Q: How difficult is it to get venture financing in China? What is the general climate?
A: (Jason) Seemingly after “everyone” setting up a China office / strategy and investing overseas, according to one report by NVCA and Deloitte and Touche, it’s not as easy as one thought.
Certainly, it’s more common for foreign start ups to attract U.S. VC money. As the global economy continues to truly become “global” it’s much easier to get one’s head around investing in a time zone different by more than 3 hours. That being said, I think that many U.S.-based VCs are cautions, as the report indicates. The amount of cycles it takes to monitor and add value to a company on the other side of the world is distinctly more than here in the U.S. In addition, different regulations make doing deals in other parts of the world inherently more complicated.
In general, those U.S-based VCs who have full-time people on the ground abroad are much better in dealing with these types of investments.