From December 12th to 18th, 2018, the second China-Israel Innovation and Entrepreneurship Contest (hereinafter referred to as ‘the contest’), hosted by China Science and Technology Exchange Center and Israel Innovation Authority, had its Semi Final in the fields of information and communication technology, smart manufacturing, and life science held respectively in Shenzhen, Shanghai and Changzhou. The Grand Final took place in Beijing.
As an important part of China Israel innovation cooperation, the contest was an essential activity after the 4th Meeting of the China-Israel Joint Committee on Innovation Cooperation. The contest aimed at discovering the advantage of innovation resources, matching the needs of cooperation, and promoting practical cooperation between scientific and technological companies in the two countries. The contest received tremendous support from Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Commission, Shenzhen Association for Science and Technology, Shenzhen Futian People's Government, Shenzhen Pingshan People's Government, Shanghai Science and Technology Commission, Shanghai Putuo People's Government, Changzhou People's Government, and Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission.
In the screening and preliminary stage, nearly 300 Israel technology innovation companies participated in the contest, 50 of which made their way to preliminary stage and 28 of them stood out in the preliminary stage and were admitted into Semi Final and Grand Final in China.
In Semi Final and Grand Final, B2B meetings were held besides the contest which attracted over 600 representatives from local governments, companies and institutions. This provided plenty of opportunities of in-depth communication between Chinese and Israeli companies while selecting premium innovation projects and helped to achieve commercialization and rapid development of these Israeli technology.
The B2B meetings attracted a large number of well-known enterprises, investment and financial institutions and hi-tech parks from Shenzhen, Shanghai, Changzhou, Beijing and surrounding areas. Through comprehensive pre-match arrangements and careful on-site organization, the contest successfully realized around 500 B2B meetings, among which 150 cooperation intentions were reached to carry out technology collaboration, set up subsidiaries in China, introduce new technology, expand market channels. Furthermore, several Israeli projects have signed NDAs with Chinese companies and institutions.
In addition, China Israel Innovation and Entrepreneurship Contest Premium Project Investment Fund was launched jointly by Sino Israel Shanghai Asset Management Company, New Margins Ventures, Mingcheng Culture, Dingsheng Capital and Jiusong Shanhe Capital during the contest. The fund was established to promote commercialization and development of qualified projects, by providing sufficient funds to them.
Now, the contest has gradually become a high-quality, reliable platform for China Israel scientific and technological innovation cooperation. Based on the concept of ‘guided by government, initiated by enterprises, focused on demands, integrated resources’, the contest will continue to offer all round support for scientific and technological innovation companies and to promote the win-win cooperation in the two countries.