Will China’s coronavirus-related trends shape the future for American VCs?
Rocio Wu Contributor
For the past month, VC investment pace seems to have slacked off in the U.S., but deal activities in China are picking up following a slowdown prompted by the COVID-19 outbreak.
According to PitchBook, “Chinese firms recorded 66 venture capital deals for the week ended March 28, the most of any week in 2020 and just below figures from the same time last year,” (although 2019 was a slow year). There is a natural lag between when deals are made and when they are announced, but still, there are some interesting trends that I couldn’t help noticing.
While many U.S.-based VCs haven’t had a chance to focus on new deals, recent investment trends coming out of China may indicate which shifts might persist after the crisis and what it could mean for the U.S. investor community.
Just like SARS in 2003 coincided with the launch of Taobao and pushed Jingdong to transform from an offline retailer into online giant JD.com, there may be dark horses waiting to break out when this pandemic is over. Paraphrasing “A Tale of Two Cities” — this is the worst time, but also maybe the best time.
In addition to obvious trends about food delivery, digital content, gaming and other sectors, I have identified five other trends that are closing the most deals in Q1 on the early-stage side that could define the post-pandemic environment: e-commerce, edtech, robotics and advanced manufacturing, healthcare IT/life Science and AI/enterprise SaaS.
1. E-commerce
Rocio Wu Contributor Rocio Wu is a second-year MBA candidate at Harvard Business School and a venture capitalist. For the past month, VC investment pace seems to have slacked off in the U.S., but deal activities in China are picking up following a slowdown prompted by the COVID-19 outbreak. According…
Recent Posts
- Meta rolls out new Meta AI website, and it might just bury Microsoft and Google’s AI dreams
- The podcast industry keeps reinventing itself
- Honda unveils a series of sleek EVs for China and they’re way more exciting than anything we get in the rest of the world
- You should be playing Music League
- Razer’s Kishi Ultra gaming controller works with damn near everything, including some foldables
Archives
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- December 2011