Foreign incubators thrive in Beijing amid development tide

As the innovation tide sweeps across China, leading foreign companies are rushing to establish business incubators in Zhongguancun, Beijing, to help nurture local startups.

Microsoft Corp, for instance, has been serving local entrepreneurs since 2012 when the US tech giant established an accelerator here. So far, it has incubated more than 120 startups with 70 percent of them focused on cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning, which are widely seen as the next generation of world-changing technologies.

"Zhongguancun is home to China's best universities and talent. Local entrepreneurs not only master cutting-edge technologies, but also have many disruptive innovation ideas. I believe the region will give birth to a group of leading innovative firms as great as internet giants Facebook and Uber," said Luo Bin, CEO of the Microsoft Accelerator.

Microsoft is not alone. A number of international companies are joining the bandwagon to set up incubators in Zhongguancun.

The leading Silicon Valley incubator Plug & Play has established a branch here by partnering with a local firm, shortly after its Israeli counterpart Trendlines Group took a similar move.

Last year, Slush, a Finland-based incubator for global tech startups also signed a deal with the Zhongguancun Science Park to promote communication between Chinese startups and foreign investors.

Equipped with abundant resources, these accelerators organize networking activities to help startups access venture funding firms, offer management training, office spaces and arrange meetings with experienced entrepreneurs.

Every year, the Microsoft Accelerator offers more than 20 teams, which are chosen from more than 1,000 startups, an office space in its Asia-Pacific research and development center in Zhongguancun and cloud and software services worth 3 million yuan ($450,000).

So far, 126 startups have graduated from the Microsoft Accelerator and over 93 percent of them have completed new rounds of financing funding. Their entire market valuation has been boosted by six times to 38 billion yuan.

Guo Hong, director of the Zhongguancun Administrative Committee, said foreign incubators help Zhongguancun become a better place to nurture startups and the committee is also working hard to streamline administrative procedures to offer better services.

Last year, there were 24,000 new tech enterprises with actual business activities in the tech hub, with an average of 66 new firms registered every day.

Contact the writers through masi@chinadaily.com.cn