Mayfield Fund Invests in Chinese Online Dating Service

Filed in archive Venture Capital on October 19, 2005

After only two months of closing their new $375-million fund slated for investments in emerging-growth technology companies, the Silicon Valley based Mayfield Fund summarily completed its last investments from its initial $1-billion fund raised in 2000, which included banking on a popular Chinese online dating service, Heiyou.

These latest investments---tapped from Mayfield's Fund XI---are the firm's first with partner GSR Ventures, a China-based venture capital firm focused on early-stage Chinese technology companies.

GSR was formed in 2004 by Robert Yung, who previously served as chief technology officer for Intel China. According to Silicon Beat, the fund's managing directors also include Richard Lim, James Ding and Sonny Wu and venture partner Alex Pan. Lim co-founded VC-backed start-ups iMarket, Quickdot and Co-nect. Wu was the founder of Asia Wireless Technology, the first dual-mode mobile virtual network operator in China, and previously worked for Nortel Networks. Ding co-founded AsiaInfo, the first Chinese technology company to go public on the Nasdaq.

GSR's leadership includes former executives at companies including Nortel and lotus, as well as entrepreneurs and founders of companies like AsiaInfo and Asia Wireless Media.

The other Chinese firms receiving investment capital besides Heiyou, the Beijing-based online matchmaking company, include SMIT, a Shenzen-based designer of semiconductors used in modules for digital televisions; and Mobert, a company with operations in Silicon Valley and Shanghai that makes semiconductors for mobile applications.