Banyan Capital Changes Name to Gaorong Capital

Gaorong Capital currently manages four USD funds and four RMB funds, with a total commitment of USD 1.7 billion approximately. Investors of Gaorong are world-class, including top US university endowments, well-known family offices, sovereign wealth funds and top-notch fund of funds; apart from financial institutions, investors on the strategic side include large conglomerates in tech and traditional industries, successful entrepreneurs such as founders or senior managers of Tencent, Baidu, Taobao, Xiaomi, 360, Focus Media, Sohu, VIP Shop, JD and Meituan. In early April 2017, Gaorong Capital announced the successful closing for both USD Fund III and RMB Growth Fund. The "institution plus entrepreneur" LP structure has fueled Gaorong with affluent capital as well as strategic resources.

Gaorong Capital focuses on early and growth stage investments in TMT, including AI and frontier technologies, consumption and retail, fintech, and enterprise services. More than 20 Gaorong portfolio companies have grown to be their respective sector leaders, such as Huya, Huami, Lifesense, Zhongrongjin, Good Doctor, Pinduoduo, Meituan, Finup Group, Nuro, Beibei, Leqee, DotC, Yitu, Roborock, DeePhi, Yibot, Alauda, Aika, QuantGroup, Shuidihuzhu, Testin, Doumi, BIGO LIVE and Urwork.

By the end of 2017, more than 15 Gaorong portfolio companies have their valuation above USD 1 billion. Four successful IPO portfolios have been achieved by the 4-year-old Gaorong Capital, including Lifesense, Huami, Good Doctor and Huya.

As 'China's Founders Fund', Gaorong believes there are three core concepts to be considered when developing an effective value proposition, according to Mr Zhen Zhang, Founding Partner at Gaorong Capital. "First of all, we position ourselves as the ideal business partner for excellent entrepreneurs'; second, we firmly support entrepreneurs to make better changes to industries, life and the society; last but not least, from daily investment and fund management perspective, we embrace the mentality of entrepreneurship, hoping to build up the venture towards long term excellence. From 'Banyan' to 'Gaorong', Gaorong Capital hopes to assist more and more industry change makers realize their business vision."

According to Mr Xiang Gao, Founding Partner at Gaorong Capital, "Gaorong team's value 'OPEN' represents 'Outstanding, Partnership, Entrepreneurship, and Network'. It is important to incorporate the culture of 'OPEN' to team, portfolio companies and among our networks. We have faith in the power of companionship and we always stand by our partners and founders, especially in difficult times."

According to Mr Bin Yue, Founding Partner at Gaorong Capital, "Gaorong's effort in scouting global AI and frontier technologies has been made since day one. It's a great honor to grow along with world class teams and with top tier scientist and engineers. Winnings come from how you make choices, while good choices come from entrepreneurs' taste. We expect to help more scientist teams with good tastes creating tech companies changing the world."

Prior to Gaorong, the founding team have led several successful investments including Xiaomi (Series B), Tudou (Nasdaq:TUDO, merged into Youku, nowNYSE:YOKU), 91 Assistant (acquired by Baidu for US$1.9 billion), Sungy (Nasdaq: GOMO), Baofeng (ChiNext.300431), IOBit (HKSE.02371), DealeXtreme (HKSE.08086), Shenzhoufu (HKSE.08255), Linekong (HKSE: 08267), G-bit (SSE.603444), ArcherMind (to be listed on SZSE), Dovo (acquired by OurPalm, ChiNext.300315, for RMB 810 million), Wondershare (to be listed on ChiNext), Dota (one of the most popular game companies) and Yuantiku (leading online education company).

SOURCE Gaorong Capital