China’s Baidu, Qihoo, Ping-An Joins US$194M Funding Round in Israeli VC Carmel Ventures

Israeli venture capitalist Carmel Ventures has closed a US$194 million financing round for its new investment fund Carmel Ventures IV from a consortium that includes search giant Baidu, Qihoo 360, the Chinese online security and Internet service provider, and financial conglomerate Ping-An. Other investors include Horsley Bridge Partners.

Israel and China are becoming  a close collaborative couple in the tech industry. Chinese IT entrepreneurs admire the technology innovations Israel has achieved and China is an ideal market for companies from the Startup Nation to expand beyond their borders.

Both Israeli and Chinese tech industry remain looking up to the U.S. market. But it seems that a more favorable cooporation model between the two nations is taking shape. We have witnessed a string of cases for the merging of the startup ecosystem between the two nations.

Carmel Ventures, part of Israeli private equity group Viola, manages over US$800 million in venture capital and is invested in 35 active companies.

Carmel began investing out of the new fund in January 2014 and currently has five portfolio companies including PlayBuzz and Lucky Fish. Carmel Ventures IV is focused on early-stage tech companies in enterprise software, data center infrastructure, big data, cyber security, financial technology, digital media and consumer applications.

image credit: Carmel Ventures