Longzhu Capital, the corporate venturing arm of China-based local services portal Meituan Dianping, has closed its first fund at RMB2bn ($300m), China Money Network reported yesterday.
The capital came from Meituan Dianping, internet group Tencent and agribusiness New Hope Group as well as China Merchants Capital, Noah Holdings, Guochuang Kaiyuan Fund and Xiangjiang Shengshi Fund.
Longzhu Capital focuses on sectors such as catering, new retail and local services, and aims to leverage Meituan Dianping’s expertise and resources. It had originally targeted a $220m close for the fund.
The fund has already invested in bubble tea chain HeyTea and business-to-business consumer goods distributor Zskuaixiao. It also led a $14.5m series A round for bakery chain Bliss Cake in December 2017, though that deal had not previously been reported.