JP Gan, the former managing partner of Qiming Venture Partners, has closed his debut fund, which will target Chinese internet businesses, at $352 million.
INCE Capital, which Gan founded with another Qiming-veteran Steven Hu, raised more than its previous expectations of $250 million, according to a press release.
The new fund gathered investors from Pittsburg University, Duke, Carnegie Mellon, Dietrich Foundation, Commonfund, Mayo Clinic and others. It completed the fundraising within four months.
INCE Capital is looking at online opportunities in China. Although the number of mobile internet users in the country decreased by 2 million in the second quarter of the year, Gan thinks the various needs of mobile internet users will create new opportunities for investors.
Gan was managing partner for Qiming for the past 12 years. There he led the investments in a number of high-profile companies including Ctrip, Bilibili, Dianping, Musical.ly, Meitu and others. Prior to his time at Qiming, Gan worked at The Carlyle Group and Merrill Lynch.
Steven Hu has about 20 years of experiences in the Chinese internet market. He was chief executive of gaming company Ourpalm, and previously worked at Sohu, Sina and Kongzhong.
Chinese investors now have a number of ways to exit venture capital or private equity investments. The establishment of the STAR Market has stimulated the VC and PE market thanks to lower listing requirements for startups.
Although conglomerates like Alibaba and Tencent control most of the traffic volume, they are also buyers of and investors in internet startups. Tencent and Alibaba are among the top 10 institutions to have invested in the most unicorns in the world, according to Hurun Global Unicorn List 2019.
Gan and Hu hope to invest in startups with core technologies that bring quality service to the internet.
