To facilitate fellows of ASTRI Innovation Runway (AIR) Programme create a successful start-up, ASTRI organised an entrepreneurship field trip to Beijing from 21 to 23 September 2016.

This entrepreneurship field trip aims to allow AIR fellows to have a deeper understanding of the business development trends and entrepreneurship environment in China. It also offers them an opportunity to look for potential investors through visiting and meeting with representatives from technology companies, research centres, incubation centres, start-up accelerators, and investors, etc. in Beijing.

Seven teams including the newly admitted fellows in August this year joined the field trip in which they visited a number of famous technology companies and research institutions in China such as Microsoft Venture Accelerator, Baidu, Zhongguancun Inno Way, Beihang University Entrepreneurship Base, etc. to learn more about the incubation ecosystem in China and exchanged views with the entrepreneurs and their representatives.

Mr. Ringo Chan from MyParents team which focuses on developing technologies that address the needs of the aging parents said, “The experience gained from this field trip is invaluable. The trip offers me an opportunity to visit a number of renowned technology companies as well as Zhongguancun Inno Way. These visits gave me new insights into the setting of start-ups.”

Apart from the company visits, the AIR fellows also participated in the roadshows held at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing Institute of Collaborative Innovation (BICI), and Binggo Cafe, an innovative incubator of Tsinghua Technology Innovation Holdings to showcase their technologies and present their ideas to potential investors, fund managers and partners for possible collaboration. Constructive feedbacks were received which were useful for their business development. In addition, the AIR fellows visited 1898 café, a crowdfunding cafe, to learn more about the crowdfunding business model and met with alumni from Peking University for ideas exchanges.

“The company visits and roadshows enable our team to understand more about the investment model in China so that we can be more targeted and focused to develop our technologies that fit the China market. We will further devise our business strategies for China market,” said Mr. Jake Chan from Recipio team which specialises in developing digital receipt solution.

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