CyberAgent Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of Japanese internet company CyberAgent, is branching out its Asia investment strategy once again with the news that it will raise a $16m (CNY100M) yuan-denominated fund this May to invest solely in Chinese companies. Joey Dai, the head of CyberAgent’s Beijing office confirmed the news to the Wall Street Journal.
The maiden vehicle will be invested in mobile internet companies, largely specialising in social networking and games for smartphones. The fund will commit between $500,000 (CNY3m) and $800,000 (CNY5m) for each investment.
Last month, CyberAgent Ventures, announced a partnership with BeSuccess, the front-running tech media and global launch platform for the tech start-up sector in Korea. The alliance will help CyberAgent Ventures to enhance its reach to more promising Korean start-ups. CyberAgent Ventures believes that the partnership with BeSuccess will add unique value to the Korean internet start-up community and will result in more opportunities to invest in promising start-ups there.
“As a significant value add of the new partnership with BeSuccess, CyberAgent Ventures will provide the BeSuccess audience with regular valuable information about the internet start-up markets in Japan, China and Southeast Asia,” said a CyberAgent statment.
Additionally, partnering with BeSuccess, CyberAgent Ventures plans to hold conferences particularly for Korean start-ups, which aim to expand their businesses into overseas markets.