A $10 billion venture capital (VC) firm from China is investing hundreds of millions of dollars into Israeli technology to use it directly to help China develop its own “smart cities.”
The VC, Kuang-Chi, also hopes to take Israel’s technology to a global market..
Ruopeng Liu founded Kuang-Chi in 2010 along with four other distinguished Chinese scientists who returned to China after earning advanced degrees at Duke, Oxford, and Cambridge Universities. So far, the VC has launched a $300 million Israel fund in Tel Aviv in order to achieve its goals, hoping to grow to $300 million within the next three years.
According to TechCrunch, Dorian Barak, a managing partner of Indigo Global, which is Kuang-Chi’s partner in Israel, said: “Kuang-Chi is the first Chinese corporate VC and incubator that leverages the capabilities of the Israeli market together with the distribution, sales and marketing and technology development in China.”
The Kuang-Chi CGI Fund & Incubator in Israel has reportedly already made a $20 million investment in eyeSight Technologies, a “Machine Vision” company. Liu sees ample opportunity for investing in Israel and knows that his VC’s presence there “can help these companies to take big leaps.”
China’s massive population would reportedly benefit from Israel’s technologies in many ways. including managing water and pollution problems.
Among the types of startups Liu says his VC is looking at are “robotics, aviation and at anything that makes machines behave and understand human behavior.” He is also reportedly seeking opportunities to invest in virtual reality, which has become one of the hottest trends in China.
Follow Adelle Nazarian on Twitter @AdelleNaz
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