What are recent developments of the startup ecosystems and venture capital markets in Europe and China. What are similarities and differences?

In this episode, we are speaking with two startup & investment professionals, Chao Wu, originally from China, who led his own company in China a few years ago and focuses now on investments. The second discussion partner is Louis Heinz, who is a senior investment manager at the German VC fund, HTGF.

In today's episode we speak with Dr. Ferdinand Bartels, one of the managing directors of Humboldt-Tech Bridge and the CEO of InnoEU. Ferdinand has a rich background in material science and has worked with startups in regards to China for many years. We speak with him about how the university program he founded helps European startups on their way to China. Beyond, we talk about the differences between both markets and about how diversity and exchange can take collaboration and entrepreneurial outcomes to the next level.

Here you can find out more about the Bridge to China startup program.

What to consider when starting your own business in China? What are pitfalls and opportunities?

In this episode, we are speaking with the young European entrepreneur John Kaller who has been living in China for the last couple of years. He is currently developing his second company, unpackAI, in Beijing and will shed some light on his experiences while founding a business in China.

How did China change from the 80s of the last century up until today? How have those developments been perceived by someone who has seen them first hand? In this episode, we are speaking with the European business journalist and author Wolfgang Hirn. He first visited the country in 1986 and has fallen in love with its culture ever since. Besides numerous articles, he also wrote a handful of books about China and is editor of the newsletter Chinahirn (we definitely recommend checking it out!). We talked with him about his experiences over the years and about his opinion about the past and current developments of the country.

In this special feature of Bridge to China, Lars from the Humboldt-Tech Bridge team joined. He is leading the China market decoding program, a program for startups looking to enter the Chinese market. In this context we talked about the reasons why startups should learn first before entering the Chinese market. Furthermore, Lars introduces how you gain the skills needed and what you get out of this China decoding program - spoiler alert - you can win a trip to china pitching in front of investors and Chinese cooperates. For this reason, Lars also gives insights on what startups they are looking for. So make sure that you are applying!

For applications please view F6S https://www.f6s.com/bridgetochina/apply or drop Lars a message [email protected]

The first batch of the Bridge to China program pitched their innovation to Chinese investors and business leaders: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0Ma4UzsYgc

Follow Humboldt-Tech Bridge on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/humboldt-tech-bridge

Best of luck to all applicants and have fun listening!

Where do German startups differ from Chinese ones? What attracts Chinese founders to Berlin? What are cultural differences? We talked about these questions with Sabine Yang-Schmidt and Yiran Li. Both are representatives of the Berlin Business Desk China of Berlin’s Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises with an office in Beijing (Sabine is now Managing Director at Cassandra Foresight). For this reason, they could already gather a lot of experience and impressions on the bridge between Europe and China. We would like to thank them again and hope you enjoy listening to the first episode!

Bridge to China - podcast teaser