MPCi

MPCi (Chinese: 经纬创投; pinyin: Jīngwěi Chuàngtóu) is a Chinese venture capital (VC) firm that is headquartered in Beijing. Founded in 2008, it is the China investment arm of Matrix Partners previously known as Matrix Partners China before it was rebranded.

MPCi

Native name	经纬创投
Formerly	Matrix Partners China
Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Venture capital
Founded	2008; 17 years ago (2008)
Founders	David Su David Zhang Bo Shao
Headquarters	Beijing, China
AUM	US$9.6 billion (2024)
Number of employees	120 (2024)
Parent	Matrix Partners
Website	www.matrixpartners.com.cn

Background

Matrix Partners China was founded in 2008 as an affiliate of Matrix Partners to focus on investments in China.^[1][2][3][4]

During the 2007–2008 financial crisis, VC firms were cautious to invest. However Matrix Partners China was more aggressive and invested in ten companies in 2008. Its initial investment fund was US$275 million.^[3]

Early on, Matrix Partners China would spend weeks and months researching companies getting to know founders before choosing whether or not to invest in them. Its focus was on the technology, media, and telecommunications (TMT) sector. However, later on, as the venture capital scene in China developed with more competitors like Tencent, Alibaba Group and SoftBank Vision Fund providing funding, the firm had to less time to spend on due diligence. Some decisions on whether or not to invest only took three hours.^[2][3]

In May 2022, The Information reported Matrix Partners China's difficulty in fundraising for its latest fund, Matrix Partners China VII (with a target of $1.5 billion) due to factors such as U.S-China geopolitical risks, weakening economy from COVID-19 lockdowns and suboptimal returns from previous China funds.^[5] However, on 31 July 2023, Matrix Partners China VII closed at $1.6 billion making it the largest China-focused fund that year.^[6]

Effective 1 July 2024, Matrix Partners rebranded its China and India units as MPCi and Z47 respectively. This reflected greater independence for its China operations but stopped short of a complete split from its international operations. It was compared to Sequoia Capital splitting of HongShan amid geopolitical tensions between China and the U.S.^[1][7]

MPCi investments include XPeng Li Auto, DiDi and Ele.me.^[4][7] It has also invested in sensitive space companies such as LandSpace, iSpace, and Spacety.^[8] MPCi investors have included U.S. endowments, pensions, and other American-domiciled money although it has not stated how much of its funds comes from U.S. money.^[8]