<article>Venture capital firm GGV Capital, an early Alibaba backer, has raised 1.5 billion RMB (nearly $236 million) for its first RMB-denominated fund, according to an official statement.</article>

Venture capital firm GGV Capital, an early Alibaba backer, has raised 1.5 billion RMB (nearly $236 million) for its first RMB-denominated fund, according to an official statement.
The new fund will invest in early- and growth-stage startups in internet services, advanced technologies, smart hardware, enterprise services and digital services.
The latest fund takes GGV&#8217;s total assets under management to over $4 billion. The firm currently manages eight US dollar-denominated funds, in addition to the RMB fund.
A China Money Network report said that backers of the latest fund include a subsidiary of CICC Capital, China Industrial Bank, Zero2IPO Group, Ping An Insurance and Zheshang Innovest Capital Management.
GGV, also an early investor in ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing and Xiaomi, had in 2016 closed new funds totalling $1.2 billion for global investments. Its other portfolio companies include Singapore-headquartered Grab, Airbnb and Slack.
In January 2017, Reuters had reported that the VC firm was in discussions to raise its debut RMB fund to invest more easily in Chinese sectors restricted to foreign entities such as the internet.
Firms often have to resort to using the costly variable interest entity (VIE) structure for investments in sectors deemed sensitive by the government. The VIE structure gives shareholders the rights to revenues while Chinese nationals retain ownership. However, such firms are barred from domestic stock exchanges.
China is now paving the way for the domestic flotation of offshore-listed tech giants. Last week, the country&#8217;s securities regulator published draft rules on the issuance of China Depositary Receipts, or CDRs, to woo firms such as Alibaba, Baidu and JD.com to list at home via secondary listings.

The latest fund takes GGV's total assets under management to over $4 billion. The firm currently manages eight US dollar-denominated funds, in addition to the RMB fund.  

Alibaba backer GGV Capital raises $236m for first RMB fund

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Alibaba backer GGV Capital raises $236m for first RMB fund

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