Earlier this week, according to Silicon Beat, Lightspeed Venture Partners closed a $475 million fund, three months after a third of its General partners severed ties to start their own venture fund.

Previously, a six partner firm, Lightspeed's Gill Cogan and Carl Showalter departed last fall to launch Opus Capital.

General partner, Chris Schaepe, has placed China squarely on their 2006 investment radar screen.

�We have gotten more comfortable with the regulatory environment and there�s a growing base of experienced entrepreneurs that have already been associated with one generation of startups,� added Mr. Schaepe.

CVN expects to see more Silicon Valley VCs add China to their investment strategy in 2006.