Professor Raiton’s Inside Perspectives: Entrepreneurship, Creativity, Innovation

By Alain Sherter, The Latest from VC Ratings

Like their Silicon Valley brethren, China’s venture capitalists are bearish about the prospects for entrepreneurial activity, according to a new survey by the University of San Francisco. For the third quarter, USF’s China Venture Capitalist Confidence Index fell to its lowest reading in the 3.5 years it’s been kept (worth noting that the “index” is more of a casual tracking poll, given that it’s based on an October survey of only 14 VCs on the Mainland and in Hong Kong.)

The main reason Chinese VCs are blue: No exits. “The global economic depression, especially the decline of the capital markets, will influence the exits of local VC investment in the short term,” says Matrix Partners’ David Zhang in a statement.

True that. Of course, such gloom won’t stop major VC players from continuing to invest in China, where cleantech, Internet and software firms are blooming fast. To that end, Intel Capital on Tuesday announced three investments in the country, including a $20 million round for Trony Solar Holdings Co. Ltd., a maker of thin-film solar energy technology