Understand the Tech Trend: From Copy to China, to Copy from China

Yuanpu

On Feb.2 Sunday, a friend visited me at the EqualOcean NY office. He is very interested in the Chinese market and asked me one question: Is it very easy to raise money for startups in China?

Yes, and no. From 2014 to 2018, the period had been seen as a gold rush for startups and entrepreneurs in China; it was easy to raise funding if the founders have relatively good backgrounds and ideas, revenue, profits, and cash flow were not so important. 

Since 2019, the picture has been changing fast; most business models have been proved unsustainable, and many startups went bankrupt. China and the United States are alienating each other. However, the venture markets are still intertwined, the poor performance of Uber's stock price and Wework's unsuccessful IPO, along with slowing economic growth, have been dragging the venture market in China into a winter season.

But the opportunity is still in China, as I mentioned in my last article, "Tesla is telling a happening Chinese new story." The prospect of a combination of financial opening and a "strong" economy, are the two most important pillars of the new Chinese story: companies with world-class competitiveness will get a huge capital premium. 

The Star Market will become China's Nasdaq, and give birth to its own Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook in the future. For the long term and value investors, this is a story worth buying.

What EqualOcean are doing and will do under this vision? In the first phase, we select the most innovative Chinese startups to form EO 500, and introduce them to international investors by publishing English articles and deep-dive reports. "Copy to China" is past, and many countries are actually "copying from China," Chinese startups and innovations deserve more attention & respect from outside, it's unfair many media in Western countries usually tend to politicize the tech and innovation in China. At EqualOcean, we do not talk about politics. 

Hopefully, investors could find good portfolios by reading our articles and deep-dive reports, and entrepreneurs from emerging markets could learn ideas and experience on EqualOcean. 

After 40 years of engagement since the formal diplomacy relationship established in 1979, China and the United States still not understand each other. Political leaders talked too much and threat the other party; tech leaders should have a larger voice, because of tech will be the most important way to solve the problems we are facing.

Tech for equal, and the future.