Financial services firm BBVA agreed today to provide $50m in capital for Sinovation Fund IV, a $500m fund being raised by China-based venture capital firm Sinovation Ventures.
Founded in 2009, Sinovation manages a total of about $1.7bn in assets across six funds. Its exits include bicycle rental service Mobike, which agreed to a $2.7bn acquisition by Meituan-Dianping earlier this month, and image sharing app Meitu, which floated in a $600m IPO in 2016.
Sinovation Fund IV is concentrating on artificial intelligence-equipped technology and will consider investments in business-to-business, education and online consumer product developers.
BBVA said in a statement the investment will give it access to the Chinese technology market as well as AI technology, which it expects will power banking tools in the coming years. It is also open to co-investing in China-based companies with the firm.
Carlos Torres Vila, CEO of BBVA, said: “By investing into the Sinovation Fund IV, we are ensuring we can learn from and build connections with some of the most promising AI solutions being built anywhere on the planet. Just as importantly, we can do it via a high-performing investment platform with a strong return profile.”
Spain-headquartered BBVA formed a $100m financial technology fund called BBVA Ventures in 2013, before transferring those assets, along with another $150m of capital, to VC firm Propel Venture Partners in early 2016.