Ameba Capital, a Chinese venture capital (VC) firm that focuses on the enterprise services and IT sectors, announced on Tuesday that it has reached the final close of its maiden US dollar fund at $265 million to focus exclusively on software-as-a-service (SaaS) investment in China.
The announcement came after DealStreetAsia first reported the firm’s plan of raising the SaaS fund, dubbed “Ameba China SaaS Fund,” based on its filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on October 12.
For the new fund, the Shanghai-based firm said in a statement that it secured capital commitments from sovereign wealth funds, funds of funds, industry enterprises, family offices, and other institutional investors across Europe, North America, the Middle East, and Asia.
Anchor investors of the fund include NewQuest Capital Partners, an Asia Pacific-focused secondaries private equity platform, said Ameba.
Ameba was founded in 2011 by Wang Donghui, who also goes by his English name Kevin Wang, after he departed from software firm Kingsoft Corporation where he served as executive director and CFO.
The firm, which started deploying capital in the SaaS field in 2013, has built a SaaS portfolio consisting of startups like Jushuitan Network Technology, which offers enterprise resource planning (ERP) SaaS solutions to clients in the e-commerce industry; artificial intelligence (AI)-based e-commerce SaaS startup Leyan Technologies; and smart campus SaaS provider Xiaoyang Group.
“Ameba specialises in China’s new-generation IT industry with a heavy focus on cross-industry services and cross-platform integration projects. We cherry-pick data-driven SaaS startups with the potential to create large-scale commercialisation, high entry barriers, cross-cyclical growth, and compound effect,” said the firm.
“We look to grow alongside our investee companies, re-upping our shareholding positions and holding long-term,” it said.
Besides SaaS, Ameba also invests in early- and growth-stage startups across the segments of enterprise services, big data and AI, consumption, and industry upgrade. By far, it has backed over 100 startups, such as US-listed fashion social e-commerce platform Mogu, and B2B drug e-commerce website Yaobangmang. It is also an investor of CoutLoot, an online fashion marketplace in India.
Ameba-backed WM Motor, an electric vehicle brand that was close to raising about $500 million in new funding, is seeking to go public on Shanghai’s Nasdaq-style STAR Market. Ride-hailing giant Didi Global, also the firm’s portfolio firm, is facing potentially heavy penalties due to China’s heightened user data security review shortly after its $4.4-billion US IPO.
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