Chinese investors warming up to impact investing, but regulations slowing progress

Wednesday, May 9, 2018

By Georgina Lee

Chinese investors are showing increasing interest in start-ups with innovations that tackle energy consumption, social and climate change issues, but the main force behind such so-called impact investing remains foreign firms and supranational agencies, according to fund managers.

Regulations in China that prevent foundations established for non-profit reasons from using their funds to invest into for-profit businesses are one hurdle, while fund-of-fund managers, and family offices in China are only just starting to take note of impact investing.

Speaking at a private equity conference in Beijing, Amanda Zheng, principal at China Impact Ventures – which focuses on early-stage investment into energy technology in China, said there are social enterprises and charitable foundations in China that are keen on allocating capital to her fund, but which have run into regulatory issues.

Photo courtesy of GotCredit.

Source: South China Morning Post (link opens in a new window)

Categories
Investing
Tags
impact investing, regulations, startups