Hundreds of high-tech startup teams will be able to grow in Chengdu with shared infrastructure and resources, thanks to the Tencent Makerspace that opened in late March.
Co-funded by the Shenzhen-based IT giant Tencent, the administration of the Chengdu Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone and a local Chengdu company, the makerspace echoes the city's plan for the 2015-2025 period to promote innovation and entrepreneurship.
According to the agreement signed between Tencent and the Chengdu government, they will cooperate to build a pilot area for innovation and entrepreneurship in western China and the largest startup community in the world.
The makerspace is a six-story building covering 20,000 square meters of floor space, capable of providing offices, labs and services to 100 startup teams. It is equipped with 12 meeting rooms, negotiation areas, leisure spaces and a roadshow area capable of serving 200 people.
It also has high-speed internet access and security, printing and meeting systems connected to Tencent's office automation platform, allowing workers in the building to operate via Wechat, a social media app developed by Tencent.
It plans to help 600 companies to grow over the next three years.
"In addition to the first-class facilities, we also have a comprehensive service system," said Wang Lan, general manager of the Tencent Makerspace.
About 80 teams have started operations in the makerspace, covering a wide range of businesses, including game development, intelligent hardware, industrial software and e-commerce.
Wang said Tencent has built 30 such facilities in cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Wuhan and Tianjin, with a total area of more than 1 million sq m.
"The Tencent Makerspace in Chengdu will use Tencent's advantages in innovation and local resources to create an ecosystem for companies to grow from the earliest stage to maturity, and to support the development of a cluster of emerging industries, such as mobile internet and the internet of things."
Many companies in Chengdu are leading the industries' development. One of them, Borns Robot, is a specialist in the research, manufacturing and application of medical robots.
Its founder Li Yao is a Chengdu local who returned from the United States. He decided to start the company seeing that the automation technology had been used by many industries but was developing slowly in the medical sector.
He said traditional surgical operations challenge doctors' strength and endurance, and that robots can greatly improve stability and precision, and help with subtle movements, while reducing surgery duration and wound sizes.
Li said he decided to open the company in the Tianfu Software Park in the Chengdu Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone because the city has a good foundation in the biomedicine industry and that the local government values the development of the medical equipment business.
Before developing products, he visited many hospitals to learn about doctors' needs. He has also invited his former colleagues and teachers in the US to take part in his company's research and development.
Borns has signed an agreement with the administration of the Chengdu Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone to establish an R&D center for minimally-invasive surgery robot technology.
zhangzhao@chinadaily.com.cn
Champion Robot, a startup team in Chengdu, has developed robots for badminton training.Photos Provided To China Daily
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Li Yao (center) and his colleagues at Borns Robot discuss product research and development.
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The Tencent Makerspace has attracted about 80 startup teams.
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