Trident Capital Goes Trans-Pacific with China Partnership

Filed in archive Private Equity on August 19, 2005

Trident Capital a venture capital firm in Silicon Valley, focusing on information technology, has formed a partnership with Mustang Ventures, a new venture capital firm investing in technology and technology-enabled service companies in China. Although the Mustang fund is located in Shanghai, this appears to be a stellar example of "a reverse China fund investment" since the Mustang fund's initial investment flows directly back into a U.S. company.

Trident invested $10 million in the Mustang I fund, Mustang Venture's first venture capital fund. Trident has investment offices in Palo Alto, California and Westport, Connecticut.

Mustang Ventures, established in September 2004, maintains the
patina or at least designation of a China fund since its principals, Rob McCormack and Leonard Liu, are located in Shanghai, China. The company is intended to focus principally on companies in the education, outsourcing, semiconductor, mobile and Internet sectors.

Todate, Mustang has raised $40 million for its investment fund and Don Dixon, Trident's co-founder and managing director, will serve as a member of Mustang's investment committee.

"China is rapidly emerging as a world power, and there's never been a better time to invest there," said Dixon, in a statement.

Mustang's first investment is Augmentum, Inc., a leading software development services company that Leonard Liu founded two years ago and continues to lead as chairman and CEO. Augmentum is headquartered in Silicon Valley with its principal operations in Shanghai. It has grown rapidly to 400 employees and today serves leading customers in several sectors of the technology industry, including semiconductors, communications and mobile computing.