Amadeus Capital Partners is considering making direct investments in companies in China, a move that industry figures said would make it the one of the first European venture capital firms to invest directly into the region.

Amadeus, which was founded in 1997 and counts Solexa - a gene sequencing company acquired by Nasdaq-listed Illumina in 2007 for $600m - among its successes, will include a facility in its next generation of funds to make direct investments into start-up businesses operating in the country.