CyberAgent Ventures’ former Beijing head forms $30 million fund for Chinese startups

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See the original story in Japanese.

Joei Dai, the former General Manager of CyberAgent Ventures China (Beijing), has gone independent from the company and founded a new fund called Gravity Venture Capital (GVC). The new fund, focused on Chinese startups in the fields of O2O (offline to online) and IoT (Internet of Things), will work intimately with the Japanese market.

Dai and his team is still under raising funds but aims to close by the end of July, expecting to be valued around $30 million. Having no portfolio company yet because it is a very new fund, they are looking to invest in startups involved in online sports communities and overseas travel services, as well as follow-up investments in companies invested by CyberAgent Ventures (CAV) from its Renminbi fund.

GVC will be focused on investing in early-stage startups dealing with tool apps, sharing economy, cross-border e-commerce and supply-chain finance. So it is understood that the fund will follow the investment scope of CAV’s Renminbi fund.

GVC told The Bridge that they are raising funds from top-tier funds of funds in China, A-share listed companies and CEOs of other listed companies in China, despite the fact that they cannot disclose specific names of their investors.

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Joey Dai, Gravity Venture Capital

A 2006 Aoyama Gakuin University (Tokyo) graduate, Dai joined CAV after working at Japanese social media company Gaiax. He was appointed an investment manager at age 26, then General Manager of CAV Beijing office at 29. This was followed by management of the Renminbi fund he fundraised from investors when he was 31 years old.

According to PEDaily, an investment-focused news media in China, he was involved in investments in more than 50 projects during his seven years at CAV. 80% of them could find the next round and 10 startups made an exit, while 3 companies successfully IPO-ed.

His successfully-exited portfolio companies from CAV Renminbi fund include Fantongwang (restaurant booking service in China) and Koudai.com (mobile commerce in China). Noteworthy among others is Gfan.com (Android app market in China), which was successfully acquired in 2013 by Shenzhen-based cellphone retailing company Aisidi for $55 million, which gave his fund a 20fold return on investment.

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy