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The largest annual innovation exhibition in Canada OCE Discovery 2017 ended in Toronto on May 16 local time. This year’s event attracted more than 3500 participants and more than 500 exhibitors. The most outstanding innovators and entrepreneurs from Ontario and Canada showed the visitors the latest innovations in advanced manufacturing, health care, energy and environment, communication technology, digital media, financial technology and other fields.

ZRC Zhongguancun Dahe Capital, CCAA China Canada Angel Alliance and Zhongguancun U30 participated in the Discovery Conference and announced the establishment of a US $30 million China Canada Direct Investment Fund&Industrial Research Institute. This means that leading technology enterprises and excellent investment institutions from Zhongguancun are keenly aware of and will deeply participate in the new landmark of scientific and technological innovation and entrepreneurship in North America – Canada’s vibrant and potential scientific and technological innovation and entrepreneurship market, including Ontario. As the outpost connecting Zhongguancun and North America in scientific and technological innovation cooperation and exchange, CCAA has started to make full efforts after nearly three years of exploration and practice.

Li Changping, Deputy District Head of Haidian District of Beijing and Director of Haidian Park Management Committee of Zhongguancun Science Park, attended the Discovery Conference and the sixth China Canada (Ontario) Research and Innovation Cooperation Forum held at the same time. She introduced the general situation and cooperation opportunities of Zhongguancun Haidian Park, and sincerely invited overseas talents and scientific and technological innovation projects to come to Haidian for innovation and entrepreneurship. She also attended the founding ceremony of China Canada Direct Investment Fund&Industrial Research Institute. As the core area of China’s science and technology innovation center, Haidian District undoubtedly plays the most important role.

Founding partner of ZRC Zhongguancun Dahe Capital, founder of CCAA China Canada Angel Alliance Liu Zhishuo, the initiator of Zhongguancun M&A Master Fund, said: “While many people are still questioning and waiting to see whether Canada is a fertile land for technology entrepreneurship and venture capital, CCAA and CAMP China Canada Joint Venture Camp have invested more than 30 early-stage technology start-ups in the United States and Canada for three consecutive years, with an investment amount of 7 million Canadian dollars. A total of 20 outstanding Canadian technology start-ups have been organized to learn and exchange in China’s science and technology innovation centers in Beijing and Zhongguancun. Among them, 10 start-ups have won various kinds of North American start-ups Industry awards. We believe that Zhongguancun’s investment institutions and Canadian technology start-ups represented by Ontario will continue to spark from success to excellence. “

As an annual event, Discovery Conference is hosted by Ontario Centers of Excellence (OCE). As an angel organization registered in Ontario in 2014, CCAA won the honor of Canada’s most active angel organization in 2015. For three years, CCAA has maintained a friendly and close cooperation relationship with OCE and participated in the Discovery Conference for three consecutive years. CCAA led many excellent invested start-ups such as cyclica, Sage Senses, Mosaic, Triton and Suncayr to participate in the exhibition.

Ontario Center of Excellence (OCE) is committed to promoting the commercialization of cutting-edge research in key market sectors to build the future economy and maintain Ontario’s global competitiveness. In this process, OCE promotes the training and development of a new generation of innovators and entrepreneurs, and is also an important partner of Ontario industry, universities, colleges, research hospitals, investors and government departments. As a leading cutting-edge technology, best practice and research institution, OCE invests in advanced medical, information and communication technology, digital media, advanced materials and manufacturing, agricultural products, aerospace, transportation, energy and environmental industries including water and mining.

In Ontario, the Toronto Waterloo region is part of the largest information technology cluster in North America outside the Silicon Valley of the United States, and one of the world’s leading start-up ecosystems. As Canada’s economic engine and national financial and manufacturing center, Ontario contributes 37% of Canada’s GDP. As far as talents are concerned, nearly half of Canada’s full-time R&D personnel work in Ontario, and the R&D expenditure invested by enterprises, universities, governments and foreign companies each year exceeds 14 billion Canadian dollars.

In fact, the early birds in China, represented by the CCAA China Canada Angel Alliance, including the government, science and technology enterprises and the venture capital community, have stepped out of the early exploratory stage, started to integrate into Canada’s local mainstream science and technology venture capital ecosystem, and began to enjoy the “dividends” brought by in-depth exchanges.

As far as the ecological environment of scientific and technological innovation, entrepreneurship and investment is concerned, Canada has developed economies, super large North American urban clusters, complete industrial supporting facilities, good support for property rights protection, high-quality universities and top research institutions, high-quality talents trained by the North American education and research system, diversified and leading entrepreneurial incubator and accelerator organization clusters, Various active and experienced investment institutions and investor groups, as well as government and non-profit organizations that provide a series of support for innovation, entrepreneurship and scientific research transformation. All these elements make Canada a hot area for global scientific and technological innovation and entrepreneurship.

Among the numerous industrial clusters in Toronto, financial services, life sciences, clean technology and renewable energy, artificial intelligence, information and communication technology, advanced manufacturing and cultural creativity can be regarded as competitive industries, which not only support Toronto’s economy, but also bring forth innovations in an endless stream, making Toronto one of the most diversified and innovative competitive markets in North America.

When it comes to technology entrepreneurship and investment, people first think of the United States. After all, there is Silicon Valley, the holy land of global technology. Its neighbor, Canada, is often overlooked. But now, more and more people are realizing that it is a mistake to ignore Canada’s scientific and technological strength and investment demand.

2016 was the most active year for venture investment in Canada in the past five years, with total investment, number of investment projects and investment amount of single project reaching a five-year high. In particular, the fourth quarter was the quarter with the highest total investment in the past five years. Data shows that in 2016, Canada’s total investment in venture capital was 6.95 billion US dollars, up 37.3% year on year. There were 773 investment projects in the year, with a year-on-year growth of 24.5%. The average investment amount of each project was 8.99 million US dollars, up 10.3% year on year.

These data show that the Canadian venture capital market is full of spring and venture capital activities continue to be active, which is different from the decline in the United States and even the global venture capital market and the decline in the popularity of venture capital circles.

Wang Tong, founding partner of ZRC Zhongguancun Dahe Capital and partner of CCAA China Canada Angel Alliance, was interviewed by CCTV, Canada BNN TV and other media during the discovery conference. He introduced the vision and actions of CCAA and CAMP China Canada Joint Venture Camp, which are committed to integrating into Canada’s mainstream venture capital circle and becoming part of the North American entrepreneurial ecosystem. He said that Canada has a very leading scientific and technological research and development and technological innovation strength, China has the world’s leading market demand space, and the cooperation space between investment institutions and start-ups between China and Canada has broad prospects. CCAA is willing to cooperate deeply with Canadian government agencies, scientific and technological innovation institutions, venture capital institutions and incubators to help start-ups with leading scientific and technological advantages to open their global vision and grow.

Zhongguancun U30 North America special event was also successfully held during the Discovery Conference. Founders of six entrepreneurial teams, including Mosaic Manufacturing 3D printing, Industry Corporation – SAAS platform for information screen management, Cyclica – medical big data, Cryptov – digital asset management platform, Suncoat – sunscreen detection sticker, Triton Wear – swimmer wearable device and SAAS training system, won the Zhongguancun U30 International Youth Innovation Award.

As an activity focusing on finding outstanding young innovative and entrepreneurial talents, Zhongguancun U30 takes Zhongguancun as the core, faces the whole country and even the world, and aims at entrepreneurs and teams around 30 years old to build a platform for youth to communicate with entrepreneurial mentors and connect resources through quarterly search, annual search and other links, guide youth to carry out innovative and forward-looking entrepreneurial projects, support and cultivate high-tech The entrepreneurial team with a new business model spreads the idea of “the world is more wonderful because of young entrepreneurs” among the youth.

The difference between Zhongguancun U30 and other similar activities is that it is not an event, but a brand and platform dedicated to youth innovation and entrepreneurship. Zhongguancun U30 is aimed at outstanding young entrepreneurs with development potential at home and abroad. It not only discusses heroes based on project success or failure, but also focuses on entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial teams with future growth potential and excellent entrepreneurial quality, and finally finds and helps “young entrepreneurs who change the world and create the future”.

During the Discovery Conference, Zhang Yiqin, founding partner of ZRC Zhongguancun Dahe Capital and founder of CCAA China Canada Angel Alliance, participated in several activities such as the round table forum, and introduced Dahe Capital’s investment philosophy to the participants. As an emerging investment institution with a management scale of more than 30 billion yuan, Dahe Capital is planning internationalization. With CCAA and CAMP as the starting point, the North American venture capital business, mainly based in Ontario and Toronto, is steadily developing and has become a part of the local entrepreneurial ecology. China Power, Graft on the World!

The team members of ZRC Zhongguancun Dahe Capital also collectively participated in the Discovery Conference. A number of media, including HitechCanada, a new technology and entrepreneurship media in Canada, and Silicon Valley spies, reported on the grand occasion of the Discovery Conference.