China’s Venture Capital Market World’s Most Active in April with $15.6bn in Funding

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The Chinese venture capital market was host to the greatest volume of activity globally in April, according to the China VC Tracker released by China Money Network last week.

Investors sealed a total of 209 deals worth USD$15.59 billion in April, a figure 166% higher than the monthly average for the United States.

In sharp contrast the US saw an average of $9.4 billion in venture capital funds deployed each month during the first quarter, for a total of $28.2 billion, which is the highest reading for any quarter since 2006.

China’s venture capital scene is also seeing bigger deals than US. The average venture capital deal in China was $70.24 million in April, or over four times greater than the average deal size of $16.7 million for the US market during the first quarter.

April saw four venture-capital deals worth over $1 billion in China, 19 worth more than $100 million and 32 worth more than $50 million.

Activity on China’s venture capital market is being driven to a large extent by the rapacious appetite of the country’s online tech giants for fresh investments.

Tencent, Alibaba and Baidu were the first, fourth and eighth most active investors in April, with Tencent participating in 11 deals worth $5.7 billion, Alibaba 5 deals worth $1.7 billion and Baidu 4 deals worth $154 million.

State-owned funds are also major players in China’s venture capital scene, with China Reform Fund Management teaming up with state-owned enterprises to lead a 1 billion yuan series C round for fintech startup 100 Credit, as well as working with Softbank Vision Fund to invest $1.9 billion in truck-hailing company Manbang Group.

The political capital of Beijing has also merged as the capital of venture investment deals in China, home to 79 companies that were capital recipients in April.

Shanghai came in second place with 46 VC-backed companies, and Shenzhen took third position with 21 companies.