Chinese venture capital appears to slow

Chinese venture capital investing appears to be slowing with the start of 2019, according to a news report.

Capital invested in January slumped 67.5 percent from a year ago to $4.3 billion, according to a story in the South China Morning Post. This represents a 31.7 percent drop from December, the news organization reported, citing data from research firm Zero2IPO.

Deals fell a similar 63.5 percent from last year to 286, according to the report.

The decline could be tied to tighter regulation and slowing economic growth. More than half of last month’s activity involved Series A and B rounds, with business services, rather than the consumer sector, the hot sector.

In a separate news story from the start of January, Bloomberg reported that fourth quarter deal flow in China last year dropped 25 percent from a year earlier and capital invested was off 12 percent. Bloomberg cited data from Preqin.