For years, China’s 7ft, 6-inch basketball superstar Yao Ming used his height to slam dunk over the heads of opponents. Now he’s counting on his larger than life profile — one of China’s most recognisable — to raise capital at home and abroad.

Mr Yao is among a growing cohort of athletes, supermodels, actors and pop stars in China leveraging their celebrity to tap the country’s lush investor base. Luminaries in the country have succeeded in raising billions of renminbi in recent years as total subscription in China’s private equity industry swells to more than Rmb12tn ($1.8tn) this year.

The stardom has certainly helped launch the investing career of 36-year-old Mr Yao, who played for nine seasons on the US basketball team the Houston Rockets before retiring in 2011 with a foot injury.