GSR Ventures has officially separated its US business from its China practice, with the launch of Informed Ventures to assume responsibility for the venture capital (VC) company in the US and continue with early-stage investments.
A dual-currency VC firm managing $3.7 billion, GSR said in a Thursday statement that Informed Ventures will continue to invest upwards of $200 million from its existing capital pool in companies across digital health, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), and consumer products and services, including vertical applications of AI. The firm has deployed about $300 million in US-based startups to date.
GSR, one of the five VC firms rebuked by Congress in early 2024 for investments in China, set up Informed Ventures as the 21-year-old global investment firm joined its peers, including Sequoia Capital and GGV Capital, in separating US and China operations amid ongoing geopolitical uncertainties.
Sequoia announced in June 2023 to split off its Chinese and Indian/Southeast Asian businesses into independent firms, with each adopting a distinct brand – Sequoia Capital in the US and Europe; HongShan in China; and Peak XV Partners in India and Southeast Asia.
A few months later, GGV followed with plans to separate its business into two, leading to the rebranding of its Asia practice as Granite Asia for investments in Southeast Asia, China, and India.
“We set up a US-based subsidiary in 2019 because it was quite apparent even back then that you needed a US fund to be able to invest effectively in early-stage ventures here,” Richard Lim, founder of Informed Ventures and co-founder of GSR Ventures, told the American news website Axios.
“We made a decision then to call it GSR Ventures US, and it turned out to be a mistake. There was massive confusion,” said Lim.
GSR’s move to split its US, China operations came weeks after the VC company partnered with Coller Capital in a general partner (GP)-led secondary transaction of eight assets in the consumer and tech sectors in China. The deal is worth 229 million yuan ($31.6 million).
In China, GSR is known for its investments in firms such as the country’s largest ride-hailing firm Didi Global, Alibaba-owned food delivery business Ele.me, travel booking service Qunar, and social media app Xiaohongshu, which is also known as RedNote.
