Can China’s venture capital market help revive growth? • businessroundups.org

As China looks what role will the technology industry play in reviving growth? And is there enough capital flowing to support a new generation of tech startups that can keep China competitive?

It’s no secret that China’s economy slowed in recent quarters, thanks to global macroeconomic turbulence, geopolitical issues and the country’s now fading zero-COVID policy. The policy, which the Chinese government is currently dismantling, resulted in frequent lockdowns in the country’s populous cities, while other regulations of the policy disrupted trade and transit.

The zero-COVID policy worked for some time to contain the spread of the pandemic in the country, but the costs of the policy – in human and economic terms – appear high today as the nation begins to endure a wave of infections which may have been postponed rather than avoided.

The Exchange examines startups, markets and money.

Read it every morning on businessroundups.org+ or get The Exchange’s newsletter every Saturday.

Other factors played a role in China’s slowing economic growth. The country’s highly leveraged real estate market has that received blows thanks to changing regulations and a history of debt-fueled expansion, the price of which eventually paid off. And the Chinese government cracked down on its domestic tech industry in late 2020 with the demise of Ant’s then-planned epic fintech IPO.

After Ant was placed in the penalty area, a slew of other lines rained down from the pen of the Chinese Communist Party, including gaming, e-commerce and edtech, among other technology sub-sectors. Unsurprisingly, venture capital activity in the country declined.