By CHENG YU

China's venture capital and private equity markets continued to warm up in the first quarter with high-tech and carbon neutrality-related sectors being among the most popular, said a report of CVInfo, a market consultancy of investment bank CVCapital.

The country's fundraising also intensified in the first quarter as VC and PE firms launched 1,803 new funds over the period, which rose a significant 76 percent year-on-year and 10 percent compared with the previous quarter. In March alone, over 478 funds were newly set up.

GGV Capital, a global venture capital firm that has bet big on the Chinese market, announced in the first quarter that it has raised $2.52 billion for its new funds, its largest family of funds in the company's 20-year history.

Over $1.46 billion will be invested through its eighth flagship fund, which aims to support entrepreneurs across all stages of growth. Another $610 million went for its third discovery fund dedicated to global entrepreneurs at their earliest stage of development.

The report also noted that the first quarter also saw active investment transactions. Though the total investment participation was slightly down year-on-year, the investment amount in financial terms soared 68 percent year-on-year.

A total of 119 large transactions, which refers to investments above $100 million, occurred in the first quarter, accounting for 8 percent of the total transaction volume. But the corresponding transaction size hit $34.9 billion, making up for 65 percent of the total during the period.

Notably, the report also said that in the first quarter, the average investment into projects related to carbon neutrality in China was much higher than that of other sectors after it attracted a total investment of over $4.5 billion.

In the first quarter, carbon neutrality-related investments were mainly in new energy vehicle batteries, clean energy, new energy auto parts, new energy vehicle manufacturing and charging equipment. Among them, battery investment remained the most active.

Information technology, healthcare, internet, consumption, high-end manufacturing and artificial intelligence sectors were among the most popular choices for investors. They accounted for 69 percent of total investment.

WeRide, China's leading Level 4 autonomous driving company, earlier this year raised a total of $310 million in its latest round of fundraising and has since kicked off another round.

The new round was led by Yutong Group and attracted investors including CMC Capital Partners and the CDB Equipment Manufacturing Fund. Previous investors Sinovation Ventures, Qiming Venture Partners and Kinzon Capital also participated in this round.

Kai-Fu Lee, Sinovation Ventures chairman and CEO, said, "Sinovation Ventures looks highly upon the acceleration of the implementation of more self-driving services, such as robotaxis and mini robobuses."