Deal Street Asia reports on the China state-owned venture capital firm Shenzhen Capital, which has raised RMB27.5bn ($4bn) for its advanced materials fund, primarily ($3.3bn) from the near-RMB150bn Shenzhen Municipal Government Investment Fund.
Shenzhen Capital manages $57bn and has invested in 102 new materials companies over the past 20 years, according to DealStreetAsia. New materials are one of 10 sectors China wants to dominate globally by 2025.
Europe remains stuck in a penny packets mode of funding, raising tens or hundreds of millions of dollars for the handful of materials-focused venture units, such as Emerald Technology Ventures, ETF Partners, Jonathan Tudor’s new Clean Growth Fund, Finindus, SET Ventures and Imec.xpand.
Even the so-called planned €100bn Green Deal by the European Commission for its next budgetary cycle remains stuck in discussions and facing cuts to its venture program.
But the green shoots can be seen, with Edward Kliphuis, Spain-based investment director at M Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of Germany-based materials and healthcare company Merck, joining venture capital firm Amadeus Capital Partners as a partner and even relatively staid Switzerland-listed industrials group Orell Füssli starting its venturing program.
Competition, however, is no longer in the next canton but the far side of the world.
