U.S. venture capital group Ignition Partners said Wednesday it would team up with other China investment specialists to create a new $200-million fund called Qiming aimed at making investments in the Middle Kingdom.

The venture will be based in Shanghai, and will be headed by two key executives from Seattle-based Ignition, including founding partner Rich Tong, and partner John Zagula. They will be joined by Gary Rieschel, founder of Mobius Venture Capital; Duane Kuang, former director of Intel Capital China; and Edward Zhou, who until recently was the senior manager of corporate business development for Cisco Systems.

The company expects investment size to run in the $3 million to $7 million range and will make six to eight investments per year. An announcement of the new company’s first funding effort is expected during the next few months.

Mr. Zagula, who is in the process of learning Mandarin and moving his family to Shanghai, said the investment approach would be a “natural extension of the team’s background” in software, telecommunications, and Internet companies.

When asked about the timing of the company’s launch, he responded that “while the growth of VCs going into China has been significant, I think opportunities in China are growing more rapidly than that.”

“The story of China has just begun,” he said. “And in general, I think we’re going to have a patient approach. It’s a long-term, not a short-term thing.”

Ming Lei, founder of Yeelion—an Ignition/Qiming portfolio company—and former chief architect of Chinese search engine Baidu, said he thought Qiming would help improve the VC and entrepreneurial climate in China.

“China is not Silicon Valley,” Mr. Lei said. “It’s evolving fast but it still lacks the long history and depth of serial entrepreneurs. It still lacks some of the VC infrastructure you can take for granted in Silicon Valley. And it is still building the ranks of managers trained in big global brands.”

A number of U.S. VC firms have launched funds in China in recent months (see China Venture Fund to Launch).