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February 10, 2015

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Home 禄 City specials 禄 Hangzhou

A meet-and-greet for technology, VC firms

By Wu Huixin | February 10, 2015, Tuesday | Print Edition

INTERNATIONAL capital and Internet finance Hai Feng Project, which aims to lure investment for local small-scale companies, was launched by the Hangzhou government last month.

Nearly 100 local innovative enterprises that need venture capital during their startup period attended the meeting. Seventeen VC companies and organizations looking for investment projects showed up and talked with entrepreneurs about their products and companies.

The Hangzhou Commerce Commission undertook lots of preparatory work before launching the Hai Feng Project. It selected 100 small-scale Hangzhou companies with development prospects among local innovative companies, picked 20 key enterprises from Hangzhou’s software, e-commerce and information economy industries, and visited VC companies to build relationships.

“City governments around China are searching for investment by all means. The Hangzhou government doesn’t provide VC companies with any preferential policy, which means we don’t have any advantage over other cities” says Zhu Lin, vice director of the Hangzhou Commerce Commission. “What attracts VC organizations is the prospect and strength of local Hangzhou companies.”

“E-commerce giant Alibaba Group provides Hangzhou with an industrial cluster effect, which in return lures VC companies,” Zhu adds.

Now the Hangzhou Commerce Commission is developing an app that is expected to act as a platform for small-scale, innovative Hangzhou companies and VC companies from home and abroad, as all of their information and projects will be posted there.

“The app software is a database that will enable Hangzhou companies and VC organizations to contact each other without any boundary,” Zhu says. “What we can do is build a bridge between them two and serve them as efficiently as possible.”

Last December, the Hangzhou Commerce Commission held an introductory meeting for eight small Hangzhou Internet companies in Chicago, USA. Some 30 American VC organizations attended.

“Some of the VC organizations showed interest in these companies and promised to visit them this year to search for further cooperation,” says Fang Guan of the Hangzou Commerce Commission.

The commission plans to organize 15 to 20 introductory meetings this year, plus hold other forums and summits themed on venture capital and investment in Hangzhou.

Batches of companies seeking venture capital participated in the Hai Feng Project launch meeting, viewing it as a rare opportunity.

Li Hai, founder of Hangzhou Zhaohubao Technology Ltd Co, introduced his company and product to attendees. Li and his team developed a device that can locate an elderly person and report his or her instant information to guardians.

“My product differs from competitive products in the technology level. Moreover, it costs less and functions more conveniently than rivals’,” Li said in his speech.

Li’s product debuted last September in an expo themed on elderly people in Hangzhou.

“My products attract empty nesters who have financial resources and care about personal safety, middle-aged people looking for hi-tech devices to help them look after their parents, and government departments that are seeking methods to protect elderly people who don’t have a family,” Li said.

“I come to this meeting to reach some VC companies and promote our products at the same time. During the startup period, we focused on research and development, and now we are switching our central work to find investment,” Li said. “I have confidence in my products. VC organizations will find you as long as your product is excellent.”

Vice president of Morgan Stanley, Han Jiang, showed interest in Li’s products, and they agreed to talk with each other further.

Unlike other entrepreneurs who are hunting for investment, Chen Lin, founder of the website yuuhe.com, is trying to round up VC organizations and entrepreneurs to gather on his website.

Chen is a former employee of Alibaba. He said he noticed that some employees of Alibaba had resigned to run their own businesses but lacked channels to get investment from VC companies.

“Building a website where innovators can post their projects and VC firms can find suitable investment programs might be a good idea,” says Chen.

He took advantage of his ex-Alibaba contacts and soon established the website.

“My website is a platform for VC organizations and innovative companies to get to know each other,” Chen said. “I attend the meeting aiming to promote my website and hope more and more innovative companies can gather and we help them find venture capital.”

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