Chengdu Hi-Tech Zone: Building a New Cradle for Chinese Unicorns

CHENGDU, China, May 21, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- On May 18, during the Chengdu Global Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fair, Chengdu Hi-Tech Zone announced that the Unicorn Investment Foundation with a scale of RMB 10 billion will be set up to assist companies that have innovation technology and innovative commercial modes with great growth potentials to tackle the problems of financing and at the same time to set up a company gradient cultivation system to provide different-staged companies with targeted support policies respectively.

Relevant heads of Chengdu Hi-Tech Zone indicated that, more than 3 unicorn companies would be cultivated this year and this number would amount to 10 in the next three years.

In China, state-level hi-tech zones have already become the main accumulation places of unicorn companies. In 2017, 76.2% of Chinese unicorn companies were located in state-level hi-tech zones. Another report shows that, at present, a large number of unicorn companies are considered startups (nearly one third of unicorn companies established after 2014) and thus they require necessary policy support.

As one of the first groups of Chinese state-level hi-tech zones and the first national independent innovation demonstration zone in western China, Chengdu Hi-Tech Zone hopes to provide "soil" for the development of unicorn companies. It will set up the mechanism for unicorn services to provide a full-range of support for potential unicorn companies starting from its inception.

Chengdu Hi-Tech Zone has already set up an incubation network ranging from professional parks, maker space, incubator, professional buildings to professional companies, with an overall incubation carrier area of 4.3 million square meters. It will also build the first hi-tech service supermarket in southwestern China by learning from the operation idea of modern supermarket to put hi-tech services on a "shelf". Entrepreneurs can "select and purchase" all kinds of scientific service products in accordance with their demands, while foreign companies can enjoy the one-stop service of innovation and startup.

With the strong support of policies, in recent years, the new economy in Chengdu Hi-Tech Zone has showed strong development momentum and a large number of unicorn and potential unicorn companies such as Xinchao Media, XW Bank, TD Tech, Revotek, XGIMI, and Yiyun Technology have emerged. Among them, XW Bank is the first internet bank in western China, while Revotek, a biotech company, conducted the first global vivo test of implanting 3D bio-printed blood vessels into a rhesus monkey in 2016. As the pioneer of non-screen TV in China, XGIMI's three products obtained great innovation awards at the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) of this year.

With the increasing optimized industrial environment, Chengdu Hi-Tech Zone's attraction to global talents has been enhanced gradually. In recent days, Nobel laureate in Chemistry Robert Huber has been invited to work as the honorary dean of Tianfu International Nobel Biomedicine Research Institute. He is not the first Nobel laureate that Chengdu Hi-Tech Zone has attracted. Currently, 6 Nobel laureates have chosen to settle down in Chengdu Hi-Tech Zone to set up research institutes. When Professor Robert Huber arrived in Chengdu Tianfu International Bio-town he noted, "I have visited a lot of biological medicine industry parks in Europe, but Chengdu Tianfu International Bio-town has grown faster than any of them."

SOURCE Chengdu Hi-Tech Zone