HongShan, spun out of Sequoia last year, is reportedly struggling to invest its huge war chest

In Brief
According to the Financial Times, HongShan, the Chinese investment firm spun off from Sequoia Capital in 2023, is aggressively expanding into Europe and North Asia owing both to “shrinking options” in China and to limited partners that have grown frustrated with how slowly HongShan is deploying the $9 billion in capital commitments it secured two years ago. (As the FT notes, LPs typically have to pay management fees on capital even if it has not been called into use.)
Based in Hong Kong, the nearly 20-year-old firm has taken a bigger bite of existing Chinese portfolio companies like TikTok’s parent company ByteDance and an Instagram clone called Xiaohongshu. It’s also investing in China-based robotics and AI startups.
Still, a range of new bets in new regions, along with reported plans to open an office in Tokyo, suggest HongShan is looking farther afield for returns. Indeed, having recently opened an office in London, it may increasingly bump into its former partner, Sequoia, which also now has a London office, observes the FT.