Alibaba, InnoSpring launch China accelerator

The Alibaba Innovation Center will focus on smart cars, smart manufacturing, biomedical sciences, robotics and the internet-of-things. It will be based in Shanghai’s Jiading district where it is expected to benefit from a local industrial focus on automobiles and integrated circuits.

The accelerator will operate in partnership with InnoSpring’s Shanghai Hongkou incubator, which includes four satellite locations in the region. Additional support will be provided by the Jiading government and the Tsinghua Entrepreneur & Executive Club.

"Our joint venture with Alibaba underscores the importance of close collaboration between industry giants, government, associations and start-ups," Xiao Wang, general manager at InnoSpring Silicon Valley, said in a statement. "By working together to provide a vibrant ecosystem for start-ups, we collectively push technological boundaries to create open, global and borderless platforms for innovation."

InnoSpring and Alibaba recently coordinated an event that allowed start-ups to pitch ideas primarily in the areas of biotech and smart manufacturing. Participating investors included SIMIC Holdings, Shanghai Jiading Venture Capital Management and Northern Light Venture Capital.

Northern Light, Tsinghua University Science Park, Shui On Group and Silicon Valley Bank founded Innospring in 2012 as the first Sino-US incubator. Headquartered in the US, it has four funds under management, and claims to have supported more than 300 start-ups, six of which have gone public.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Technology
• Healthcare
• Early-stage
• China
• USA
• seed
• manufacturing
• automobiles
• Alibaba Group