Innovation and entrepreneurship is booming in China. Haier’s accelerator arm,
Haichuanghui, is building an eco-system for Chinese entrepreneurs.
Haichuanghui–literally translated, ‘the family of innovation’–is the accelerator of China’s household appliances manufacturing giant, Haier group. It held its first global innovation and entrepreneurship summit on September 21 on China’s east coast, in the city of Qingdao.
The summit was centered around the importance of increased innovation, investment trends, and entrepreneurship in China, especially pertaining to the tech industry. Officials from the Chinese government, domestic and international industry experts, and Chinese entrepreneurs participated in the summit.
At the summit, Haichuanghui established an entrepreneurial innovation alliance with partners like Chinese tech giant, Alibaba; China’s leading cloud provider, Langchao Group Ltd.; Kingdee International Software Group; and others.
Founded in 2014, Haichuanghui provides entrepreneurs with what they call “one-stop” support. It fuels entrepreneurs with Haier group’s domestic and international resources, such as research and development, supply chains, sales networks, logistics systems, and more. It also provides cross-border incubation for international entrepreneurs.
Zhou Yunjie, President of Haier Group, said that there are about 2,246 startups at the Haichuanghui accelerator, 48% of which have successfully raised funding for Series A round.
Zhan Bo, founding partner of Haichuanghui, added that Haichuanghui has partnerships with over 1,300 venture capital firms and 56 universities, as well as local governments. The platform provides entrepreneurial training and financial advisory services to entrepreneurs.
Haichuanghui’s focuses on sectors such as the internet of things, smart hardware, technology, media, telecommunications, healthcare, energy and environment. For example, in the smart hardware sector, Xiaoshuai Yingyuan provides online portable “cinema” hardware for users to watch films anywhere. Another example is Puzhou Technology, which designs and produces foldable unmanned aerial vehicles that users can easily put in their pocket. Haichuanghui claims that the total valuation of the startups incubated on their platform has reached RMB 14.5 billion (USD 2.2 billion).
(Top photo from Haichuanghui)
