Chinese VC firm Eastern Bell raises $2 bln for latest yuan and dollar funds, Auto News, ET Auto

SHANGHAI: Chinese venture capital firm Eastern Bell Capital has raised more than 13 billion yuan ($2.04 billion) in its latest funding round, boosting the firm’s investment firepower in the world’s second largest economy.

The investor in electric-car maker Xpeng Inc and Uber-like truck startup Full Truck Alliance Co raised the money through a yuan-denominated fund and a dollar fund, the company said in a statement on Tuesday, without giving a further breakdown.

After the latest close, Eastern Bell Capital’s total assets under management reached 27 billion yuan.

The yuan fund attracted investment from government funds, banks and insurers, known as limited partners (LPs), while the dollar fund drew overseas sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and family funds among others, it said.

China’s venture capital and private equity firms set up 7358 new funds in the first eleven months of this year, raising a total of $645.8 billion, according to a research note by CVINFO, an institution tracking the venture capital and private equity industry in China.

That was a recovery from 2020, when $451.8 billion was raised, the smallest amount in five years, CVINFO said.

Eastern Bell Capital said it would continue to invest in industrial digitalisation and consumption upgrades.

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