019 for Qiming. In October of last year, Qiming was among a group of investors that injected $51 million into Icosavax Inc., which develops vaccines for unmet medical needs. Other participants in that Series A for Icosavax included Adams Street Partners, Sanofi Ventures and NanoDimension.
A few months before that, in August, Qiming contributed to a $70 million Series C funding round for hotel booking and management startup RedDoorz. That investment round was led by Singapore-based growth equity firm Asia Partners, and the money was meant to help RedDoorz with several expansion projects, including the construction of a second tech hub in Vietnam.
Meanwhile, last May, Qiming was part of a group that injected $250 million into Chinese tourism and travel platform Mafengwo. That investment was led by Tencent Holdings Ltd.
-- Additional reporting by Morgan Conley. Editing by Abbie Sarfo.
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