Tencent Investment, a corporate venturing subsidiary of China-headquartered internet group Tencent, has begun discussions with limited partners and family offices for a $650m corporate venturing fund, Bloomberg reported today.
The prospective fund would be dollar-denominated and “at least” $650m in size, according to people familiar with the matter.
The unit, which according to Bloomberg raised $600m for a fund in 2017, plans to use the extra capital for follow-on deals but has not set a firm target for the new fund because it is still assessing investor interest.
Run by managing partner Jeffrey Li and general manager Forest Lin, Tencent Investment operates within its parent company and has seeded about 600 companies according to Bloomberg.
However, the unit’s deals are not publicly separated from the larger investments Tencent makes itself off its balance sheet.
Tencent’s larger recent deals have included it co-leading a $450m round for online grocer MissFresh, leading an $820m series C round for robotics technology producer UBtech and making a $180m investment in Brazil-based digital banking service Nubank.
