TIANJIN - An investment fund, the first of its kind to allow overseas Chinese to directly invest in Chinese tech firms through a Chinese brokerage, was launched on Wednesday in North China's Tianjin municipality.

The fund, created by the Chinese Overseas Entrepreneur Fund and Haitong Securities, has so far raised 2 billion yuan ($330 million) to invest in China's tech start-ups.

"To further support the development of overseas Chinese enterprises, we need to cooperate with larger financial institutions," said Huang Jingyu, managing director of the Chinese Overseas Entrepreneur Fund.

To that end, Huang's organization has signed a cooperative agreement with Haitong Securities and China Investment Securities. And a Hong Kong-based fund management company is expected to be established in the near future.