GGV Capital, a venture capital firm that has backed such companies as Airbnb and DraftKings, said on Tuesday that it has raised $1.25 billion for a pair of new funds, including $900 million for its sixth flagship and $250 million for a new “discovery” fund that will focus on seed and Series A opportunities. Expect both funds to begin calling capital late this summer.
A few notes, based on a conversation with GGV managing partner Hans Tung:
* No major changes to investment strategy, which means backing early and growth-stage mobile, SaaS and commerce tech companies in the U.S. And China. Expect a bit more focus on IoT this time around, plus greater attention being paid to “Tier 3-5 cities” in China (i.e., more rural areas).
* Tung acknowledges that China’s economic growth is slowing, but says that it is offset for firms like GGV by the rapid shift from offline to online. Not only on the consumer side, but also on the B2B side (suppliers coming online, etc.).
* Tung also thinks that still-private unicorns will respond to the flagging IPO market by merging with one another and/or with public companies. It’s something we’ve already seen in China, and Tung believes the trend will soon come stateside.
Some of GGV’s most notable portfolio companies have included Alibaba (BABA), AthenaHealth (ATHN), Glu Mobile (GLUU), Square (SQ) and YY (YY). In addition to Tung, its managing partners are: Jixon Fu, Jenny Lee, Hany Nada, Glenn Solomon and Jeff Richards.