UPDATE 1-Alibaba's former CEO Daniel Zhang to join Firstred Capital as managing partner

(Adds background on Firstred, Zhang's departure from Alibaba)

By Selena Li and Brenda Goh

HONG KONG/SHANGHAI, March 21 (Reuters) - Alibaba Group's former CEO Daniel Zhang will join Firstred Capital as managing partner, Firstred Capital said on Thursday, six months after he left the Chinese e-commerce giant.

Zhang will join the fund to work with its founder Liu Xiaodan to "explore a new future for merger and acquisition funds," Firstred said in a post on its official WeChat account. The fund has offices in Beijing and Shanghai and its investments include pet healthcare and semiconductor testing companies.

Zhang worked at Alibaba for 16 years, rising to hold the CEO and chairman titles before announcing in June he would step down from those positions to focus on the company's cloud business. However, in September he quit that role as well in a surprise move.

Alibaba said at the time Zhang would establish a technology fund that they would invest $1 billion in, and gave him an "emeritus" title, a first in its history.

Alibaba did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Zhang's appointment at Firstred and the technology fund. Firstred did not immediately respond to a request to make Zhang available for comment. (Reporting by Selena Li in Hong Kong and Brenda Goh in Shanghai; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Lincoln Feast)