The 7th Silicon Valley Innovation & Entrepreneurship Forum (SVIEF) was held at Santa Clara Convention Center. This forum not only featured discussion sessions such as ‘Global Innovation Leaders’ Dialogue’,
‘Silicon Valley Smart Future Summit’, ‘Global Next Car Summit’ and ‘US-China Investment Panel’, but also showcased the Silicon Valley Developer Summit and the 7th SVIEF-Star Startup Contest Final.
Delegates, speakers and honored guests that attended the forum includes Judy ChuMeixin Zhao, US Congresswoman and honorary chairman of the SVIEF, Steven Chu, former U.S. Secretary of Energy, Nobel Prize laureate winner and professor of physics at Stanford University, Shousheng Zhang, founder of Danhua Capital, member of the US National Academy of Sciences and Chairman of the SVIEF, and Draymond Green, the NBA’s Golden State Warriors star forward and a tech investor.
Miao Fu, co-founder and CEO of Galaxy Internet, was invited to attend the forum, where he participated in the ‘Global Innovation Leaders’ Dialogue’ session, gave a closing keynote speech for the 7th SVIEF-Star Startup Contest Final and was presented with the award of ‘2017 Investor of the Year’.
During the ‘Global Innovation Leaders’ Dialogue’ session, Miao Fu, together with Bibop G. Gresta, co-founder and chairman of Hyperloop, Steve Mann, “the father of wearable computing”, and Shen Haiyin Shen, founder and CEO of Singulato Motors, discussed topics related to cutting-edge technologies, involving whether AI is becoming a threat to humanity. Miao says that AI is a tool, and the outcomes a tool brings depend on its users, that is, the human beings. The technology itself is neutral (neither good nor bad), but its ultimate goal should be to serve the humankind. To avoid the threat AI poses, To prevent AI from becoming a threat, we human beings should get organized and need to arrive at a consensus on how to collectively manage the use of it, just like the way we have been managing the nuclear technologies. .
The 7th SVIEF-Star Startup Contest Final, the highlight of this forum, featured 15 outstanding start-up companies, including Artveoli, which produces artistic air panels for purifying the air in people’s homes, SolarGaps, which can provide solar power solutions to cover 70% of home electricity demands, TronMedi, a medical imaging diagnostics system based on deep learning technology, and Nevada Nanotechnologies, a microelectromechanical (MEMS) system based on sensor modules and other subsystems.
As a closing keynote speaker of the contest, Miao Fu strongly reiterated his recommendation that US-based start-ups should act early, seize the opportunity and tap into China market right after they find their product-market fit. He mentioned that on average, it takes 7 years for US unicorns to make the billion-dollar mark, whereas in China, it takes only 4 years for local start-ups to make the milestone. If the US-based start-ups try to scale up their business to Chinaonly until they go public and reach the mature stage, they may miss out the best opportunities.
At present, the global Internet industry is heading toward a bipolar pattern featuring China and the United States. Each grabbed 5 spots at the ranking of world’s top 10 Internet listed companies.
For European and American companies, not only is the China market very large, but it is also developing at an extremely fast pace, indicating huge growth and profit potential for start-ups and SMEs. However, it is always challenging for international start-ups and SMEs to have a good understanding of such a complex market like China, therefore it is very difficult for international start-ups and SMEs to venturetap into China market solely by themselves. As such, Miao believes that choosing a strong local partner, such as Galaxy Internet, who could help international startups navigate the market, identify growth opportunities and achieve strategic goals in China, and will greatly reduce the cost of market entry and ensure a win-win situation for both sides.
Data shows that Galaxy Internet, the company co-founded by Miao, is an institutional co-founder for start-ups: it provides entrepreneurs with not only capital but also a full range of services and strategic resources, including 8 main categories of start-up services such as Strategy Planning, Business Model Tuning and Recruiting & Training. Aside from that, Galaxy Internet can also be a high value-add strategic investor. Thanks to the massive resource network of Galaxy Group and its breadth of investments in sectors such as Cloud Computing, AI, SaaS and FinTech, start-ups in this vast community can build relationships, and partnerships and early client base that otherwise would not be possible. Since its establishment, Galaxy Internet has invested in more than 200 start-ups, among them, 3 companies are already listed: EGLSgls (SZ:002619), Chinese All Digital Publishing Group (SZ: 300364) and JMU (NASDAQ: JMU). It is ranked as one of the Top 10 Corporate VC firms in 2016, together with Alibaba, Tencent and other CVCs.
The three holding companies of Galaxy Group Leveraging three public companies it controls, Tianma (002122.SZ), Busen (002569.SZ), and JMU (NASDAQ: JMU), Galaxy Group has established position leading names in the fields of cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence and fintech. Galaxy’s US branch is located in the heart of Silicon Valley, and it the company also has branches in the UK and Israel. Galaxy Group Internet have made strategic investments in IP Group (London Stock Exchange: IPO), a leading intellectual property commercialization company, and Deal Globe, a specialist of cross-border M&A deals. It has also partnered with famous incubators in the Bay area, PNP for example, to help encourage startups to grow into unicorns by integrating global innovation and investment resources.