On November 13, the 2017 (11th) Entrepreneurship Week, the Global Entrepreneurship Week China (GEW), and the Innovation China (Shanghai), sponsored by Shanghai Technology Entrepreneurship Foundation for Graduates (EFG), was launched at Changer Valley of Yangpu District. EFG set up "Angel Fund" application spots at the event for the first time, so as to provide entrepreneurs with more convenient start-up funding.
The GEW is a leading global event in field of entrepreneurship and has so far attracted about 10 million young entrepreneurs from 170 countries. This year's GEW China will feature more than 100 exciting entrepreneurship themed events within one week, focusing on innovation and entrepreneurship, promoting the entrepreneurial culture and bringing together entrepreneurial resources. During the past decade, the GEW China has built a platform for the entrepreneurial week that is open to the whole society, on themes such as "crowd funding", "China Dream" and "Incubation 2.0". From promoting the culture of starting a business to holding an entrepreneurship week that is valuable to entrepreneurs, the value of the GEW platform is becoming increasingly prominent.
"Innovation China" is a nationwide tour aimed at promoting the vigorous development of the innovation and entrepreneurship work. From April to December 2017, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and China Association for Science and Technology (CAST) held a series of "Innovation China" campaigns in 17 regional demonstration centers and 21 cities. The GEW activity and "Innovation China" are perfectly integrated. Through themed activities on investment, science and technology, policy, tutors and publicity, this year's GEW will lead to another peak time for innovation and entrepreneurship in Yangpu and Shanghai as a whole.
For the first time, the themes of this year's GEW shift on a daily basis. The 15 industrial themed activities such as "Advanced Manufacturing", "Artificial Intelligence" and "Consumption Upgrade", are intended to provide practical, professional and efficient resource matchmaking for entrepreneurs, and to create an upgraded entrepreneurial ecological chain. At the same time, Hong Kong, Xi'an, Wuhan, Shenzhen, Haikou, Ji'nan and Suzhou are also engaged in this global party on entrepreneurship.
At the opening ceremony, 10 enterprises including Muicare Health Management (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. won the Hawk Award as 2017 Angel Fund Excellent Projects.
The EFG a public charity fund set up by the Shanghai municipal government focused on supporting innovation and entrepreneurship of college students. As of the end of October 2017, the "Angel Fund" under the foundation had received a total of 6641 venture project applications and funded 1,887 of them.
The "Hawk Award" was designed to reward outstanding start-ups funded by the EFG, which can be considered as "the Oscars for start-ups"; winners of the "Hawk Award" stand a great chance for better entrepreneurial resources and a great potential. The award-winning enterprises this year come from multiple areas such as consumption, agriculture, culture and entertainment, which shows the diversity of company types of college students.
Also announced were the 2017 TOP 30 annual Chinese angel investors. Based on the in-depth research of the angel investment industry in China, the list was a result of hundreds of questionnaires and in-depth interviews aimed at fully reflecting the development of the angel investment industry in a comprehensive and objective manner and jointly promoting the development of angel investment in China.
Taking consideration of the investment and exit performance of angel investors as the main selection criteria, the reputation of angel investors for entrepreneurs and industry insiders and their contribution, the list generated the top TOP 30 angel investors in China.
In order to build a "useful" offline financing roadshow platform across the country, the GEW has also jointly launched a seven-day financing program with over a hundred investment agencies, covering 15 industries including advanced manufacturing, consumer upgrades, and corporate services. In addition to market-oriented financing channels, the GEW organizers set up "Angel Fund" application spots at the event for the first time Venture Founding Foundation also set up the "Angel Fund" application point for the first time, so as to provide entrepreneurs with more convenient start-up funding.
The "Angel Fund" offers two types of start-up funding programs: the Hawk Project and the Eagle Project. The former is the interest-free mortgage-free small-sum credit loans up to 300,000 yuan, and the latter is the seed period equity subsidies up to 500,000 yuan; no dividend is granted during the funding period, and only the original funding is withdrawn when it's due. At this year's GEW, entrepreneurs consult at "Angel Fund" booths, and can apply for funding through the exclusive network if he/she meets the requirements.
