Unlocking the power of the Chinese Startup Ecosystem through Corporate Innovation
Chinaccelerator, SWELL, & Yushan Ventures bring Corporate Innovation to China @ GMIC Beijing. On May 6, Chinaccelerator, Swell, and Yushan Ventures will be hosting the SWELL Innovation Awards @ GMIC Beijing to showcase corporate innovators with successful track records and disruptive startups that are positioned for corporate acceleration. Confirmed panelists include Amy Chen from Daimler China, Olivia Chang from Coca-cola, Dan Bordy from Tencent, William Bao Bean from Singtel Innov8, Todd Embley from Chinaccelerator, Victor Lee from Standard Charter,
Startups are the building blocks of innovation says Swell’s founder, Mike Chen. “Strategic startup partnerships are easy ways for corporations to experiment with new business models and for startups to accelerate their time to market. However, these sort of deals are largely missing in China.”
Swell is a corporate innovation firm focusing on emerging technologies. Its team members have analyzed over 70,000 startups in the past 3 years and produced on average one strategic deal a month primarily in the US and European markets today. The firm is looking to encourage this paradigm shift in China as a way to counter the current stagnation in the Chinese startup ecosystem. Volker Heistermann, Managing Director of Yushan Ventures, an early stage VC firm based in Taiwan and Silicon Valley adds “With the current stunted IPO market and risk averse investors in China, strategic partnerships with established enterprises can hopefully steer people away from investing in copy-cat startups and give startups a chance to build something unique and validate their product markets early on.”
Recently, Swell collaborated with Unilever’s Go Global program where a Shanghai startup Thoughtful Media Group, received US$100,000 in cash, mentorship, and a range of services in exchange for a customized digital marketing pilot in the area of content, mobile, or connected devices in the Asian market. Last year, Yushan Ventures hosted the APAC Startup Accelerator in partnership with Intel and Taiwan’s government where startups from 15 APEC countries raised venture capital at an annual Summit event in Taipei, Taiwan. And in 2012, Chinaccelerator’s portfolio company OrderwithMe’s partnership with Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten extended its market reach to additional 38,000 retailers.
Todd Embley, Managing Director at Chinaccelerator states “We believe corporations can be a great way for us to accelerate and internationalize our portfolio growth. Currently startups are afraid to work with big companies and have a very difficult time integrating with them; large companies need to improve their in-house innovative processes which can present a tremendous opportunity if we can get it right.”
“With 20,000 mobile attendees expected this year, GMIC is the perfect venue for us to address this opportunity head on.” says Mike Chen “We are very excited to be working with Chinaccelerator and Yushan Ventures who share our passion of bringing innovative products and services to market.”
Check out www.gotoswell.com/beijing for more details