China's HNA supports US accelerator's global expansion

The investment will allow for the opening of a network of technology campuses in key Chinese cities within the year as well as the initiation of new services to help scale up emerging technologies and support the development of China's start-up ecosystem. RocketSpace is also planning to expand into the UK in early 2017.

"China is at the epicenter of today's economy and it's critical for Silicon Valley to have a presence there," Duncan Logan, founder and CEO of RocketSpace, said in a statement. "HNA is one of the world's fastest growing companies and they are a powerful partner to have as we quickly scale across the globe."

Established in 2011, RocketSpace provides office-as-a-service and accelerator-focused services to technology entrepreneurs. Alumni include 16 companies with valuations in excess of $1 billion, including Uber, Cheetah Mobile and Blippar. The firm also operates a corporate innovation services business in partnership with more than 100 companies in the Fortune 1000.

This deal represents HNA's first investment in the technology accelerator space, although the company assists start-ups with direct investments and by leveraging its experience in areas such as cloud computing, big data and the internet-of-things. The company recently contributed RMB1.2 billion ($181 million) to a Series B round for a sports programing unit of LeTV Holdings as well as investing RMB400 million in flight management app operator Shenzhen Huoli Tianhui Technology.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Technology
• Expansion
• Early-stage
• China
• USA
• HNA Group
• seed