Israel-based venture capital firm Carmel Ventures has closed its fourth fund at $194m after receiving commitments from China-based corporates Baidu, Ping-An, and Qihoo360.
Carmel, part of private equity group Viola, currently has over $800m under management across 35 active companies. It invests between $1m and $10m, and between $100,000 and $1m at seed stage.
The fund will target early-stage companies in sectors including enterprise software, data centre infrastructure, big data, cybersecurity, financial technology, digital media and consumer applications.
Search engine provider Baidu, financial services group Ping-An, and security software producer Qihoo360 invested in the fund alongside other strategic Asia-based backers and undisclosed new and returning investors.
Daniel Tu, Ping An’s chief innovation officer, said: “We are delighted to be making our first investment in an Israeli Venture fund with Carmel Ventures.
“Carmel offers us reliable access to Israeli innovation and we look forward to partnering with them.”
Carmel began investing out of Fund IV in January and has so far backed five start-ups, leading series A rounds for PlayBuzz, the Israel-based developer of an online publishing network which secured $3m in June, and game developer LuckyFish, which raised $1.6m the month before.
The firm’s last fund, Carmel III, closed at $235m in 2008.