On April 26th, the Tencent Entrepreneurship Space (Guangzhou Topchain Community) jointly built by Yangcheng Evening News, Tencent, Topchain Group and 3W ushered in the “entrepreneurship•Graduation Day” of the first star startup team. The entrepreneurial space built on the site of the original Yangcheng Evening News building has attracted more than 60 entrepreneurial teams and more than 400 start-ups since its opening in September last year. Everything is going smoothly. The teams consist of Internet finance, catering, entertainment, social networking, beauty and O2O, among which more than 50 startup projects have been successfully financed. On the graduation day ceremony, a group of teams representing innovation and entrepreneurship collectively showed their growth since entering the park. Chen Lingli, Deputy Director of Yuexiu District of Guangzhou City, Lin Huanxu, Chief Engineer of Guangzhou Municipal Science and Technology Innovation Committee, Chen Xinyu, General Manager of Yangcheng Newspaper Media Group Co., Ltd. and other relevant leaders attended the event.
The old newspaper building turns into the most popular entrepreneurial base
When innovation and entrepreneurship have become the new engines for urban economic transformation and upgrading, the emergence of various types of business parks is changing the texture of urban development. Nowadays, more and more entrepreneurial talents are rushing into Guangzhou, the “Millennium Commercial Capital City”, and they have rapidly grown absorbing the nutrients from various entrepreneurial theme parks. On September 8th, 2015, the Yangcheng Evening News duplex, which has a history of 30 years, was transformed into the China’s first mobile internet ecology tree and entrepreneurial complex—Guangzhou Topchain Community—through the concept of urban renewal and building revitalization. What’s more, it teamed up with Tecent, and the 3W Group to build the first Tencent Entrepreneurship Space in Guangzhou. The traditional newspaper building has become the most popular Internet startup incubator in Guangzhou.
Chen Lingli said at the scene that Guangzhou Topchain Community, a key construction project of the innovation system in Yuexiu District, is of great significance and far-reaching influence on Yuexiu District’s exploration to create an innovative hatching space where the hardware and software of the whole factor chain are compatible. In the future, the Yuexiu District Government will continue to optimize the innovation and entrepreneurship environment, vigorously develop high-quality and innovative incubators, and attract high-level talents to the Yuexiu District for innovation and entrepreneurship.
Guangzhou Topchain Community is not just a gathering place for entrepreneurial companies, but also an entrepreneurial ecosystem that integrates innovation factors, capital factors, and industrial factors, and has become an engine to promote the transformation and upgrading of cities. “Advantageous location, leading effect, resources gathering, service support, and value-added transmission are the core competitive advantages of Guangzhou Topchain Community.” Chen Xinyu said that since the official opening of the park last year, the entrepreneurial cluster and entrepreneurial ecology here has been booming: The first phase of Tencent Entrepreneurship Space has been fully occupied, and 3W funds and other famous venture capital institutions have entered the park. The Topchain Commuinty’s own incubation and accelerated growth has attracted a large number of Internet financial and intelligent service companies. Thus, a good “internal environment” between business teams and industries has been formed.
Small teams make big differences
At the “entrepreneurship•Graduation Day” event, the pioneering projects of first batch of entrepreneurship space had live exhibitions as well as roadshows, and the exchanges with more than 30 investors from Tencent Double Hundred Investment, 3W Funds and other investment institutions took place. In the corner of the roadshow center, the reporter experienced the VR technology experience zone created by the VR team---“51 VR” that currently deployed in Tencent's entrepreneurship space. Wearing the VR experience device in the experience zone, the reporter can immediately enjoy visiting a virtual room with full 3D 360 degree viewing angles , walking around in this room as if it really exists.
For the enterprises in Guangzhou Topchain Community, many of them have independent innovation technologies such as “51 VR” or those that have breakthroughs in business models, such as YY Xueche, Zhao5Jin, Lein printing, etc., using the Internet to transform traditional industries like driving schools, hardware and printing. “3000kr” and “Hometown Travel (Guxiang Lvyou)” focus on consumer vertical markets such as clothing, food, housing, transportation, etc. These active entrepreneurial teams are stimulating the entrepreneurial atmosphere in Guangzhou.
Fei Ye, COO of YY Xueche, one of the star entrepreneurial teams told reporters that with the implementation of policies encouraging "entrepreneurship and innovation", both investment funds and resource information gather in Guangzhou. Entrepreneurs here are enjoying more and more conveniences, and the entrepreneurial environment of Guangzhou has entered a virtuous circle. Li Tao, Director of National Operation of Tencent’s entrepreneurship Space, also stated that he hopes that a number of entrepreneurial incubation clusters can be formed here, which will help enhance the city’s entrepreneurial culture and innovation awareness, and truly achieve "entrepreneurship and innovation".
In the future, Guangzhou Topchain Community will continue to integrate multiple resources to create a new landmark for innovation and entrepreneurship in Guangzhou. Chen Xinyu stated that in the future, the innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem of Guangzhou Topchain Community will be further optimized, and the community will jointly deploy the entrepreneurial cloud for university students with WinHong Information Technology Co., Ltd. With the help of startup and investment funds like the “Guangdong Southern New Media Fund” and “Guangdong University Student Fund”, virtual and actual enrollment of university students' entrepreneurial teams in the province is to be achieved. "We will also promote the establishment of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau youth entrepreneurship incubators, link up with international innovation resources, and provide personal services for them to share the national "entrepreneurship and innovation" bonus."
25 entrepreneurial projects of Yangcheng Topchain community declared “graduation”
On April 26, Tencent's entrepreneurship Space (Guangzhou Topchain Community) held its first project’s “Graduation Day” since its opening 8 months ago. A total of 25 entrepreneurial projects have successfully “graduated” from this space, and many of them are being or are expected to “change from boats to giant ships”.
Graduated! Entrepreneurial boat is turning into a giant ship
On the afternoon of April 26th, the “Enterpreneurship•Graduation Day” event was held in Guangzhou Topchain Community. One of the key steps was to hold a “graduation ceremony” for 25 entrepreneurial projects that had been in for six months. Each corporate leader came on stage to accept the awards. These graduating teams include Mo Fan, 3000kr, Fun Party (Qu Ju Hui), Zhao 5jin, Kuai Ka, Q Xue You, 1024 Express, YY Xue Che, BESWOO, DiDong, Ball bar, Haose salad, Molyo, Booksoil, W4, Lan De Ji, WeiCaiAPP, KouDai Milk, Qiu Quan, Lein printing, BIT POP, Campus Captain, United Yi Mei, ULADY, Hometown Travel (Guxiang Lvyou).
The reporter learned that apart from negotiating teams that have not yet finalized financing, of the teams in the Guangzhou Topchain Community, 23 has got seed rounds investment, 21 for Angel investment, and 7 for A round investment (in addition, 3 teams have already got Tencent cooperation intention agreement). In the 25 projects of “turning the boat into the ship”, there are many that sail through wind and waves, and some have gained the favor of investors, and some are expected to become new “unicorn” enterprises.
At the event, the heads of the graduate teams of the first phase together hang the cards representing the fruits of success to the “big tree” next to the stage. The director in charge of Guangzhou Topchain Community stated that related projects that have already “graduated” can choose to stay or leave. In eithercase, Topchain community will continue to follow up these projects and provide related services.
In addition to the companies that have the opportunity to demonstrate themselves, there are many entrepreneurial teams near the entrance of the venue. They distribute their leaflets and put up exhibition board to do their utmost to demonstrate the company’s core business and communicate with the investors and media reporters who showed up.
8 road show teams communicate with more than 30 investors
For over 20 graduated teams, the heads of the eight-star startup teams such as DiDong Home Appliance and 3000kr were given valuable opportunities to re-participate the roadshow after graduation. These representatives actively promoted their companies and communicated with more than 30 investors including Tencent Double Hundred Investment, 3W Fund, China Science Investment, and Dark Horse Fund.
Sun Mingyang, the founder of the DiDong home appliances, said that in the value chain of the home appliance industry, every company has invested, everyone earns less, and everyone is not satisfied. So, he wants to make consumers talk directly to the maintenance workers. Therefore, he creates a five-party online service platform for factory channels, customers, workers, and outlets. When the investee asked why he had still chosen to start the business after becoming famous, he said that he wanted to realize this dream more than 10 years ago, and the development of the mobile Internet made it possible.Recently, he and his team are committed to financing 10 million U.S. dollars for DiDong home appliances. They plan to use all of them to integrate outlets and workers resources, and establish regional operation centers.
Zhang Zhifa, the founder of the teaching and training SaaS platform Q Xueyou, was asked by investors about issues related to project expansion. Zhang Zhifa said that Q Xueyou has established marketing teams in nine cities across the country and achieved breakthroughs by linking with some educational circles. He also optimistically stated that from April 27th, market leaders from all over the country will be gathered in Shenzhen for continuous training for three days. It is believed that the speed of market expansion will be further accelerated.
The reporter also noticed that each investor attending the meeting has an investment letter of intent on the table and can choose whether or not to continue negotiations with related companies. Before and after the day of the event, there were investors who were invited and even came on their own, and had an in-depth exchange with entrepreneurs of Topchain Commuinity