Chinese investors are vying to entice China-born tech executives and scientists back to the mainland to set up startups in their home market, the Financial Times reports.
A slew of venture capital funds backed by both private and state investors have been set up, which target Chinese executives and senior researchers working abroad at top companies like Google, Apple, Airbnb and Facebook. The funds are betting that the rapid development of China’s tech sector will produce high returns on their investments.
The Communist Party is also pushing a similar campaign with its program to lure Chinese graduates and academics back to China from foreign universities. “They recognize that the economy needs to shift to higher-quality production,” Shan Guangcun, a machine-learning specialist who received state funding to return to China from Germany, told the FT. “So they need talent to come back from overseas, and they are willing to pay for it.”
For a long time, landing a job at a well-known US company was the number one goal for Chinese students studying overseas. But the rapid development of markets for internet technology, e-commerce and mobile payments in China has made the mainland much more attractive to Chinese talent.
“We still believe the top talent is there [at US companies and universities] so we are still trying to bring them back,” said Cheng Yuyuan, an investment manager at K2VC, a fund targeting Chinese talent.
You must log in to post a comment.