Kleiner Perkins, one of the most respected venture capital firms in Silicon Valley, but also one of its most parochial, has finally decided to invest in china.
It has just announced a $360 million China Fund, to invest in “high-growth industries,” including Internet, media, wireless, health and green technologies. To help it make the investments, Kleiner has hired three partners from the Shanghai venture firm, TDF Capital, and another partner from Softbank Asia Infrastructure Fund.
This marks a big turnaround, and is an important and essential move for Kleiner. Until recently, Kleiner had famously resisted opening offices elsewhere, saying it was well-served by staying local. It was hard to argue with: Kleiner has backed a long list of Silicon Valley hits: Sun Microsystems, Netscape, Genentech, Google — the list goes on. For 35 years, the firm remained cocooned in Menlo Park, Calif., where it has worked out of its single leafy office on San Hill Road, but remained among the very best firms.
