Jeneration Capital Is Said to Be Raising New $800 Million Fund

(Bloomberg) -- Jeneration Capital Management, a Hong Kong-based investor best known for backing technology companies, is raising about $800 million for a new fund, people familiar with the matter said.

The fund will mostly target consumer technology startups with an expected close over the coming months, the people said, asking not to be identified as the details are private. The final amount could change, they said. Jeneration, which already manages about $2 billion, will market the new round to a broader range of investors than the Chinese technology entrepreneurs and executives that it typically draws from, the people said.

Led by Jimmy Chang, a former technology banker at Morgan Stanley, Jeneration has attracted executives from Tiger Global Management and Coatue Management. Among its investments are Meituan-Dianping, a Chinese internet giant said to be seeking to go public at a $60 billion valuation, and Singapore-based ride-hailing service Grab, which in March agreed to buy Uber’s Southeast Asian operations.

The new fund coincides with confirmation from Jeneration that Jason Tan, who helped run Tiger’s investments in Didi Chuxing and 58.com Inc., has been hired as chief investment officer. He joins Tony Zhang, the former Asia head of hedge fund Coatue Management, who moved to the firm last year.

A spokesman at Sard Verbinnen & Co. in Hong Kong, which represents Jeneration, declined to comment.

Venture capital and private equity funds focused on Chinese technology investments are experiencing a boom thanks to a surplus of capital, rising valuations and a renewed push for public listings. The value of tech focused private equity funding has already reached $6.9 billion in the first five months of this year compared with $9.7 billion across the whole of 2017, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

In April alone Sinovation Ventures raised $500 million to back artificial intelligence companies and Eight Roads Ventures, the proprietary investment arm of Fidelity International Ltd., announced the launch of a $275 million China technology fund.

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: David Ramli in Beijing at dramli1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Robert Fenner at rfenner@bloomberg.net, Edwin Chan

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.

With assistance from David Ramli