US-based venture capital firm DCM Ventures closed its eighth flagship fund at $500m yesterday, securing capital from a raft of corporate limited partners.
The LPs included internet companies Baidu, Tencent and Naver, social media company Gree, telecommunications group SoftBank and mobile semiconductor producer Qualcomm.
DCM Ventures was founded in 1996 and its portfolio companies have included classified listings platform 58.com, automotive trading service BitAuto, online messaging platform Kakao Talk and e-commerce group Renren.
DCM VIII will invest in early-stage companies based in the US, Europe and Japan, and will mix existing areas of interest like digital media, software-as-a-service, financial technology and e-commerce with newer technology like virtual reality, automated drones and artificial intelligence.
Martin Lau, president of Tencent, said: “We continue to invest in DCM Ventures because we see it as a critical path for getting to know some of the world’s most interesting early-stage technology companies.”
The fund’s completion follows DCM’s closure of its $170m Turbo Fund, which invests between $5m and $20m in China-based companies, and a $100m A-Fund that invests at seed stage, over the past 18 months. It raised $330m for its last flagship fund, Fund VII, in March 2014.
David Chao, co-founder and general partner of DCM Ventures, said: “These new funds are a reflection of our ability to consistently deliver substantial distributions to our limited partners in all market environments.
“In the last three years alone, DCM Ventures distributed over $1.5bn back to our limited partners, and we look forward to replicating this success as we continue to partner with visionary entrepreneurs who are on the cutting edge of technology across the globe.”