“Insight · Future – 2016 China Angel Investment Summit Forum and Award Ceremony” is an annual event in the angel investment industry. With the theme of “Insight · Future”, we invited top leaders in the investment industry to jointly look forward to the future development of science and technology, discuss the future development of hot areas such as artificial intelligence, big data, consumption upgrading, and see the future trends of investment and entrepreneurship. The China Canada Angel Alliance won the “2016 Top 10 Angel Investment Institutions”.

Technological innovation changes the world

Based on the social environment with a large population in China, as well as the blind spots and new demands exposed in the rapid development of China’s economy, Chinese entrepreneurial teams have inherent advantages and conditions in mode innovation. The huge population and the number of Internet users have created a number of excellent entrepreneurial enterprises. However, by contrast, the lack of technology accumulation and the immaturity of the process from laboratory to industrialization make excellent technological innovation enterprises polish excellent products and face certain challenges. However, the investment in R&D by leading research institutions, large enterprises and a complete intellectual property protection system accumulated over the years overseas have led to the existence of a large number of excellent technological innovation oriented enterprises overseas. Therefore, overseas investment is more suitable for technological innovation projects, including applied technology and underlying technology.

Concentrate on products and endure loneliness

The domestic environment for mass entrepreneurship and innovation has enjoyed unique advantages in terms of policies in recent years, and no country or region can temporarily compare with the domestic entrepreneurial environment. However, such an environment is also doomed to create a mixture of good and bad in the market. The foam in the valuation of some projects has become bigger and bigger, and entrepreneurial teams are eager for quick success and short-term benefits, and pay more attention to business model innovation without solving the actual pain points. By contrast, in some overseas regions, as the venture market is more mature, entrepreneurial teams and projects are more patient and devote themselves to product development. Funds that are tolerant of the growth of enterprises are willing to accompany these enterprises to endure loneliness.

Value depression, investment target

In addition to the great ideal of changing the world, it is also an important choice for investment institutions to obtain investment income. In the mature overseas investment market, how to obtain projects in low-value areas is a test of the core competence of investors. In addition to building a professional investment team overseas, CCAA has also established deep contacts with local investors, and well-known domestic investor teams will also visit overseas for at least two months each year to interview with overseas investment teams on projects. The introduction of suitable overseas projects into domestic development is also a new small step that CCAA is striving for.

Up to now, the China Canada Angel Alliance (CCAA) has invested 31 projects, totaling more than CAD 5 million, focusing on technological innovation projects, including bottom level technological innovation and application level technological innovation, such as artificial intelligence, life sciences, the Internet of Things, blockchain, new materials, etc. Technological innovation enterprises pay attention to technical barriers and difficult to replicate. The China Canada Angel Alliance (CCAA), together with Zhongguancun Haidian Park, Canada Ontario Center of Excellence, and Dahe Venture Capital, organized North American projects invested by CCAA to visit China. Among them, 40% of the teams participating in the investigation in 2015 have obtained the next round of financing. And the North American team has landed in China with the assistance of Dahe Venture Capital.

The 2016 China Angel Investment Financial Investment List, jointly sponsored by Beijing Municipal Government, Beijing Municipal Finance Bureau, Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission, Beijing Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology, Haidian District Government, Haidian District Finance Office, Haidian District Investment Promotion Bureau, Zhongguancun Management Committee, Zhongguancun Development Group and other units, was officially announced on December 1, 2016. China Canada Angel Alliance won the “2016 Top 10 Angel Investment Institutions”.

Wang Tong, founding partner of China Canada Angel Alliance (CCAA), said that compared with domestic projects, overseas projects are more focused and patient in technology, and have their own uniqueness in the field of scientific and technological innovation. CCAA is willing to support the development of overseas projects with patience, time and excellent domestic and foreign resources. The layout in North America in the previous two years is just the first step. In the future, we will continue to expand the investment area, explore more excellent projects, and make a modest contribution to changing the world.

Mosaic Manufacturing is a company specializing in 3D printing. Its products can transform multi color 3D printing materials (ABS, PLA) into a single strip of multi color printing materials through intelligent calculation, cutting and reconnection. At the same time, with the help of software driver, it can achieve high-quality, low-cost multi color 3D printing.

Because traditional 3D printers can only print items of one color and one material, they are very limited in many cases. Therefore, Mosaic Manufacturing has invented a new method that allows users to use printers to create more kinds of items.

The priority technology S.E.E.M of Mosaic Manufacturing enables printers to print with multiple colors and materials, which is applicable to almost all printers on the market. This technology is currently used as a supporting product of 3D printers, and is being transformed into a plug and play component, which can be applied to a new generation of desktop computers. Why focus on the 3D printing market? First, the current 3D printing technology market is not mature. With the further expansion of Mosaic Manufacturing’s business, we can establish a technological monopoly. Secondly, in the market segment, there are currently more than 100 printer suppliers looking for a product that can make their own products unique. Finally, considering the future market development prospects, the number of printers on the market will increase from 600000 to 5 million by 2020. Mosaic Manufacturing’s initial entrepreneurial team mainly consists of three members: Mitch Debora, a material engineer, who is mainly responsible for product design. Chris Labelle, with business background, is responsible for business development. Derek Vogt, mechanical and electrical engineer, mainly responsible for hardware and software.

At present, 3D printing technology has entered dentistry, jewelry, medical care and many other industries, and its application scope will be wider and wider in the future, with very optimistic development prospects.

What Triton Wear has developed is a wearable device for swimmers, the SAAS training system. This equipment can generate feasible feedback by studying the accurate data of athletes, and also has strong community support. At present, more than 800 swimmers from 52 swimming teams in 11 countries have become its users. Swimmers need at least 1000 hours of training each year to win a successful championship. At the age of 10, athletes need to train 12 hours a week. This is a process of constantly striving for marginal income with a probability of 1%.  

For swimming events, data is very important, but it takes a lot of time to collect, and some of the collected data can not be used at all. The data collected manually is inaccurate. Athletes need consistent data to tell them where they need to improve. By providing data in real time and tracking valuable information over time, TritonWear can fully automate data collection and provide athletes with the data and suggestions they need for success. These data are like personal coaches, which can provide in-depth information. As time goes on, training analysis will also be more frequent and valuable, shared by the community, It can make the work of athletes more interesting and participatory.

Through the analysis of users who use the product, Triton Wear found that customers use Triton Wear three times a week, and 48% of users aged 15-19 years old. Triton Wear is committed to becoming a market leader. It was successfully established in 2015 and accelerated its development in 2016 to gradually expand its sales. Build communication community and improve data mining ability. Through strategic partnerships, such as the use of TritonWear for data analysis in the 2016 Olympic Games, the exposure of TritonWear has been greatly improved. Triton Wear plans to break through the monthly income of 100000 dollars this year.

Cryptov is a digital financial asset management platform. The product is a SAAS platform that uses blockchain technology to provide digital asset management for banks and other financial institutions. Users can protect various blockchain assets, transactions, private keys and other personal information more securely and effectively through the SAAS. Cryptov provides customers with a hierarchical wallet system that enables block chain transactions. An enterprise needs to deal with digital assets that activate the blockchain, such as Bitcoin, Ethercoin or other blockchain assets: first, they must properly keep their private keys to ensure that the ownership of these assets is not infringed; Secondly, the relevant institutions must control the employees’ right to use these keys so that they can only be used to implement the business steps related to the blockchain. Cryptov’s platform provides these institutions with the ability to properly handle private keys, as well as the ability to govern securely and under control over asset management departments. These basic talents enable our customers to successfully participate in the new generation of agreements.

At this stage, the Cryptov platform is available for testing. At present, the necessary business evaluation is in progress (it may take four to six weeks). Once completed, Cryptov can provide Deloitte Consulting with the right to use the product. Deloitte has a large number of potential customers who are carrying out the block ring chain concept verification, so it is ready to use the Cryptov platform as the solution to this problem. The Company is also actively negotiating with other large accounting firms and consulting companies, such as Ernst&Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers, and expects to establish similar business relationships with Deloitte Consulting.

Cryptov’s CEO Mat received a master’s degree from the London School of Economics, focusing on the history of money. He has a background in technical basic analysis and risk management. He has a deep understanding of the macro and micro situation of the digital money market and their basic technologies. He founded Market Clouds, an online financial analysis platform and Cyber Investment Company, and a private investment fund focusing on options trading.

Stack is an intelligent digital wallet that improves users’ financial intelligence through technical means and social networks. It is mainly a mobile app for young people in the millennium that integrates shopping payment, discount, friend sharing, bookkeeping and financial management. Stack’s business goal is to re-establish the relationship with money for young people and become their best choice.

Young people generally lack financial intelligence in money management, spend too much and have high debts, which makes it difficult to accumulate wealth. Most of them are “moonlight clan”. Many young people will choose banks to help them with their financial planning, but they do not know that banks will not provide young people with a wise financial plan. Instead, they will take more punitive and restrictive measures. Some young people lack professional knowledge in financial management, which leads to their inability to control financial management and finally give up. Other young people who are dedicated to financial management will choose to seek financial advice through online or offline networks, but the results are mostly mixed.

For these problems of young people’s financial management, Stack helps young customers “save” money by establishing customer-centric services. People can create and share daily consumption stories on Stack. By setting up an intelligent money saving plan to solve problems that cannot save money effectively, you can record your financial behavior and share it with your friends. Based on the big data platform, this method is very effective to use the opportunities of the Internet financial market to plan customers’ assets in a variety of ways, such as digital assets, real-time transactions, incentive mechanisms and user sharing.

As the CEO of Stack, MIRO PAVLETIC once served as the project leader of CIBC foreign exchange and other financial schemes and the regional manager of CSAM Canada before founding Stack.

Stack is customer-centric. 84% of users use social media every day, such as Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. 92% of consumers believe that word of mouth among their relatives and friends is better than any other form of advertising. Its own KOL based marketing can improve user interaction behavior 16 times than paid or we media advertising. Through these channels, Stack users themselves will promote and endorse their products. One thousand users of the ALPHA version of Stack were tested. After three months of operation, the operation KPI was developed on the basis of data collection. There were 5000 beta users. After 3 months of operation, the beta version was officially launched after the product was improved.  

The future development prospect of Stack lies in more effective access to users’ consumption structure, money saving purpose and other data in advance, and more effective connection with relevant financial markets.

From a technical perspective, STACK APIs access the third-party credit and compliance review system through APIs, using a convenient one click access to financial services in the market. As an intelligent investment advisory and financial management service robot developed by Stack, Stack Q can provide users with mobile interactive services anytime and anywhere through IM, financial data analysis and artificial intelligence/machine learning of APP.

Cyclica is a pharmaceutical big data analysis software and a platform focusing on SAAS services. The company’s products are based on the analysis of the composition, structure, pharmacology and other big data of existing drugs, using artificial intelligence, machine learning and other means to help pharmaceutical companies find other possible uses of existing drugs, and screening drugs for safe use by people through the detection of side effects of drugs.

The Ligand Express platform developed by Cyclica has been verified by a third-party organization and put into use for developing safer and more effective therapies. Whether hypothetical, subclinical, clinical, or FDA certified, Cyclica has analyzed the efficacy of small molecules in these therapies and expressed profound insights, aiming to find more possible uses of drugs and effectively transfer assets from basic research to clinical application.

The platform of Ligand Express is unique and drug centered. At present, the platform features PROBEx (docking of proteins), SWITCHx (prediction of the effects of ligands) and DIVEx (system biology and drug protein interaction), and evaluates and compares their small molecules to predict how they will interact with the human body (such as human proteome). In addition, Cyclica can provide effective information in finding novel, desirable or undesirable goals, which in turn can provide customers with a profile of Poly’s pharmacology. Cyclica has a proprietary database of structurally characterized bacterial and viral proteomes that can identify new therapies for infectious diseases.  

As the CEO of Cyclica, Naheed Kurji is an experienced person specializing in strategic planning, enterprise financing and entrepreneurship, with an MBA degree from Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. Naheed joined Cyclica in March 2014 as Vice President of Finance, and was appointed Chief Financial Officer in October 2014. As the chief financial officer, he is not only skilled in financial management, financing and investor relations, but also good at strategic planning and business development. In April 2016, the Board of Directors appointed Naheed as President and CEO. He will continue to perform his duties as CFO and focus on the company’s recent development strategy.  

The advantage of Cyclina is that it can support drug development, determine potential non impact targets before clinical trials, save research and development time and costs, and increase resource allocation for other drug development.

Sage is an ultramicro embedded platform machine learning software. It can greatly reduce the cost of semantic recognition without cloud data and computing. The hardware algorithm optimization reduces the demand and cost of the chip, and the software algorithm optimization reduces the data volume and training cycle of machine learning. The project only appeared at the opening ceremony and has won the favor and interview of many domestic investors before the roadshow.

Sage Senses is a machine learning software for ultramicro embedded platform. After the IOT revolution, many devices needed low-cost sensors and semiconductor chips. Sage just solved this problem and catered to the trend of the times.

Due to the delay, network bandwidth, energy consumption of its own chip, and security of personal information and many other issues that need to be considered when transmitting all information to the cloud for processing, Sage has proposed the following two solutions for these problems: first, transmit some data and information to the cloud for processing, and leave some of them locally for processing. Second, they are all left locally for processing and not transmitted to the cloud. This greatly reduces the interference of unsafe factors and improves the stability. At the same time, the information processing is solidified locally and the cost of transmission to the cloud is reduced.

Sage has the advantage of being more flexible and easier to develop and maintain than the manually specified processing rules. It only requires common professional technology, has low cost, high efficiency, and is easy to modify.

Sage has a wide range of applications. It can interpret sensor data in various fields, including language understanding, gesture recognition, object recognition and metabolic analysis. At present, the first chip for language understanding has been developed. It has only 10 kb of core memory, does not require an operating system, and can be applied to context analysis in all fields and languages. From the perspective of partnership, Sage cooperates with major chip manufacturers by providing software, such as Intel, Xinsi Technology and ARM.

Sage’s founder has rich experience in the AI field. Kashif Kahn, as the CEO of the company, once served as the VP of Waterloo AI speech recognition startup Vestec, increasing the company’s valuation from 5 million yuan to 12 million yuan. It has promoted and sold in North America, Europe and Japan, and completed 20 million financing, including 10 million strategic investment. As the CTO of the company, Arash Abghari is the head of the Natural Language Processing Department of Vestec, leading the innovation of AI/ML technology and completing a cross platform multilingual natural language understanding system.

Sage has a broad development prospect in the future. The IOT field will create a lot of opportunities for the market. Many world leading enterprises are analyzing the value of embedding “intelligence” into their products.

Multi color 3D printing with high quality and low price, personalized information screen management of various screens and terminals, medical big data analysis software using artificial intelligence, machine learning and other means, SAAS training system used by swimmers’ wearable devices and coaches, athletes, sunscreen detection stickers based on nano technology applied to simulate human skin

Ten science and technology innovation project teams carefully selected from hundreds of entrepreneurial projects in Canada appeared at the opening ceremony of the second phase of the China Canada Joint Venture Camp (CAMP) on October 16, seeking to learn and communicate with Chinese investors and successful Chinese entrepreneurial enterprises.

Opening Ceremony Team and Tutor

Liu Zhishuo, initiator of CAMP and founding partner of Dahe Venture Capital

Li Changping, Deputy District Head of Haidian District, Beijing, visited the opening ceremony of the second phase of the China Canada Joint Venture Camp and introduced in detail the development status and future planning of the core area of the National Science and Technology Innovation Center to entrepreneurs from Canada. In her speech, she said that Haidian District would welcome innovation entrepreneurs from all over the world to Haidian District for development with an open mind and a good policy environment, and wished the China Canada Joint Venture Camp a complete success.

Li Changping, Deputy Head of Haidian District

China Canada Joint Venture Camp is an international virtual accelerator program jointly sponsored by Haidian Park Management Committee of Zhongguancun Science Park, Ontario Center of Excellence (OCE) and China Canada Angel Alliance (CCAA), and undertaken by Dahe Venture Capital. Each year, 10 companies are selected in Canada. The selected companies will accept the virtual incubation plan and participate in training camps, including visits, studies, exchanges, roadshows, etc. Each company will receive equity investment from CCAA, up to $300000, and CCAA will enjoy the priority of the next round of financing. At the same time, OCE will also give the project an appropriate proportion of investment (125000-250000).

With the increasing popularity and influence of the Sino Canada Joint Venture Camp, the number and quality of participating teams this year are higher than last year. This year, the entrepreneurship camp pays more attention to technological innovation, and the final selected projects are basically technology oriented, involving TMT, the Internet of Things, medical big data, 3D printing, nanotechnology and other fields.

The China Canada Joint Venture Camp aims to advocate innovation, entrepreneurship and cooperation exchanges with a global perspective, build an exchange and cooperation platform for investors and entrepreneurs in China and Canada, promote scientific and technological innovation cooperation and entrepreneurial culture exchanges between China and Canada, create an international innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem, and serve the international lifestyle of innovative entrepreneurs.

As an outstanding representative of the innovative technology accelerator, the China Canada Joint Venture Camp was unveiled at the main venue of the National Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation Week in Shenzhen, presenting the latest achievements and development plans of the China Canada Joint Venture Camp to all the participants, and interpreting the connotation and purpose of “developing new economy and cultivating new momentum”.

Wang Tong, the founding partner of China Canada Joint Venture Camp, believes that the main driving force of innovation is technological innovation and consumption upgrading. Among them, consumption upgrading is more about model innovation, such as changes in lifestyle and business model, while real technological innovation is relatively weak in China. But China’s innovation has entered a new stage, that is, more technological innovation. In this case, international exchanges are needed to improve our technical capabilities and keep pace with the world.

Wang Tong, initiator of CAMP and founding partner of Dahe Venture Capital

At the same time, the whole social environment in China has changed. Chinese investors are also making various investments in the world, such as real estate, acquisition and merger of foreign enterprises, and even acquisition of natural resources such as minerals. However, Chinese investors have done less in innovation investment. China’s investment capital should have a more international perspective. Investors should not only focus on China, but also have a more global perspective.

China’s capital needs to have an international vision, and innovation also needs to have an international combination. The urgent need for capital and technology internationalization is the driving force to promote innovation internationalization. The starting point of China Canada joint venture camp is precisely to internationalize innovation.

Wang Tong introduced that the investment roadmap of the China Canada Joint Venture Camp is based on Canada. It starts from Canada and will enter the Silicon Valley in the future, including Israel, Germany, Japan and other countries and regions, eventually covering the whole world. The investment strategy will be more inclined to technological innovation, especially technological innovation that can combine the actual situation of China, such as combining the Chinese market, or combining R&D and manufacturing in China. The investment philosophy is to invest in the best company. Early investment is mainly about people. If the entrepreneurial team has a real entrepreneurial spirit and a good business sense, it can often bring the company to a higher level. At the same time, project direction and market are also important. In fact, it is to find a balance between trends, projects and people.

Fortunately, four of the 10 companies invested by the China Canada Joint Venture Camp last year have received the next round of investment and have performed well overall. In addition to the reasons of the team itself, the efforts behind the Sino Canadian joint venture camp also contribute.

The China Canada Joint Venture Camp helps selected Canadian/Ontario startups find suitable potential Chinese partners and mentors, and provides training to enterprises to shape a business model suitable for the Chinese market and get ready to enter the Chinese market.

The China Canada joint venture camp first docks capital for selected projects, and then docks resources. For example, KapowKidz, a child education project with the assistance of the Sino Canadian joint venture camp, has started business in China; Conavi, a medical device company, has found a strategic partner in China; Apply Board, a free intermediary platform for international students, will come to China this month to realize further market expansion. As a result, the China Canada Joint Venture Camp has gained great influence and reputation in Canada, even in the entire North America.

The last is to provide knowledge and experience for entrepreneurial teams. The team of the China Canada Joint Venture Camp has many years of venture capital experience, has a unique understanding of the business model and business essence, and can provide valuable advice and suggestions. For example, Viafoura is a service company that provides a platform for media companies to interact with audiences. Through constant communication with the tutorial group of China Canada Joint Venture Camp, it has strengthened the team’s confidence and deepened its understanding of the high-end business model of the industry.

The China Canada Joint Venture Camp has also built a bridge for Chinese start-ups to go global. With the help of the resources and influence of the China Canada Joint Venture Camp in North America, it helps domestic start-ups understand the North American market and connect with cooperative companies and investment institutions.

It is understood that last year, members of the first entrepreneurial camp visited Baidu, Tencent, Sohu, Xiaomi and other Internet companies, docked with more than 10 Chinese early-stage entrepreneurial companies, invited dozens of successful entrepreneurs as entrepreneurial mentors, and held project roadshows and venture capital matchmaking meetings. The second phase of the entrepreneurship camp also arranged a series of learning and exchange activities.

Canadian Founding Team Builds “Dragon Dance”

Source: Science and Technology Daily

When the maple leaves in Canada are colored with autumn every year, it is just the day when a group of top technology entrepreneurs come to Beijing. Some of them cherish the childhood obsession of “changing the world”, some are bent on putting the late night inspiration into practice, and some simply want to deepen their entrepreneurial feelings.

Since last year, the China Canada Joint Venture Camp (CAMP) has created such an opportunity for Canadian entrepreneurs: the founders of the selected team will go to China to participate in a two-week entrepreneurship training camp in the autumn of that year, including visits, studies, exchanges, roadshows, etc.

Wang Tong, the founding partner of China Canada Joint Venture Camp, told the Science and Technology Daily: “Through the activities of the training camp, Canadian and Chinese entrepreneurs can greatly promote their understanding of China’s entrepreneurial environment and China’s venture capital environment; at the same time, it also brings new ideas to Chinese entrepreneurs and venture capital circles and more understanding of North American innovation.”

China Canada Joint Venture Camp is an international virtual accelerator program jointly sponsored by Haidian Park Management Committee of Zhongguancun Science Park, Ontario Center of Excellence, and China Canada Angel Alliance, and undertaken by Dahe Venture Capital. It aims to actively advocate innovation, entrepreneurship and cooperation exchanges with a global perspective, build an exchange and cooperation platform for investors and entrepreneurs from China and Canada, practically promote scientific and technological innovation cooperation and entrepreneurial culture exchanges between China and Canada, create an international innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem, and serve the international lifestyle of innovation and entrepreneurship.

10 projects are carefully selected every year

In April 2015, the China Canada Joint Venture Camp was announced to be established in Canada. In October of the same year, the China Canada Joint Venture Camp was officially launched in Beijing at the Zhongguancun Venture Street branch of the National Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation Week.

Finally, the Ontario Center of Excellence and the China Canada Angel Alliance carefully selected 10 excellent project teams from more than 60 entrepreneurial projects of more than 40 universities in Ontario, Canada. Entrepreneurial fields include overseas study services, legal services, children’s education, career planning, online tourism, medical equipment and innovative hardware. The entrepreneurial team selected in the first phase of the China Canada Joint Venture Camp carried out a two-week study, investigation and exchange activity in China, and organized entrepreneurs to visit Tencent, Baidu, Xiaomi, Sohu, Microsoft, APUS, Zhendi and other well-known technology companies.

“Our goal is to help selected entrepreneurs in China and Canada find suitable potential cross-border partners and mentors, and provide them with training, resources, including some investment projects.” Wang Tong said.

It is understood that the China Canada joint venture camp plan will select about 10 companies from hundreds of start-up projects in Canada each year, and the selected companies will accept the virtual incubation plan and participate in the training camp. Each company will receive equity investment from the Ontario Center of Excellence in Canada, up to $300000, and enjoy the priority of the next round of financing. At the same time, the China Canada Angel Alliance will also give the project an appropriate proportion of investment (125000-250000).

Up to now, the member teams of the China Canada Joint Venture Camp have developed rapidly as a whole in 2015, and 4 of the 10 venture teams in Phase I have received the next round of investment.

Innovation needs an international perspective

Speaking of the original intention of establishing the China Canada Joint Venture Camp, Wang Tong said that China’s venture capital needs to be further internationalized. “Chinese investors have invested all over the world. Although real estate investment and mergers and acquisitions are not uncommon, venture capital has less coverage in the whole innovation investment. China’s current venture capital should have a more international perspective,” said Wang Tong.

All along, China’s science and technology circle has not stopped the pace of innovation, and a number of influential ace enterprises have emerged. Wang Tong believes that the Chinese style innovation in the past 20 years has two main driving forces: technological innovation and consumption upgrading. Consumption upgrading is more of a business model innovation. “For example, in the past, most people used to buy things in physical stores, but now a large number of shopping e-commerce have emerged, and people are more enthusiastic about online shopping. This innovation is caused by model innovation,” said Wang Tong.

On September 24, Yin Hejun, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology, revealed in his speech at the 2016 Pujiang Innovation Forum that China is accelerating its integration into the global scientific and technological innovation system. At present, China has established scientific and technological cooperation relations with 158 countries and regions, signed 110 intergovernmental scientific and technological cooperation agreements, and more than 200 Chinese scientists have assumed leadership positions in international cooperation organizations, actively attracting international high-level entrepreneurial talents to China for entrepreneurship and innovation.

“I think the real technological innovation in China is relatively weak at present. Made in China needs to strive to reach the level of intelligent manufacturing, and Chinese style innovation has entered a new stage. We need more valuable technological innovation, and we cannot do without international exchanges and cooperation,” said Wang Tong.

The China Canada Joint Venture Camp has chosen North America, which has a strong innovation driving force, as one of the most active innovation centers in the world, with relatively free flow of talent and technology.

Why not take the lead in “Silicon Valley”? Wang Tong has such an opinion: Silicon Valley is the world innovation center, and some local innovation capital and innovation capital around the world are very concentrated. The competition is fierce, and it is difficult to get close to the core quickly. “Compared with the United States, although Canada’s local venture capital mechanism is slightly weak, it has a large number of talents and high innovation ability, which makes it easier to enter Canada’s innovation center,” said Wang Tong.

Look for the most valuable technology enterprises

It is understood that the first phase of the Sino Canada Joint Venture Camp includes an application platform called application board, which mainly helps international students apply to universities in North America. They rely on online autonomous systems and charge universities instead of applicants. It is this innovative model that makes Wang Tong think that the Chinese market with huge potential has not been covered, so he chose to extend an olive branch to the application board.

In this venture capital circle, everyone cries “capital winter”, and investors’ eyes really become sharper? Wang Tong said that in the past, investors were most concerned about what kind of user value the enterprise created, rather than the ability to make money. Many large enterprises lose money when they go public. Even Alibaba, Youku and Facebook didn’t make money when they went public. However, they provide user value, and users cannot live without their services. This value is their survival value, which will one day be transformed into commercial value. Insist on investing in valuable enterprises and innovation.

One year later, the appearance of China Canada Joint Venture Camp made foreign entrepreneurs know that a group of Chinese angel investors seriously supported entrepreneurship in Canada, which made Canadian entrepreneurs have more expectations of the Chinese market.

Wang Tong said: “In the future, we hope to solidify the form of China Canada Joint Venture Camp, which can really promote and enhance China’s innovation rate, and graft some foreign high-tech onto China’s large consumer market. I also believe that China’s channel and market innovation, coupled with foreign high-tech innovation, may lead to greater innovation. China Canada Joint Venture Camp is willing to work hard for this goal.”

In the future, Wang Tong envisioned two possibilities. One is that R&D centers of large Chinese enterprises can also come to Canada to improve efficiency. The second is some technology research and development centers in Canada, which can use Chinese patents. China is leading in some application technologies such as programs and architectures. “We have a roadmap, based on Canada, covering places like Boston and Silicon Valley.” Wang Tong said so.

In October this year, the team selected for the second phase of the China Canada Joint Venture Camp will appear in China’s venture capital circle. The quiet and beautiful autumn leaves of Beijing are filled with the world’s most cutting-edge “scientific flavor”.

Source: Betakit

While many early stage companies in Canada tend to focus on growing within a familiar North American market, according to many members of the startup community, looking beyond these borders is imperative to combatting Canada’s scalability issue. In a few weeks, 10 early stage Canadian companies will get the chance to experience a new culture, long and fast-paced work days, an international marketplace, and a line of opportunities for investment and growth in the second cohort of the China Angels Mentorship Program (CAMP) in Beijing, China.

Having direct business ties to an international marketplace can play an important role in helping startups establish their international presence, but companies often lack the resources, funding, and connections to help them do so. In order to help them overcome these obstacles, CAMP, a joint initiative of Ontario Centres of Excellence and the China-Canada Angels Alliance (CCAA), offers companies looking to gain an international presence the opportunity to participate in an accelerator program that will enable them to scale their businesses internationally.

Similar to CAMP’s first cohort that travelled to Beijing in November 2015, 10 companies that specialize in areas of medical services, education, and legal innovation were selected to participate in this year’s CAMP Accelerator program. The companies, which receive an initial investment ranging from $100,000 to $500,000, will travel to Beijing for two weeks in October where they will meet leading investors in China, learn how businesses operate in the Chinese marketplace, and build their network of partners, mentors, and investors. The entrepreneurs will then spend the next year receiving mentorship from both Canadian and Chinese investors and mentors to help their businesses adapt to new markets and ideas.

Alan Yang, the vice president of CCAA, says the program is meant to build a bridge between Canada and China, by allowing the selected companies to scale their businesses in the world’s fastest-growing marketplace, while also allowing Chinese investors and companies to integrate into the Canadian ecosystem.

“What we’re trying to do is develop a long-term plan. We don’t just want to have a few deals and boss some Canadian companies around and take them to China. We want to be a part of the local ecosystem in Canada,” said Yang.

Cyclica, a company that has developed a predictive analytics platform that can model and predict the effectiveness, side effects, and safety of pharmaceutical drugs, will be among those participating in CAMP.

“We can generate some commercial traction and get in front of China’s life science industry. I’m interested in that because it’s going to provide us with an opportunity to immerse ourselves, understand the customs, the norms, and the business practices of the Chinese market,” said Naheed Kurji, president and CEO of Cyclica. “We’ll see not only how they do business in China, but also how they view foreign direct investment and how they look to do business with foreign entities.”

While some of the Canadian companies are looking to integrate directly into the Chinese market, others do not necessarily see China as their immediate next or even long-term market. Regardless, Yang says being introduced to Beijing’s investors, entrepreneurs, and market will bring value and new opportunities for each company to learn and grow.

“We don’t mind what the company’s long-term goal is. Even if they want to focus on the North American market, we are Chinese advisors. What we can bring is our understanding of the Chinese market and our connections in China,” said Yang. “We can use CAMP to give them funding help and other kinds of help. The top companies do what’s best for them.”

To select which companies would participate in the program this year, members of the OCE, Canadian experts, and program mentors got together to assess which companies have the passion and potential to open their businesses to a larger market while learning about how businesses operate in other parts of the world. Although there isn’t a set criteria through which companies are selected, Aron Solomon, co-founder of LegalX and an executive member of the CAMP program, says both the Chinese and Canadian investors and mentors get together to look for companies that they can notably impact with their resources and expertise.

“The main criteria is that we as a group, particularly the folks on the ground in Beijing, need to be able to make an active contribution to the company,” said Solomon. “So if it’s an area that’s so esoteric that we don’t have expertise for it, we won’t take them.”

When in Beijing, the two weeks will move very quickly as Canadian companies will be introduced to an entirely different way of operating businesses compared to North America. The entrepreneurs will be able to meet with leading Chinese companies like Xiaomi to learn about their history and how they have grown. Depending on the needs of the companies, they will also have the opportunity to meet with experts and specialists who can offer specialized mentorship for a company’s intended goals. They will be able to listen to keynote speeches by Chinese entrepreneurs and advisors, and meet with investors to discuss what they look for in Canadian companies. Among the investors is River VC, a larger venture capital fund that works with CCAA to invest in the growth of the companies. According to Solomon, CCAA was “the most active angel investor in all of Canada in 2015.”

“The investors are well-versed in the art and science of entrepreneurial training. They take them [entrepreneurs] to great companies and give them inside views of companies that North Americans never ever see,” said Solomon. “The investors will go deeper in investment as long as the companies keep hitting their milestones and communicating with the investors.”

Along with understanding business in China, the companies will immerse into the Chinese workflow by spending several hours a day applying what they learn from advisors directly to their own businesses, so they can pitch to other Chinese investors they haven’t met at the end of their trip.

While some companies who are in their early stages of revenue and growth have expressed concern that their ideas and concepts may be taken by Chinese entrepreneurs, both Yang and Solomon assure them that the program is meant to make entrepreneurs in both countries work together, learn from each other, and integrate into each other’s ecosystems.

“What I want to say is that a lot of Chinese, they want to buy a company out and take the technology. We just want to be part of the local ecosystem and help and be there for long term,” said Yang. “When they’re introduced to Chinese companies doing similar things, they will become friends and potential partners. They will learn from each other.”

Because Beijing’s culture and fast-paced lifestyle will be new to several of the companies, Yang and Solomon suggest that maintaining an open mind and commitment to learning will help the companies succeed during their time there.

“You have to be really open to experience and learning. I would suggest to each of these companies to take time a couple times a day to reflect and meditate upon your experience because things are coming at you so fast,” said Solomon. “The number one thing I could say before getting on the plane to Beijing is be willing to learn from the investors, be willing to learn from China and be very open to the experience.”

The second cohort of the CAMP Accelerators program will be in Beijing from Oct. 15 to Oct. 29. The full cohort includes:

Stack Fintech: Stack is a smart digital money account that leverages technology and your network to empower financial IQ!
Cyclica: Cyclica uses its technology to provide life-saving therapeutics at an affordable price.

Mosaic Manufacturing: Mosaic technology lets users print with multiple filaments on a single extruder 3D printer, with no wires or modifications.

Law Scout: A platform connecting small businesses to lawyers who work online at upfront, fixed fees.

Cryptiv: Cryptiv’s software empowers organizations to manage blockchain-enabled digital assets.

Sage Senses: IoT-embedded machine learning software with 1,000 times acceleration.

Suncayr Inc.: A smart UV Indicator that can tell users when sunscreen is no longer protecting them.

Directive Communication Systems : The first and only estate management solution that helps attorneys and personal representatives organize and contact personal accounts to fulfill wills.

TritonWear
TritonWear advances competitive swimming by providing real-time feedback and long-term tracking of swimmers performance data to coaches.

Industry Corporation: Helps businesses and consumers become more engaged, informed, and entertained through the power of screens.