Sequoia Capital’s former China unit has accelerated its push for global deals, investing in celebrity-backed start-ups such as Kylie Jenner’s Vodka seltzer company, as it struggles to deploy its $9bn cash pile in a sluggish domestic market and tightening US controls.

HongShan, which split off last year from one of the world’s largest venture capital firms amid rising geopolitical tensions, has ratcheted up its hunt for deals in Europe and North Asia after facing shrinking options in China.

The Chinese investment group has done deals with celebrity-backed consumer groups such as Jenner’s Sprinter, one of the US reality TV star’s newest business ventures, as well as French women’s fashion brand Destree, co-founded by Géraldine Guyot, the wife of LVMH founder’s son Alexandre Arnault, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.

The global push comes as HongShan, led by billionaire Neil Shen, widely considered China’s top tech investor, has faced frustration from some limited partners over the pace of dealmaking for its $9bn US fund, after raising the money two years ago.

HongShan has both dollar and renminbi funds, which are managed by overlapping teams, but they are increasingly having to pursue separate strategies. The group, which closed a fresh Rmb18bn fund in March, is free to use this money to invest in hot areas in Chinese tech such as robotics and generative artificial intelligence.

“They are deploying the US fund but very slowly,” one limited partner told the Financial Times.

HongShan has invested only 10 to 20 per cent of its two later-stage funds, both sized at $3.6bn, according to two people familiar with the matter. This gives it four to five more years to invest the remaining sum.

The group has been quicker in deploying its earlier stage funds, the seed and venture funds, which are $480mn and $1.3bn, respectively — and have between 20 and 35 per cent invested, these people added. 

The lack of high-growth domestic investment options has been exacerbated by Washington’s move to tighten scrutiny of American investment in Chinese high-end technology.

In August, President Joe Biden signed an executive order to ban US investment in Chinese technology with potential dual-use military application, such as semiconductors, quantum computers and AI.

Chinese funds have already pre-emptively been carving out their US LPs from deals that involve high-tech investments, according to industry insiders, leaving them with fewer promising sectors to back as less sensitive consumer companies have been hit hard from the weak economy.

HongShan has instead been using its USD funds to double down on already well-established Chinese start-ups, including building up its position in ByteDance, while buying existing shares in the fast-growing Instagram-like start-up Xiaohongshu.

In general, LPs are keen to see early deployment because it gives more time for the companies to grow in value and for the funds to recoup their investment through IPOs or mergers. LPs typically still have to pay management fees on capital that has not yet been called.

Other US backers of HongShan are more sanguine about the pace of dealmaking. “I’ve been an investor with Neil and the team from the beginning. They are one of the best investments that we’ve made,” said one, adding that HongShan’s push for global deals was a “natural evolution” for a firm of its size and track record.

HongShan is focusing more on Northern Asia and Europe after facing difficulties with US tech deals. This year it was asked to dramatically reduce its stake in HeyGen, a leading AI video company that originated in Shenzhen before migrating to Los Angeles, over national security concerns about Chinese VCs being a significant shareholder, the Financial Times reported.

In recent months HongShan has opened a London office, hiring former Goldman Sachs banker Taro Niggemann, who is charged with hunting for internet and consumer-related deals in the UK and Europe.

The move puts it in more direct competition with its former partner Sequoia, which also has an office in London focused on European start-up investments.

HongShan said: “Since our inception in 2005, we’ve built a diverse portfolio spanning Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, Australia and Europe, proving our strategy thrives across global markets in addition to our portfolios in China.”

The Chinese investment group is hunting for consumer brands in the west, which it can help grow in Asia, as it looks to build on the success of its 2021 investment in Ami Paris, which helped the French designer brand expand in China.

HongShan participated in a $430mn fundraising round earlier this year in UK online bank Monzo, alongside CapitalG, Google’s venture fund GV and Tencent. It also invested this year in the German-based Green Energy Origin, a battery materials start-up.

It also holds a roughly 9 per cent stake in fast-fashion company Shein, which is targeting a London listing if it receives approval from regulators in Beijing, according to two people familiar with the matter. 

HongShan also has plans to open a Tokyo office, according to two people familiar with the matter, although one cautioned it was still in the early stages. HongShan declined to comment on its Tokyo office plan.

Its push into Japan follows a rush of other Chinese funds building a presence there, including rival PE group Hillhouse and the Jack Ma-backed Yunfeng, which have both built a presence in the country in recent months for real estate deals.

In Japan, HongShan has invested in construction management software start-up ANDPAD, AI contract management start-up LegalForce and lithium-ion battery venture AESC, according to one person with direct knowledge of the matter. 

Additional reporting by Ryan McMorrow in Beijing

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Donald Trump dined on Wednesday with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, bringing together the Facebook founder and the former president who was once banned from that social network.

Stephen Miller, who has been appointed deputy chief of staff for Trump’s second term, said Zuckerberg, like other business leaders, wants to support Trump’s economic plans. The tech CEO has been seeking to change his company’s perception on the right following a rocky relationship with Trump.

“Mark, obviously, he has his own interest, and he has his own company and he has his own agenda,” Miller said in an interview on Fox News about the meeting. “But he’s made clear that he wants to support the national renewal of America under Trump’s leadership.”

A spokesperson for Meta confirmed that Zuckerberg and Trump met on Wednesday, saying he was invited for dinner with the president-elect and other members of his team to talk about the incoming administration.

Trump was kicked off Facebook following the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The company restored his account in early 2023.

During the 2024 campaign, Zuckerberg did not endorse a candidate for president.

Zuckerberg has since taken a more positive stance toward Trump. Earlier this year, he praised Trump’s response to his first assassination attempt, calling it “badass.” Zuckerberg also complained that senior Biden administration officials pressured Facebook to “censor” some COVID-19 content during the pandemic.

Still, Trump in recent months had continued to attack Zuckerberg publicly. In July, he posted a message on his own social network Truth Social threatening to send election fraudsters to prison in part by citing a nickname he used for the Meta CEO. “ZUCKERBUCKS, be careful!” Trump wrote.

The Thanksgiving eve visit also comes as tech mogul Elon Musk has become more influential in Trump’s Make America Great Again movement, contributing an estimated $200 million through his political action committee to help elect Trump. Musk is the billionaire owner of the X social network, a competitor to Meta.

Musk has spent considerable time at Mar-a-Lago since the election, and Trump selected him to lead an outside advisory panel known as the “Department of Government Efficiency ” to identify waste with Vivek Ramaswamy, a venture capitalist and former GOP presidential candidate.

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France has suggested it would not necessarily detain Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he entered the country despite an outstanding arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court over alleged war crimes in Gaza.

The French foreign ministry on Wednesday said Netanyahu could have immunity from arrest because Israel has not signed the Rome Statute, which established the ICC.

“A state cannot be compelled to act in a manner that is incompatible with its obligations under international law regarding the immunities of states not party to the ICC,” it said. “Such immunities apply to Prime Minister Netanyahu and other concerned ministers and must be taken into account if the ICC were to request their arrest and surrender.”

The French statement, which came a day after Paris helped the US broker a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, risks undermining the ICC by raising questions about its jurisdiction.

Rights groups including Amnesty International criticised the French position as “deeply problematic” because it ran counter to its obligations as an ICC member.

The Hague-based court last week issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant “for crimes against humanity and war crimes” allegedly committed in Israel’s offensive in Gaza.

The ICC’s 124 member states — which include most European and Latin American countries and many in Africa and Asia — are obliged to arrest Netanyahu and Gallant if they enter their territory. But the court has no means of enforcing the warrants if they do not.

While Israel is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, a 2021 ICC ruling said the court has jurisdiction over offences committed in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip because the Palestinian territories are signatories.

The relationship between the Israeli prime minister and Emmanuel Macron, president of France, has become increasingly strained, with French officials sharply criticising Israel’s military operations in Gaza and Lebanon.

But France has also played a key role in trying to prevent the conflicts in the region from spreading.

The ICC warrants were a flashpoint in the muti-party talks over the Lebanon ceasefire because French foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot angered Netanyahu after he suggested France would comply with the warrant. Barrot said “France will always apply international law” without clarifying exactly what he meant.

The warrants have sparked outrage in Israel, with Netanyahu’s office branding them “antisemitic” and calling the ICC “a biased and discriminatory political body”.

Israel on Wednesday filed appeals to the ICC over the war crimes charges and requested the court suspend the warrants pending the outcome.

According to the Rome Statute, the ICC has jurisdiction over all heads of state or government, even if “immunities or special procedural rules” exist under domestic or international law.

But article 98 of the statute says the court cannot request an arrest that would require a state to “act inconsistently with its obligations under international law” regarding an individual’s diplomatic immunity.

French officials did not give further details of the basis for their stance, but it raised questions over whether the same reasoning could apply to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is subject to an ICC arrest warrant for war crimes in Ukraine. Like Israel, Moscow is not a signatory to the Rome Statute.

Macron’s opponents in France attacked the government’s statement and accused it of adopting the position to gain Israel’s support for the ceasefire.

“France is once again bowing to Benjamin Netanyahu’s demands by choosing him over international justice,” said Green leader Marine Tondelier on social network X, adding that it set a dangerous precedent.

“If we follow the logic . . . to its conclusion, what should we understand? That Putin will not be arrested if he comes to Unesco? This is a serious historical error,” she wrote.

Additional reporting by Suzi Ring in London