a wall st street sign is seen near the new york stock exchange nyse in new york city us september 17 2019 reutersbrendan mcdermid shanghaihong kong april 12 reuters  chinese online insurance technology firm waterdrop inc is receiving pushback from domestic regulators on its planned us initial public offering as its business model is seen as risky four people familiar with the situation told reuters waterdrop which is backed by internet giant tencent holdings 0700hk has been working with financial advisers since mid last year on going public and had already made a confidential filing for the float said three of the people the china banking and insurance regulatory commission cbirc however has questioned the companys business risks which has slowed down the ipo process they said cbirc even told founder shen peng this month that it would not suggest that waterdrop go public at this point said one of the sources beijingheadquartered waterdrop distributes insurance policies online and provides illness crowdfunding it was not immediately clear what exactly cbirc felt was risky in its business waterdrop denied in an emailed statement that chinese regulators were opposed to its capital markets plan adding that its senior managers are in regular communication with regulators cbirc did not immediately respond to a request for comment the sources declined to comment as the information is private the scrutiny on waterdrop and its ipo comes as chinas financial regulators have stepped up supervision over the countrys financial technology companies after the halting of ant groups 37 billion ipo in november due to financial risks waterdrop does not need chinese regulatory approval to list in the united states as like many other mainland startups its incorporated offshore but cbircs reservations about the ipo do not bode well for such companies share sale plans in general waterdrop had aimed to go public by end2020 but is now looking to list in the second quarter according to two of the sources it was not immediately known how much waterdrop is seeking to raise or at what valuation the company last month shut down its online healthcare mutual aid platform which provided users with a shared basic health plan covering various types of critical illnesses amid regulatory headwinds waterdrop said the programme had served 80 million users such platforms are however not licensed by the cbirc the mutual aid platform was considered one of the main generators of user traffic and clipping it would mean a major business model change for the company said two sources familiar with the company founded in 2016 by shen a former executive at chinese food delivery and local services giant meituan 3690hk waterdrop raised 230 million in a preipo round in august led by reinsurer swiss re srenhs and tencent at a valuation of about 2 billion it also counts idg capital boyu capital and meituan as investors bank of america and goldman sachs which are advising waterdrop on its ipo declined to comment reporting by samuel shen in shanghai kane wu and scott murdoch in hong kong and cheng leng in beijing additional reporting by yingzhi yang in beijing editing by sumeet chatterjee and muralikumar anantharaman