China-headquartered peer-to-peer lending platform CreditEase has raised $32.2m for the first close of a venture capital fund that will invest in Israel-based technology developers.
The CEIIF II fund is being administered by the company’s CreditEase Wealth Management arm, and has set a final target of $50m. CreditEase closed the predecessor fund, CreditEase Israel Innovation Fund I, at $30m in late 2015.
CEIFF II will predominantly look to invest in six areas: virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence and machine learning, digital healthcare, the internet of things, advanced manufacturing, and cloud and data storage.
Benjamin Weiss, a managing partner of CEIIF, said: “Chinese investments in the past two years have moved from sharing economies to companies with richer [intellectual property] assets.
“This trend plays into both our investment philosophy at CEIIF and the strengths of the Israeli market. We are excited to continue the positive momentum from our first fund to find more innovative and profitable investment opportunities for our clients.”