On October 31, the 2024 "Chuangxiang China" Anhui Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition Asia-Pacific Division semifinals, along with a Dual Recruitment and Investment Matchmaking Event, were successfully held in Singapore. The representatives of the organizing and hosting units, including Li Jun, general manager of Strategic Investment Department of Anhui Investment Group Holding Co., Ltd., and Sun Guoxiang, general manager of Operation Management Department; Zhang Weiwu, general manager of Anhui Zhong'an Chuanggu Valley Science and Technology Park Co., Ltd.; and Zheng Ying, general manager of Fund One of Anhui High-Tech Industrial Investment Co., Ltd., attended the event on site.

The event invited Jeff Lin, partner of iGlobe, Ligao Zhou, executive director of BAOBAB Investment from the US, Dr. MC Leung, chief innovation officer of Clearbridge Health from Singapore, Ling Zhu, CTO of Jingyi Technology, John Zhang, managing partner of GopherVC, and Wade Shu, executive director of Care Innovations, as well as nearly 100 entrepreneurs from around the world and local venture capital institutions from Singapore to attend.

Through a rigorous selection process, 15 outstanding projects from hundreds of applicants advanced to the Asia-Pacific stage, competing for top honors in innovation.

Opening Remarks

The general manager of the Operations and Management Department of Anhui Investment Group, Sun Guoxiang, said in his speech that Anhui has been focusing on building a globally influential hub for scientific and technological innovation and emerging industries in recent years, and has been pushing forward its strategy of innovation-driven development. By leveraging major platforms such as national laboratories and comprehensive national science centers, Anhui has achieved remarkable successes in fields such as quantum computing and strong magnetic science, attracted a large number of high-end talents, and gradually formed an "integrated circuit, display screen, and equipment" industrial system. Sun Guoxiang emphasized that the Anhui Investment Group will continue to strengthen the management of industrial funds and science and technology incubation, and support Anhui in achieving its strategic goal of becoming a "place for innovation, entrepreneurship, and international cooperation," and is looking forward to providing the best support and cooperation platform for innovators and entrepreneurs.

Dual Recruitment Section

During the event, the Asia-Pacific Division Organizer introduced the advantages of Anhui's dual-attraction and expansion strategy, and focused on promoting the "Great Innovation Valley" platform. This platform is a high-level science and technology innovation platform that integrates innovation and entrepreneurship, incubation, ecological optimization, and emerging industry gathering. It is located in the "one core, two parks, one town" layout, integrates global scientific and technological resources, and builds a comprehensive fund system and policy support covering the entire life cycle of enterprises. It focuses on supporting strategic industries such as new energy and artificial intelligence. The project relies on the policy special zone to create a global innovation ecosystem and entrepreneurial paradise, providing first-class environments and support for science and technology enterprises and high-level talents.

Semifinals Competition

In the competition segment, five experts from well-known investment institutions, scientific research institutes and industry leading enterprises served as judges to evaluate 15 projects in the fields of new generation information technology, artificial intelligence, life health, intelligent manufacturing and other fields in turn. Through the project roadshow + judges' Q&A, the top 3 projects will advance to the global finals to be held in Hefei in November. Law firms were invited throughout the competition.

The Asia Pacific Division of the 2024 "Chuangxiang China" Anhui Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition has attracted 162 projects from the United States, Japan, South Korea, Israel, Canada, Australia, India and other places since its recruitment was launched in July. The core team of the participating projects brings together a number of high-level talents with rich industry experience and high educational background, all project members have overseas study or work experience, of which more than 75% of the founders and CEOs of the team have a master's degree or above, and more than 30% have a doctorate degree. The project relies on the scientific research achievements of well-known universities and research institutions, covering intelligent manufacturing, biomedical, artificial intelligence, financial technology and other fields, with strong technological innovation and market transformation potential.

This year's entries in the Asia Pacific (North America) region show significant market prospects and innovative advantages, and some projects have successfully secured venture capital and won multiple awards on the international stage. Most of the participating teams expressed a strong intention to carry out in-depth cooperation with Anhui in terms of technology docking and market landing. The implementation of these high-potential projects will bring new impetus to economic development and technological innovation in Anhui Province.

Dual Recruitment and Investment Matchmaking Meeting

During the competition, the Dual Recruitment and Investment Matchmaking Meeting was held simultaneously. Many investment institutions such as Anhui Investment Group and Anhui High-tech Investment have conducted in-depth exchanges with representatives of the participating projects, welcoming more innovative projects to land in Anhui and create a new chapter of win-win cooperation.This event gathered Anhui investment institutions, innovation platform enterprises and representatives of participating projects, fully demonstrating Anhui's open and inclusive industrial environment, and further consolidating Anhui's important position in the global innovation cooperation network.

2024 "Chuangxiang China" Anhui Province Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition

With the theme of "Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Realizing Dreams of Jianghuai", the Anhui Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition in 2024 has been held for eight consecutive sessions since it was first held in 2017, attracting nearly 13,000 projects from home and abroad. In the first seven sessions, 700 "double star" projects have been selected, and 101 overseas projects and 90 projects outside the province have been successfully attracted to "take root" in Anhui. At present, the competition has become a well-known brand event to promote Anhui, gather coupled high-quality innovation and entrepreneurship resources, and is an important platform for Anhui province to promote the "double recruitment and double introduction" of emerging industries and future industries, and promote the transformation of scientific and technological achievements.

This competition has a total of 6 competition zones, of which 1 provincial competition zone, set up new energy vehicles and intelligent connected vehicles, new energy vehicles and intelligent connected vehicles and artificial intelligence and other 5 tracks. There are three competition areas outside the province, namely, the new energy vehicle and intelligent network automobile special competition in the Yangtze River Delta Competition area, the new generation information technology and artificial intelligence special competition in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Competition area, and the Chengdu-Chongqing area air and space Information Special competition. There are two overseas divisions, namely the European Division and the Asia-Pacific Division (radiating North America). The competition is divided into five stages: registration, preliminary and through train recommendation, semi-final, due diligence and final, and the global final will be held in Hefei at the end of November. The competition set up 15 million bonus support, will be 100 "double creation star" winning projects, according to the first, second, third prize and excellence award of 500,000 yuan, 250,000 yuan, 100,000 yuan, 50,000 yuan of financial rewards, and give financing support, landing support, service support, the configuration of a special team responsible for tracking the subsequent development of the award project. Continue to provide exclusive services.