China Daily Global Edition (USA)
Tech startups placed on world map
Beijing Changping helps companies to integrate AI into biomedical field; plans lab in the US
Beijing Changping Technology InnoDevelop Group, or BCTID, an enterprise founded in 2015 by the Changping district government to specialize in applications of artificial intelligence in biomedicine, said it will build an online platform to help local hightech enterprises expand globally.
According to Wang Mo, strategic cooperation director of the State-owned enterprise, BCTID will also help set up an international cooperative biomedical laboratory in California this year.
The lab will promote cooperation between Chinese and US enterprises for scientific research and resource integration with the aim of integrating AI into biomedicine.
Details of the planned California lab are still under wraps. Wang declined to identify BCTID’s partner. “We value their skills and talents, and they appreciate our effectiveness, capabilities and business background,” she said.
Mark Michalski, executive director of the Clinical Data Science Center of the BWH, said: “Artificial intelligence will be widely used in the medical field. By the end of the year, about half of the leading healthcare systems will adopt some form of artificial intelligence in their diagnostics.”
Based in Changping, a district northwest of Beijing, BCTID boasts several resources including investable funds, industry presence and links to human resources throughout China.
It combines its resources seamlessly across functions like investments, creation of physical space for the ventures it backs and related services.
BCTID links diverse innovation-related elements and industry resources so that their integration could help micro, small and mediumsized enterprises to succeed.
It also invests in startups and helms resource-sharing platforms and initiatives relating to innovation in the health and medical fields. It works with global incubators, venture capital firms and other partners to carry out crossborder innovation services.
BCTID sees itself as an enabler that promotes industry investment and cooperation. It follows instructions of the Zhongguancun Science Park of the Changping Park Management Committee.
It focuses on the development and operation of industrial park assets, and the integration of incubation and scientific technology service systems.
In addition, it carries out equity and integrated comprehensive financial services, in order to achieve the integration of space, service, finance, information, technology and talent, thus creating an ecosystem conducive to the development of technology enterprises.
Earlier this year, BCTID set up a wholly owned subsidiary in the United States and signed a cooperation agreement with the Silicon Valley Innovation & Entrepreneurship Forum, an international conference that promotes business partnerships between the US and the AsiaPacific region.
“We hope to build more joint office platforms and laboratories in the future,” said Wang. “And we’ll gradually expand the international innovation platform business to the United Kingdom, Israel and Japan.”
It announced the establishment of the “Champion International Innovative Development Platform”.
The company actively cooperated with overseas universities for sharing resources such as their laboratories. For instance, it brought together advanced medical technology and talent from Stanford University and UC Berkeley.
Among its achievements are telemedicine projects, image recognition application projects and virtual reality-related projects.
In September, BCTID helped set up Founders Space, a startup incubator and accelerator, which resulted in highquality ventures overseas and
Wang Mo,
strategic cooperation director of BCTID, on the SOE’s plans for the innovation platform cutting-edge technology.
It has also helped incubate companies, encouraging them to acquire overseas resources such as the latest information on Silicon Valley innovation.
To encourage Chinese hightech enterprises to go global, BCTID teamed up with the Beijing Institute of Big Data Research to establish a research and development lab in the field of AI.
Through this lab, small and micro businesses in China can directly access San Francisco without having to worry about concerns such as cultural adaptation.
BCTID also offers services relating to intellectual propertyrightsofexclusiveorcustombuilt software. Toward this end, it has formed a strategic partnership with the Small Business Administration. The administration and BCTID ensure that Chinese companies’ overseas projects have the right follow-up when the latter applyforregistrationintheUS.
BCTID is harnessing big data technology to publish information about overseas talent and institutions on its proposed online platform. The data resource is expected to help enterprises have real-time communication and solve problems relating to information mismatch, thereby increasing their chances of going global.
“Our overall goal is to provide enterprises with advanced technology, matching markets and high-end talents,” said Wang.
By the end of last year, BCTID’s assets in the form of various resources were worth 7.9 billion yuan ($1.25 billion). In just a little over two years, it acquired, developed and operated a total of 640,000 square meters, forming a specialized industrial service chain that inspired a batch of innovative enterprises to settle.
Among these enterprises, some are quite mature in overseas business. In the past two years, dozens of them have participated in world-class exhibitions, which undoubtedly accelerated their pace of going global.
A recent report in CB Insights, published by the Venture Capital Research Institute, indicated that Chinese startups received nearly half of the global investment in AI last year, surpassing those of the US for the first time.
We’ll ... expand the ... business to the UK, Israel and Japan.”
Niu Yilin contributed to this story.