Ardian has opened a new office in Hong Kong to strengthen its commitment to Greater China and the broader APAC market. Separately, Lightspeed China Partners has changed its name to “Luminous Ventures.”
Paris-based Ardian opens new office in HK
French private investment firm Ardian on Thursday announced the official opening of a new office in Hong Kong to showcase its commitment to Greater China and clients across the Asia-Pacific region.
Its new Hong Kong office is located at Two IFC in Central, in the heart of Hong Kong’s financial centre. It marks Ardian’s fifth location in Asia and second in China, following Beijing.
The office will see Ardian strengthen client relationships, including with private wealth investors, and build closer ties to the business and financial community in Hong Kong and the region.
Ardian, which manages or advises $192 billion of assets, has nearly 50 clients in Greater China, including insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds, private wealth investors, and endowments. Client commitments in this market represent $11.8 billion of Ardian’s AUM, which the firm intends to grow through its on-the-ground presence in Hong Kong, said the firm.
The new office will also support Ardian’s investments, primarily through its secondaries & primaries and co-investment activities.
Under its secondaries & primaries strategy, Ardian has invested a total of $4.3 billion in nearly 200 funds in Asia as of today. It has completed 12 secondary transactions with Asian sellers, totalling $6.6 billion. Its co-investment portfolio in Asia includes 11 existing investments, it said.
Jason Yao, Ardian’s head of Greater China, will lead the team in Hong Kong. Since joining Ardian in 2011, he has been instrumental in developing Ardian’s secondaries & primaries platform in China and leads the firm’s investor relations in the region. Yao will be supported by Jan Philipp Schmitz, executive vice president at Ardian and head of Ardian’s activities in Asia.
The office opening brings Ardian’s headcount in China to 20 employees, as the firm plans to expand further in the coming years. Including Hong Kong, Ardian’s global network now spans 20 offices across Europe, North and South America, Asia, and the Middle East.
Lightspeed China rebrands as Luminous Ventures
Lightspeed China Partners, a China-focused early-stage venture capital (VC) firm behind the likes of Meituan and Pinduoduo, has officially changed its name to “Luminous Ventures” to reaffirm its independent fund operations.
With about $3 billion in assets under management (AUM), Luminous Ventures primarily backs early- and growth-stage startups in China, with investments in more than 100 companies since its inception in 2011. It has launched a total of 11 funds, operating from offices in Beijing and Shanghai.
Through the rebranding, the firm targets to reinforce its brand identity, especially among entrepreneurs and limited partners (LPs), as a China-focused VC with fundraising, investments, and operations independent from the Menlo Park-headquartered namesake Lightspeed Venture Partners.
Its independent fund operations started as early as 2011, the firm stressed in an official statement.
Luminous Ventures is led by founding partner James Mi, who made many of the firm’s early investments in the now publicly-listed food delivery giant Meituan, e-commerce platform Pinduoduo, and InnoLight, a Chinese manufacturer of high-end optical communication transceiver modules for data centres and 5G networks. He is also known for investments in companies like Nasdaq-listed LiDAR sensor developer Hesai Technology and online trading platform Webull.
Before founding Luminous Ventures in 2011, Mi was a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. Prior to that, he had held management positions at Google and Intel.
