Chinese FinTech, consumer finance backer LingFeng passes $134m for USD fund

FinTech and consumer finance-focused growth investor Lingfeng Capital has passed $134m for its latest fundraise.

The firm is well on the way to its $150m goal through the capital registered so far according to a filing it lodged with the US securities regulator.

Beijing-based LingFeng, which focuses on Chinese startups, says it manages both a USD and renminbi fund.

The firm was founded in 2016 by Ning Ma, a former Goldman Sachs Asia exec focused on financial institutions equity research.

Current portfolio companies include consumer financial services platform JD Finance, personal credit evaluation business WeCash and credit and risk management support services and commercial information provider 3ACredit.

More than $37.5bn was raised by FinTech companies in China between 2014 and the first half of 2018, across 309 transactions, data from FinTech Global shows.

Investment hit $12bn in 2016 with 73 deals closed that year and five transactions valued above $500m.

Capital coming into the asset class in China in 2017 slumped below $2bn, however, as the threat of stricter regulations deterred investment in larger transactions.

Funding had already set a record this year, mainly driven by the $14bn Series C funding that Ant Financial received in June 2018.

Investment in China jumped 10-fold from the previous year in H1, reaching almost $20bn.

Copyright © 2018 FinTech Global

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