Tech-focused investment bank China Renaissance is struggling to win business from start-ups and new money from investors as the detention of its influential founder Bao Fan enters its ninth month.
China Renaissance was once at the centre of the country’s tech boom, but the sudden disappearance of its founder and chief executive in mid-February, part of a crackdown by Beijing, has created uncertainty. A half-dozen people close to the bank said start-ups were hesitating to hire it, while investors were withdrawing capital or had stopped putting new money into its funds.
“We’ve advised our start-ups not to use China Renaissance,” said one Beijing-based investor at a midsized fund. “It is better not to work with them for the time being.”