PwC launches excellence center

Attracted by China's booming startups and investment environment, accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers on Tuesday opened a China Centre of Excellence in Shenzhen, Guangdong province.

The 1,100-square-meter center located in Qianhai special zone, part of the Guangdong Free Trade Zone, will serve as the headquarters of its innovation cluster. PwC has planned another two excellence centers in Shanghai and Beijing.

Elton Yeung, strategy and innovation service leader of PwC Greater China, said the office in Shenzhen is PwC's first innovation center in the world. This reflects China's supportive policies for entrepreneurship and innovation, and the market potential that approach brings, he said.

PwC has developed specific financial and management services for early-stage and rapidly growing startups in China. Yeung said a suitable international business model is a more immediate priority for early startups, rather than seeking traditional accounting and taxation services.

Liu Guohong, director of the finance and modern industry research center at Shenzhen-based think tank China Development Institute, said such internationalism is an important part of the upgrade of China's mass entrepreneurship and innovation. He said the trend will attract further international professional service providers.

These international organizations need to occupy the market in advance, to be prepared to pick up business from upcoming initial public offerings and mergers and acquisition activity, as the startup and investment environment becomes more intense in the future, Liu said.

In addition, the burgeoning venture capital and equity investment sector is another opportunity PwC has said it values. The company provides project evaluation for foreign organizations to invest in China and for Chinese overseas investment.

Zhou Kang, a 31-year-old entrepreneur in Shenzhen, was recently faced with such challenges.

His startup, Czur Tech Co Ltd, invented an intelligent scanner that is 20 times faster than a traditional one. He told China Daily he has relatively stable customers in China, such as courts and libraries, and landed on an international crowdfunding platform Indiegogo, on which he raised more than $756,000 last year.