HICOOL 2021 Global Entrepreneur Summit was held in Beijing

BEIJING, Sept. 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- On September 11, the theme day of HICOOL 2021 Global Entrepreneur Summit was held in China International Exhibition Center (New Venue). With the theme of "Connect Startups Worldwide, Innovate Beijing Together" as the theme, centering on the construction of Beijing International Science and Technology Innovation Center, various activities were held at this Summit, including the award ceremony of HICOOL 2021 Global Entrepreneurship Competition, HICOOL Global Entrepreneur Summit Forum, on-site exhibition, venture capital connection in diversified forms such as competition, discussion, exhibition, investment and show. At the same time, the "Empower the Future" Global Young Entrepreneur Empowerment Program initiated by the Global CEO Council and the Beijing Talent Leading Group Office was also officially launched at the award ceremony.

Witnessing the glorious moment of more than 100 global award-winning projects

At the award ceremony of HICOOL 2021 Global Entrepreneurship Competition held in the morning, several of the world's tycoons in venture capitalists jointly presented awards to the award-winning projects of HICOOL 2021 Global Entrepreneurship Competition and the winners of Bole Award. In order to further achieve the goal of global talent selection, based on focusing on overseas projects, this year's competition opened up a new channel for the competition of local projects, and a total of 4,018 projects were registered for the competition. In addition, the competition also hit a record high in the number of applicants, with a total of 5,077 participants, of whom 25% are foreign nationals.

In order to further achieve the goal of identifying excellent entrepreneurial projects globally, based on focusing on overseas projects, HICOOL opened up a new channel for the competition of local projects this year. In 2021, the policy will be extended to cover the award-winning projects for Excellence Award, which also means that a larger number and wider range of global entrepreneurs will be entitled to HICOOL's exclusive supporting preferential policies.

After the award ceremony, the "Empower the Future" Global Young Entrepreneur Empowerment Program was officially launched. This year, "Empower the Future" will take Beijing as the starting point and build an open and convenient international ecosystem aiming at the needs for innovation and entrepreneurship of global young entrepreneurs.

Collecting the wisdom of the world's top tycoons in scientific innovation

In the keynote speech of this Summit, Shen Nanpeng from Sequoia China, Kai-Fu Lee from Sinovation Ventures, Zhang Hongjiang, President of Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence (BAAI) and other global top investors and entrepreneurs made an in-depth analysis of the development trend of global innovation in the keynote speech, seeking common development in the future.

In his speech, Shen Nanpeng mentioned that the theme of entrepreneurship in China is undergoing profound changes, and a technology-led era of entrepreneurship has arrived. With the brand new theme of entrepreneurship, Shen Nanpeng suggested that entrepreneurs should seek more resonance with the times in a "technology-driven", "green-driven" and "responsibility-driven" way. In addition, in early investment, Shen Nanpeng believed that the concept of "half business, half public welfare" would help to create a "more dynamic and valuable" entrepreneurial ecosystem, and he announced that the Angel Investment and Seed Round enterprises invested by Sequoia would automatically obtain at least RMB one million from Sequoia in the second round of financing. Shen Nanpeng also stressed that the main line of China's new era of entrepreneurship has become increasingly clear: It has been a long-term consensus at home and abroad to grow bigger and stronger in China; Innovation and entrepreneurship increasingly get back to original and hard core scientific and technological innovation; More dynamic qualitative changes are taking place in terms of business and public welfare.

In his speech, Kai-Fu Lee mentioned that entrepreneurs participating in HICOOL this year look stronger than those at the previous session last year! All of these companies are in the process of operating great tech startups, and it is great honor for Sinovation Ventures, that three of this year's first prize winners are those we supported for investment at early stage, spanning the fields of artificial intelligence, robotics, and biotechnology. We can see four great technologies undergoing revolutionary changes, including AI automation, advanced computing, life science and new energy. We can see all kinds of new opportunities emerging, and science in such four aspects is not just about investment in them at early stage, instead, they will also exert mutual impact on each other. For example, advanced computing can enable automation, and automated factories can generate new energy technologies, or AI algorithms can be used in conjunction with life sciences. In the future, we can see a number of world-changing companies and new industries. We also hope that there will be a lot of Chinese companies among them.

In his speech, Zhang Hongjiang mentioned, "I think the new story of artificial intelligence is going to start with us today, start with large model, start with the application of large model, and start with the ecology of large model. Ultimately, the development of artificial intelligence cannot do without talents, and intelligence is where talents are. Beijing is the AI highland in China and even around the world, occupying the first place in 17 items in China, including scientific and technological resources, talent accumulation, platforms, and scientific research achievements. In terms of high-level AI talents, especially industrial talents and entrepreneurial talents, Beijing has an absolute advantage in China. Such kind of advantage is rare globally. I guess there are one or two cities in the United States which can be put on a par with Beijing. AI research talents are in Beijing, and AI entrepreneurs are in Beijing. The future of AI is definitely in Beijing. I hope we can further explore new opportunities on the highland of AI in Beijing, and jointly create new heights of scientific research and entrepreneurship on the platform and ecology of BAAI.

At HICOOL 2021 Global Entrepreneur Summit Forum and Global Innovation Technology demand Release held in the afternoon, in order to promote different industry partners to exchange entrepreneurial experience, ignite the passion for entrepreneurship and discuss innovation in Beijing, more industry opinion leaders and industry experts delivered keynote speeches on global innovation trends in terms of Wonderful Life Session, Medical and Health Session, Smart City Session/New Technology Session. Meanwhile, a number of multinational enterprises and industrial leading enterprises also made their innovation needs released and connected on the spot.

In order to fully display the achievements of the construction of Beijing International Science and Technology Innovation Center, highlight the "entrepreneur-centered" concept, and create an enthusiastic and active atmosphere for innovation and entrepreneurship, on the site of this Summit, there are the display zone with the theme of science and technology innovation in Beijing, the display zone with the theme of global innovation countries, the display zone of HICOOL excellent projects and other special display zones. Besides, there are also an international talent market and the venture capital connection area, which set up a zero distance communication platform for the connection of venture capital investment between entrepreneurs and investment institutions.

In the on-site venture capital connection area of investment institutions, more than 40 top investment institutions such as Sequoia China, Hillhouse Venture Capital and Frees Fund conducted in-depth connection and negotiations with entrepreneurs. At the same time, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange introduced the policies of listing in Hong Kong to entrepreneurs on the spot and provided a channel for the connection of listing resources. In 2021, in China, which takes the lead in realizing economic recovery, strategic emerging industries such as consumption innovation and upgrading, medical and health care, new infrastructure, hard technology will enjoy continuous development, and the new generation of infrastructure will be continuously deepened. HICOOL 2021 Global Entrepreneur Summit has become a vivid stage for the demonstration of these trends of venture capital.

Seizing the new opportunity to introduce high-quality projects to Beijing

HICOOL 2021 Global Entrepreneur Summit has explored and formed an innovation model for introducing high-quality entrepreneurial projects under the new situation through five core sessions including "competition, discussion, exhibition, investment and show", which has attracted more than 6,000 international projects and nearly 10,000 global top entrepreneurial talents, forming a wide range of influence among overseas entrepreneurial circles and investors. Innovation and entrepreneurship are the source of vitality for economic development, as well as the key driving force for promoting economic and social development.

In 2020, despite the stagnation of global macro-economy, China's GDP still achieved a growth of 2.3%, becoming the only major economy in the world to achieve positive growth. In the same year, the first session of HICOOL Global Entrepreneur Summit and Entrepreneurship Competition was successfully held, which not only verified the feasibility of extending innovative talents under the complex international situation, but also sent a "Signal of Beijing" featuring openness, win-win, innovation and entrepreneurship to high-quality entrepreneurship projects all over the world.

In 2021, combined with the visible changes in global economy and innovation development in the post-pandemic era, HICOOL 2021 Global Entrepreneur Summit will firmly seize the opportunity of the construction of the national comprehensive demonstration zone for expanding the opening-up of the service sector as well as the pilot free trade zone, fully promote the realization of the strategic goal of building Beijing International Science and Technology Innovation Center by 2025, innovate services, improve the chain, meet new challenges, and continuously optimize the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem, establish a new pattern of open and win-win development in Beijing, and create a grand event for talents with global influence.

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