CAS Star, a Chinese investment firm that focuses on early-stage hard tech startups, has held the first close of a new RMB-denominated investment fund.
With a fund size of around 2.6 billion yuan ($361.9 million), the Shanghai-registered venture investment fund has roped in several state capital-affiliated limited partners (LPs), including the likes of China SME Development Fund, a fund-of-fund to promote the sustainable growth of SMEs in key sectors, and Shanghai Pudong Innovation Investment Development, among others.
The hard-tech-focused fund, which targets a final close by the end of this year, aims to allocate 70% of the capital to early-stage firms, while the remaining sum will be invested across growth-stage firms spanning across Artificial Intelligence-enabled hard tech sectors.
Led by founding partner Mi Lei, a hard-tech industry veteran and researcher at the Xi’an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), CAS Star has so far invested in over 420 hard tech companies as of April 2024, including Shanghai-listed semiconductor developer Yuanjie Semiconductor Technology, intelligent logistics solutions provider Wayzim Technology, and Hong Kong-listed smart marketing tech firm Flowing Cloud.
CAS Star was ranked as one of the most active investors of May by deal count, investing at least $45 million into five startups across AI, semiconductor, materials, and the medical device sector, according to DealStreetAsia’s proprietary data.
