Asia Startup Pulse

Dr. Yongqin Zeng a Senior Director & Innovation Lead in Philips Venture. Her long and rich career has seen her do over a decade of research in academia before joining the private sector where she has done it all. She led multiple research departments in different industries, drove several venture projects that led to the creation of two new business units, and also facilitated over 10 Open Innovation projects involving universities, hospitals, and of course startups.  Dr. Zeng’s work on Open Innovation is also featured in the book “Innovation in China” published by MIT in 2016.

In this episode, Dr. Zeng helps us dive deeper into innovation and R&D from the perspectives of academia, corporations, and startups. 

Show Notes

2:24 Introduction to Dr. Yongqin Zeng

3:18 Moving from research in academia to research in the corporate world

4:30 Difference between R&D and Innovation.

7:00 Do all inventions drive innovation?

11:27 How monetization shapes the R&D pipeline for corporates.

18:28 Deep dive into healthcare startup ecosystem: The competitive advantage they possess to deliver results

20:51 Synergies between healthcare startups and hospitals: China trend vs Global trend

23:00 Strength of Open Innovation in healthcare ecosystem outside China

24:55 Models that will shape the future of open innovation

28:16 Open innovation models improving UI and UX in the healthcare industry

32:35 Getting in touch with Dr. Yongqin Zeng

Many thanks to our guest Benjamin Qiu; host Oscar Ramos; producers  Eva Shi and  Sagar Chaudhary; editor David; organizer Chinaccelerator; and sponsor People Squared. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.com

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Today, we will invite one of our old friends Benjamin Qiu, Partner of Loeb & Loeb, an international law firm based in the US and Asia. He has over 15-year experience in working with high growth companies in China and big VC firms such as GGV and Sequoia Capital. He is the perfect person to answer our questions and expand on the future outlook of the post-covid startup world. We will also talk about the relationship between China and other Asian markets including Southeast Asia and India, and how the recent events will change the way that China invests in those regions.

Show Notes:

02:01 Introduce Benjamin Qiu

02:41 More Chinese tech companies got listed in overseas markets

05:02 China’s financial policy reforms

08:42 How the pandemic has impacted investors’ investment deals

12:54 Reasons behind the fast market recovery in China

16:05 Trends about China going to Southeast Asia

20:43 The impact created by the geopolitical intensions between China and India

Many thanks to our guest Benjamin Qiu; host Oscar Ramos; producers  Eva Shi and  Sagar Chaudhary; editor David; organizer Chinaccelerator; and sponsor People Squared. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.com

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Our guests:

Remington Ong
Remington is Partner at Fenbushi Capital, one of the earliest and most active blockchain-focused venture capital firms, where he has managed investments into over 40 leading startups around the world leveraging blockchain technology to disrupt a wide range of industries, such as finance, healthcare, supply chain, and consumer goods.

Ray Yang

Ray is Partner at Marathon Venture Partners, a China-based early to growth stage fund focusing on digital healthcare transformation. Prior to Marathon Venture Partners, Ray was MD at Northern Light Venture Capital and Investment Director at Orchid Asia Group Management. Many of his investments have achieved listings on major stock exchanges or achieved exit via M&A, such as Burning Rock Riotech, a Chinese biotech company  went public on NASDAQ.

William Bao Bean

William is General Partner at SOSV. a US$740m+ venture capital fund known as “the accelerator VC”. He is also the MD at Chinaccelerator, SOSV’s global Internet accelerator and the first accelerator to launch in China in 2010 and MOX, the mobile-only accelerator platform with 130m smartphone users in SE Asia. Before SOSV, William was one of the founding MDs at SingTel Innov8 Ventures and Partner at Softbank China & India Holdings.

Show Notes:

01:00 Talk with Remington Ong

06:41 Talk with Ray Yang

14:00 Talk with William Bao Bean
 

Many thanks to our guests; host Oscar Ramos; producers  Eva Shi and  Sagar Chaudhary; editor David; organizer Chinaccelerator; and sponsor People Squared. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.com

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Show notes:

02:26 Educating overseas brands about the China market in Shangpin

05:03 The reasons why overseas brands rejected Chinese platforms in early days

08:05 Shangpin partnered with banks to build trust with customers

10:30 First time brought Topshop to China’s online space

13:22 Online consumers for high-end brands in China

16:37 The role of Shangpin in providing unique user experience

19:17 The importance of after-sales customer service

22:04 The biggest changes in China’s luxury ecommerce space

28:32 China’s innovation that is brought to the rest of the world

30:53 How the overseas perceives the innovation from China

35:00 The new definition of luxury
 

Many thanks to our guest  Claire Chung; host Oscar Ramos; producers Eva Shi and Sagar Chaudhary; editor David; organizer Chinaccelerator; and sponsor People Squared. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.com

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Our guests:

Helen Wong

Helen is Partner at Qiming Venture Partners and a founding team member at GGV Capital. Qiming is an early to growth stage venture capital firm, which currently manages four USD funds and three RMB funds with over $1.7 billion in assets.

Helen’s successful exits at Qiming include Mobike (sold to Meituan), Luojiswei (unicorn valuation, sold to Tencent), and Lagou (sold to 51jobs). Helen was awarded by Forbes as Top100 VCs in China in 2018.

Gary Yang

Gary is Founding Partner at SkySaga Capital and Director of the China Venture Capital Association. Graduated from Tsinghua University, one of the top universities in China and the world, Gary is an experienced investor who led the investment of dozens of companies, including Yanjiyou, a well-known bookstore chain brand in China, Pencil Media, an upcoming tech media focusing on startup news, and more.

SkySaga Capital is an early to growth stage venture capital firm, with a focus on industrial upgrades such as consumption upgrade and supply chain upgrade, and deep tech such as AI and biotech.

Jeff Chi
Jeff is Founding Partner at Vickers Venture Partners and Former Chairman at Singapore Venture Capital & Private Equity Association.

Vickers is a global venture capital firm with US$700 million focused on early-stage investments in Asia and beyond. The firm announced in 2017 that it has raised US$230 million to invest in startups around the world, with a particular focus on deep tech across the globe and impact investments in emerging markets. Vickers has 8 offices around the world and is one of the largest venture capital firms in Singapore and Shanghai.

Show Notes:

01:04 Talk with Helen Wong

06:14 Talk with Gary Yang

10:19 Talk with Jeff Chi

Many thanks to our guests; host Oscar Ramos; producers Eva Shi and Sagar Chaudhary; editor David; organizer Chinaccelerator; and sponsor People Squared. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.com

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During this week’s episode, we will discuss the value of design in early technology startups with Yiying Lu, the award-winning artist behind the Twitter Fail Whale and Dumpling emoji,  named as “Fast Company's Most Creative People in Business” and Microsoft's “Top 10 Emerging Leader in Innovation”.

Show notes:

02:08 Introducing Yiying Lu

03:00 How design helps with product experience

05:30 The role of emotional needs in design

10:50 Design as a strategic tool for tech companies

14:40 How early stage founders should pay attention to design

19:50 Own a cross-cultural mindset

27:33 Failed campaign examples when foreign companies enter China

31:50 Yiying’s cross-cultural campaign cases

Many thanks to our guest  Yiying Lu; host Oscar Ramos; producers Eva Shi and Sagar Chaudhary; editor David; organizer Chinaccelerator; and sponsor People Squared. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.com

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Our guest today is Sophie Yao, the China General Manager of Pegasus Tech Ventures, which some people may know for their notable investments like SpaceX and Airbnb. Sophie currently manages a $1 billion fund that predominantly focuses on pre-IPO deals. 

Show Notes:

1:48 Introduction to Sophie Yao

2:59 The CVC 4.0 Model

4:33 Rationale behind corporate partnering with single LP funds

6:58 The $1 billion pre-IPO  fund, what it is and why Pegasus invests in pre-IPO deals

8:04 Risks associated with pre-IPO deals

9:46 Pre-requisites in a pre-IPO deal. How do you measure returns?

12:28 Role of the pre-IPO investor in supporting companies

13:40  Evaluating potential investments

16.14 Next wave of IPOs from China

20:58 Revenue vs Technology: What matters more in deep tech investment

23:12 Does investor behavior shape the type of companies in China?

24:36 China’s STAR market and how it has performed so far

26:15 Companies doing well in the STAR market

26:45 Alibaba Ant dual IPO: Inflection point in Chinese companies' perspective on IPOs

28:41 Foreign companies listing in STAR market 

29:23 US-China deteriorating relations and impact on internationalization of Chinese tech startups

31:29 Luckin’s impact on the perception of listed Chinese companies

34:36 Lessons for Series A or B founders

36:54 Pegasus’ area of investment and how to contact Sophie

37:53 Pegasus’ Incubation program

Many thanks to our guest  Sophie Yao; host Oscar Ramos; producers Eva Shi and Sagar Chaudhary; editor David; organizer Chinaccelerator; and sponsor People Squared. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.com

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In today’s episode we are joined by Kevin Lee, CDO at IKEA China; German Torrado, Managing Director at Genetsis E-commerce; Alexis RICHEZ, Venture Development and Partnerships at ZTP (The innovation arm behind one the largest retails groups in Europe including companies like Decathlon, Leroy Merlin our Auchan); and Abel Zhao, Co-founder and CEO at TravelFlan.

Our guests come with a particular angle on data and digitalization. With their wealth of experiences, you will gain insightful learnings on how to use data to innovate within your organization especially in a post-Covid19 world.

Show Notes

[02:11] Introduction to Kevin Lee and understanding what Ikea is doing with data and insights
[03:48] Introduction to German Torrado and Genetsis E-commerce
[04:48] Introduction to Alexis Richez and ZTP
[06:21] Introduction to Abel Zhao and TravelFlan
[09:17] Is data the new oil? How is IKEA getting value from data today?
[13:46] Awareness of data among brands and the relevance of data in their agenda
[16:56] What is the readiness level of companies? Are they really aware of how much value they can derive from data? Are they talking about data is the new oil but have no idea what it is exactly or are they ready to extract value from data?
[20:50] Reaction from brands about data that is hard to get
[22:53] Most relevant obstacles in the present time to drive digital transformation
[35:35] Impact of GDPR for businesses
[37:35] Getting key stakeholders to buy into the “Data is the Future” narrative and Performance metrics when implementing a data strategy 

Many thanks to our guest  Kevin Lee, German Torrado, Alexis Richez and Abel Zhao; host Oscar Ramos; producers Eva Shi and Sagar Chaudhary; editor David; organizer Chinaccelerator; and sponsor People Squared. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.com

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Our guest today, Neo Lv, is one of the company’s co-founders and today’s COO.

Show Notes:

02:11 Introduction to Neo Lv and Citybox

04:47 Unmanned retail hype in 2017 & what makes Citybox unique

08:54 Monetize data

12:51 How Citybox sustainably gets profitable among the strong competitions

18:27 Competitions bring new growth opportunities

24:47 How Citybox built their first generation of the smart vending machines

29:08 The future of unmanned retail

33:45 Compare China with other markets globally

Many thanks to our guest  Neo Lv; host Oscar Ramos; producers Eva Shi and Sagar Chaudhary; editor David; organizer Chinaccelerator; and sponsor People Squared. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.com

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In this episode, we have with us Cao Yin, Founding Partner of Digital Renaissance Foundation, a Shanghai-based company that is helping to accelerate the future of digital governance by consulting, incubating and financing projects in the blockchain ecosystem and investor in the first DeFi project launched in China.

Show Notes

[1:55] Introduction to Cao Yin

[8:46] What makes crypto and blockchain so different? Hype vs Reality?

[13:15] DeFi use cases

[17:10] Winners and Losers from DeFi

[21:26] How DeFi affects the government

[25:04] Risks of DeFi. What can go wrong?

[29:10] Chinese government’s view on DeFi

[32:19] Opportunities for DeFi startups today

[33:58] Chinese DeFi investors

[36:27] Contact Cao Yin and Digital Rennaisance Foundation

Many thanks to our guest  Cao Yin; host Oscar Ramos; producers Eva Shi and Sagar Chaudhary; editor David; organizer Chinaccelerator; and sponsor People Squared. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.com

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Follow us on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/the-china-startup-pulse/

Email us: [email protected]