China’s Baidu and Qihoo 360 invest in Israeli VC firm Carmel Ventures

Israeli venture capital firm Carmel Ventures announced today that it has closed a fourth round of funding worth a total of US$194 million. And interestingly, this latest round includes investment from “several leading Asian strategic investors” including Chinese tech companies Baidu and Qihoo 360.

Carmel Ventures did not disclose how much either of the Chinese tech giants invested, and a representative from Baidu confirmed to Tech in Asia that the company had participated in the funding round but declined to comment further. Given that the round also included funding from other sources, including “a significant number” of return investors as well as new investors from outside Asia, it’s probably safe to assume that the contributions from the Chinese tech companies were relatively minor.

That said, it’s easy to see why Baidu and Qihoo are interested. Connecting with Carmel will give the companies a window into Israel’s fascinating tech startup scene, as the firm invests primarily in early-stage tech companies. In fact, Carmel began investing out of this fourth funding round back in January of this year, and has already put money into PlayBuzz, LuckyFish, and three other “promising early stage technology companies.”

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