At a time when startups and firms across the world are struggling to raise funds and remain financially healthy amidst tough market conditions, Sequoia Capital China has successfully raised $9 billion in fresh capital to further its investments in Chinese startups, The Information reports.
Sequoia Capital China, the Chinese affiliate of Silicon Valley-based VC firm Sequoia Capital, has secured the funds from pensions, endowment funds, and family offices from the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia.
According to people in the know, the round was oversubscribed by 50%, and Sequoia Capital China had actually received over $12 billion, which exceeded its initial target of nearly $8 billion. The Information notes that this could be the pool of capital ever raised by a single venture capital firm to bet on Chinese tech upstarts.
It seems that the fresh round of capital will be utilized to further the firm’s investments in the Chinese startup sector, especially in deep tech, consumer tech, and healthcare, across all stages. This will add to the over 900 companies it has funded in China so far, including agriculture-based tech platform Pinduoduo and delivery platform Meituan.
In accordance with this goal of driving investments in Chinese businesses, the latest bout of funding will be allocated to four separate funds. They are the Sequoia Capital China Expansion Fund I, Sequoia Capital China Seed Fund III, Sequoia Capital China Venture Fund IX, and Sequoia Capital China Growth Fund VII. These funds will target businesses from seed rounds to helping them grow and expand.
The raise is a significant one, and not just for the amount of capital raised. China is hardly the ideal market for investors right now, especially due to COVID-19, an economic slowdown, and a strict crackdown on China’s business behemoths such as Alibaba and Tencent. Recent times have seen companies such as Amazon cease several of their services and pull them out of the country.
On the global level, things are hardly much better. Fears of an economic recession and cooling investor interest have seen a funding crunch in the startup sector, which has seen many companies resort to mass layoffs to stay healthy and afloat during the economic downturn.
