VC Fund to Tap China’s Clean-Tech Hub

Californian clean-tech investor VantagePoint Venture Partners has expanded its reach in China, launching a $100 million fund to invest in the city of Tianjin.

VantagePoint this week announced the initial closing of the Tianjin VantagePoint Hi-tech China FIVCE Fund aimed at what the firm has described as the burgeoning clean-tech and financial services sectors in Tianjin and the surrounding Bohai Rim region.

"China is one of the key places where the global clean-tech future is being defined," said Alan Salzman, CEO and managing partner of VantagePoint. "The country is a world leader in terms of investment in clean energy and the Tianjin-Bohai Rim region is at the heart of this clean-tech revolution."

The RMB680 million ($100 million) fund, to be managed with state-owned companies Tianjin Hi-Tech Holding Group and Tianjin Binhai Development Investment Holding Co, is the first in the area to be jointly managed by a foreign partner.

With a substantial portion of the authorised capital already committed, VantagePoint said it intends to begin deploying the fund immediately. The fund managers will be looking closely at investment opportunities in energy efficiency, LED lighting, energy storage and waste recovery, but are open to all areas of clean-tech, a spokesman said.

VantagePoint has invested more than $1 billion in the clean-tech sector. The Silicon Valley-based company established an office in Beijing in 2007 and in June launched the China Low Carbon Index in partnership with the China Beijing Environment Exchange.

This latest fund will be one of the largest of its kind in China, according to the company.  This is the first VantagePoint fund exclusively devoted to China, but the company has made a number of investments in China and other Asia countries from its US-based general funds, a spokesman said.

By. Gloria Gonzalez

Source: Environmental-Finance