Southern Finance all-media reporter Chen Mengxuan reports from Nansha
At the finals of the 2023 "Maker China" International Small and Medium Enterprises Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition held on November 29, Chen Jiaxi, the leader of the "Keling Scar" scar repair gel project from Macau, talked about how the team used key ingredients required for scar formation. The growth factor TGFβ simulates the wound healing process in the infant stage or human oral cavity, and inhibits the formation of scars from the root. An innovative entrepreneurial story.
The project won the championship in the Macau branch of the 2023 "Maker China" International Small and Medium Enterprises Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition and the runner-up in the finals. But for Chen Jiaxi, winning awards is still secondary. At this stage, the project is in urgent need of considerable funds to help the product be launched in China as soon as possible.
According to Chen Weiwei, a judge of the competition and president of the Grassroots Angels Association, it is not difficult to find financing in China. For start-ups, if they want to enter the domestic market, survive and develop, it is more important to "know yourself and the enemy." ——Focus on your own strengths, gain insight into the actual market, overcome "acclimatization", and formulate a complete response plan.
(The “Ke Ling Scar” project was shown on-site at the “Maker China” competition)
Most international projects do not understand the Chinese market
Since 2018, the "Maker China" International Small and Medium Enterprises Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition has been held around the world for many years, attracting more and more international small and medium-sized enterprises from around the world to target the domestic market in their innovation and entrepreneurial projects.
Nanosic CEO Adam Kadziela told Southern Financial All-Media reporters that there is currently no good strategy for how to enter the Chinese market. "China has a very large population base and a developed manufacturing industry. Whether it is production or sales, the business is actually here." This start-up company from Poland has developed technology to produce photocatalytic nano-layer materials to deal with the increasingly serious problem. of air pollution. Compared with ultraviolet disinfection and activated carbon disinfection, the product's effectiveness in disinfecting pathogenic bacteria can be increased four times, with lower maintenance costs and higher cost performance.
Adam Kadziela has been doing business with Chinese suppliers for 15 years before. He is confident about the advantages of the domestic supply chain: "I have seriously considered launching projects in China, which is also one of my purposes for participating in this competition."
"We are a company from South Korea. Certification issues related to foreign medical companies coming to China, including time, cost and process, are our biggest challenges." The person in charge, Jin Zhengtai, said that his project is "based on blockchain and artificial intelligence." "Smart Type 2 Diabetes Digital Therapeutics (DTx)" mainly focuses on the individual conditions of diabetic patients and formulates treatment plans to manage exercise, diet, and medication to reduce the risk of complications.
“We found during the on-site questions that, whether it is a Hong Kong and Macao project or other international projects, although each has its own technical advantages, there are some common problems in terms of business model, team formation, market strategy, and investment funds. For example, they have a negative impact on the Greater Bay Area and even on investment funds. We don’t understand the Chinese market.” During the road show, Chen Weiwei found that many participating projects have clear judgments about Hong Kong, Macao or foreign markets, but they still have concerns about entering the domestic market, and relevant preparations are still insufficient.
Pan Yicheng from Bondaiyi Private Equity Fund told reporters that it is relatively difficult for international projects to enter the mainland market because there are basically already domestic companies or teams working in the subdivisions where these projects are located.
He took the championship project of this competition as an example. Eden Agriculture, a start-up company from Thailand, has developed a natural edible coating extracted from fruit acid and plant-based cellulose. Through spraying, dipping, etc., it can form a film with a thickness of about 10 microns on the surface of agricultural products. layer to slow down the oxidation and moisture loss of agricultural products and extend the shelf life of fresh agricultural products to 5 times.
In his view, Thailand’s domestic fruit market is huge. This project has certain core competitiveness in technology and has already had some successful cases. It also fits the huge market of domestic agriculture and has sufficient industry prospects. imagination space. But he also said that if this project is not launched as soon as possible to seize the market, it may be copied and surpassed domestically.
"International entrepreneurial teams must have full confidence in China's mainland market, but also maintain a tense sense of crisis, be determined to conduct market research and formulate targeted response measures, so that they can respond to challenges more calmly," Chen Weiwei suggested.
"Maker Competition" innovation docking platform
Another champion project in this competition is the Mini Stabilizer Gimbal (MGS) from Hong Kong. This is the world's smallest anti-shake gimbal independently developed by the Gaozhan team. It achieves anti-shake by rotating the image sensor and lens at the same time. It can capture clear images even under shaking and low-light conditions. It has been used in a variety of applications. Among mobile cameras, it has been mass-produced and has passed various reliability tests.
The process of opening up the mainland market has not been smooth sailing. In the specific implementation practice, Gaozhan encountered doubts from most mainland technology companies about the R&D capabilities of the Hong Kong and Macao teams. With foreign manufacturers monopolizing the anti-shake motor supply chain for a long time and accounting for more than 90% of the market, how can they quickly carve out a niche? The Gaozhan team chose to use the window of various innovation and entrepreneurship competitions to increase the awareness of technology in the mainland city, and then strengthen cooperation with mainland companies.
The practical results of the Gaozhan team are a vivid footnote to the value of the "Maker China" competition. Shan Libo, director of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Promotion Center of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, introduced that the "Maker China" International Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition has so far held more than 30 overseas sub-contests in 12 countries and regions, attracting participants from nearly 30 countries around the world. and regions, a total of more than 5,300 projects have registered for the competition. The competition has become an important platform for gathering overseas innovation resources, deepening exchanges and cooperation between small and medium-sized enterprises, and assisting the transformation and implementation of overseas innovation results in mainland China.
Southern Finance’s all-media reporters noticed that the judging panel of this “Maker China” competition is a star-studded cast, and has assembled a group of experts with rich experience in the industry, including investors in the fund, securities, and asset management industries, as well as people with ten years of experience. The above-mentioned industry and academic entrepreneurial mentors who have experience in incubating and cultivating innovative entrepreneurial projects, as well as accounting firm partners who specialize in project review experience.
Shan Libo said that the competition has specially set up a project matching team to sort out and analyze the technical advantages and cooperation needs of each project, especially outstanding projects, and connect Chinese social resources according to the matching situation, carry out one-on-one negotiations and exchanges, and promote Reach an intention to cooperate. At the same time, well-known incubation institutions such as the Hong Kong Angel Foundation, Macau Youth Innovation Company, Grassroots Angel Association, and Sino-US Venture Capital also participated deeply in this event, providing innovative channels for subsequent financing services for the participating teams' entrepreneurial development.
It is understood that through the competition, Gaozhan Company gained the opportunity to communicate face-to-face with technology transformation institutions and investment and financing institutions, and with the help of institutions, it opened up the "last mile" of transforming technology into the market. The team not only realized the implementation of the patented technology, but also fully felt the strong attraction of the mainland cities in the Greater Bay Area to Hong Kong enterprises for innovation and entrepreneurship. The project leader, Dr. Mak Lianzhi, has applied for the Zhuhai City Talent Introduction Plan and will settle in Zhuhai. Open an office to expand the mainland team and mainland business.
Gao Zhan's entrepreneurial story also allowed Adam Kadziela to see more development opportunities. He said: "I plan to find a partner in China first and then consider establishing a company. If I move to China, I will give priority to settling in the Greater Bay Area. There are the target customers I need here and there are enough international schools for convenience. Children go to school.”
"In the process of preparing to launch in the Chinese market, the China-Korea International Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center has been providing consulting and support services behind the scenes." Jin Zhengtae said in an interview that after the competition, he contacted a number of people who were concerned about the development of the project and were willing to provide professional help. Investment institutions, on-site communication and information exchange are also very meaningful.
At the conference, 10 high-quality projects from Hong Kong and Macao including "Keling Scar" signed contracts with Nansha's enterprise associations, venture capital incubation institutions, science and technology industrial parks and other units to settle in Nansha. "As a start-up platform company, we are also looking for areas suitable for project landing." Chen Jiaxi said in an interview that this signing means more possibilities for technology transfer and cooperative development in the future for the Kelingscar project, and it is also expected that Expand the scale of industrialization in Nansha, promote the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, and add new strength to Nansha's biomedicine and general health.
Shan Lipo said that the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is a hot spot full of innovation, creation and entrepreneurship, and the new positioning given to Guangzhou Nansha will usher in rare development opportunities in the future. “We hope that from the starting point of this finals, more Many international innovative and entrepreneurial teams have gathered in Guangzhou and Nansha to make positive contributions to the high-quality development of small and medium-sized enterprises in the entire Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area."
