The debut of ‘Startup Europe China Network’at Startup Olé (Startup Europe Club)

10 Aug (Startup Europe Club) – The third edition of Startup Olé on 26-27 April of this year was a major success. More than 400 startups, 200 international speakers, as well as a variety of corporates, investors, accelerators, universities and media from across Europe came together for two days in Salamanca to exchange ideas and brainstorm on entrepreneurship. Startup Olé was created in 2015 to provide a unique networking and pitching opportunity for the key players and their projects in the European tech startup ecosystem.

One of the main new initiatives presented this year was ‘Startup Europe China Network’, which will link the European startup community with one of the EU key strategic partners: China. The initiative was discussed by enthusiast participants to Startup Olé during a dedicated workshop organised by the Brussels-based digital business association ChinaEU on 26th April.

More than 20 startups, investors, corporates, incubators and accelerators from all over Europe intervened in the workshop, which was moderated by Isidro Laso, Head of Startup Europe at DG Connect of the European Commission.

In the lively discussion, consensus wasreached that building partnerships with China is a highly-needed exercise, since China can offer a great deal of opportunities for European startups to scale-up their businesses. This is not only on the ground of a highly dynamic market with many active investors, corporates, angel ventures, but also given the fact that China is becoming a world leader in innovation that can offer European companies inspiring models to learn from and upgrade themselves. However, such partnership requires special considerations, in order to avoid one-way acquisitions of startups by Chinese partners.

The importance of establishing a balanced two-way relationship was also the message of ChinaEU Director Claudia Vernotti in the preceding panel discussion ‘Partnering with Europe: Beyond the EU’, which provided an exchange of experiences among different international partnerships activated between Europe and the Silicon Valley, India, Africa, Lebanon and Eastern Europe. ‘Startup Europe China Network’ will make use of the good practices developed under these partnerships.

“Thanks to the precious support of over a dozen European players who wish to drive together this new China adventure, I have no doubts that ‘Startup Europe China Network’ can make an impactful contribution in supporting European startups to scale up everywhere in the world” said Claudia.

‘Startup Europe China Network’ will be an open platform to create long-lasting connections between European and Chinese entrepreneurs, corporates and investors, with the aim of creating a channel for innovation exchange, investment and high-tech cooperation between Europe and China.

‘Startup Europe China Network’ is now seeking to consolidate its community by getting further stakeholders to join the enthusiast initiators. To enquire about the network, please do not hesitate to contact claudia.vernotti@chinaeu.eu.

Do not miss out on the opportunity to connect with the ever-growing dynamic Chinese innovation ecosystem!

Please click here to view the original article on the website of Startup Europe Club.