China, the hub of manufacturing and with the most advanced technology. China is developing every day with an exponential graph. Since 2000 till now, there have been rapid changes in its development. It has developed dozens of technical investment booms.
It encourages and supports startups thoroughly and the result is, there are tons of startups emerging in China. These thousands of startups go through the incubator as well as accelerator program every year, in China.
Therefore, there are tons of accelerators and incubators in China. People often get confused between incubator and accelerator, well, these two have a major lining difference, that is, Accelerator enhances or accelerates the speed of your existing business. But, the incubator works for bringing out innovative and great ideas to any business.
The incubator is a major necessity for any startup to get started with the development. It encourages innovation and comes out with some very incredible plans for the business.
In this article, we present you with the Top Startup Incubators in China. Let’s get started.
The very famous and the biggest market space in Asia, Beijing Makerspace was established in the year 2011 in Beijing also known as Silicon Valley of China. Beijing Makerspace has offered services to over 30 startup companies and also, many entrepreneurs as per the record of 2015. More than 300 people from Beijing have registered for Beijing Makerspace’s services and membership.
It is very promising and by the time of August has raised more than 60 million USD in venture capital. This rounded as the total project value of 310 million USD (RMB 2 billion). Beijing Makerspace has served several businesses and brought many profitable deals for them. The incubated programs which have been offered by it have raised up to 54 million USD (350 RMD).
Kungfu Startups
The startup incubator, Kungfu Startups renowned by Microsoft china and Zhangjiang Hi-tech Park is very prominent in China. It works by directing its focus towards Mobile, IoT, Big data, Cloud, Al and provides its customers with the services of access to different Microsoft applications.
Kungfu Startups provides the proper services of investors as well as the multinational from Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park to many startups that register for it. Kungfu Startups incubator is run by a big startup business, Sensoro, in the year 2013 that comes under the program of Microsoft china.
The seed & early-stage venture capital and startup incubator, The Mills Fabrica is well known in China. It was founded in the year 2015 in Hong Kong, China.
The Mills Fabrica focuses on working with those startups which have a huge range of sectors and technologies. Its venture capital investments are ranged around $100 Thousand to $2 Million.
Number of unicorn companies in China by industry
Garage Cafe
The first incubator enterprise, Garage Cafe established in 2011 April is based on the Inno-way in Zhongguancun. It offers a working space to young entrepreneurs at the price of a cup of coffee. It is a café based investment and startups that offers several services to over 20 teams that include investors, startups and media.
These programs started in May 2015 as the Member Club with the team of entrepreneurs. And now, it has grown with more than 300 entrepreneurs and with around 40 suppliers. The annual revenue of Garage Cafe is more than 100 million RMB.
The very prominent cryptocurrency and blockchain venture capital and incubator firm have its offices located in different countries that include Boston & Rio (US), Beijing (China), Moscow(Russia), Seoul (South Korea) and Singapore. Bitblock Group was founded in the year 2017 in China.
Bitblock Group works with digital asset investments that are in early-stage. Also, focus on the financial services, IoT and other Al sectors.
Besides, it offers several services that are based on incubation projects such as financial advisory, customer retention management and selling point devising.
Tencent Public Space
Tencent Public Space is a project which is completely deviated from the digital online services, offers a service provider for the startups conceived by Tencent and also, an open platform for work. It does not depend on online services but instead, it focuses on the training services and marketing strategies by providing the required space for the startups to initiate.
Tencent Public Space was established in April 2015 in Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin, China. By the time of November, it incubated more than 176 startups and later, by December it expanded its territory to other cities as well such as Wuhan and Guangzhou. It holds the capacity of handling over 500 teams and has a space of around 50,000 m².
Tencent Public Space gained some great profitable deals. From the three years of its establishment, it covered over 100 enterprises whose values are counted as over 15 million USD and turned out with 1.5 million USD (10 billion RMB).
FAQ
What is a startup incubator?
Incubators are designed to help entrepreneurs in its early stage and deal with most of the problems associated with launching a startup.
How do incubators help startups?
Incubators are an organization, platform or team of experienced professionals that helps startups bootstrap during its early stages and often provides mentoring, guidance, co-working space and also at times some funding.
What is incubation period for startup?
Incubation period of most startups are 6-12 months.
Conclusion
China promotes startups with great services and offers. Therefore, incubators are a very profitable business in China. Thousands of startups require tons of accelerators and incubators. And, China does not fail in providing them with this service.
On Beijing street, the incubators number rose from 23 to 40 in just one year. Several famous and prominent investors pour their interests into incubator marketing and services. With the rising development and evolution of technology in China, there are tons of services and markets which would provide you with the best assistance in your startup and businesses.
With the tension escalating at the Indo-China border, the Chinese-funded companies in India are currently at risk. The people of India are now boycotting Chinese manufacturers and organizations that sell their products in India. As a result, Indian startups funded by Chinese investors are also facing severe backlash.
Among India’s top 30 companies and startups (entrepreneurial ventures worth over $1 billion), 18 have received funding from the Chinese.
Chinese investors are quick in identifying the potential in Indian startups. They find investing in India enticing because India has an attractive risk-return trade-off and remains the second-fastest growing economy in the world. Chinese investors have funded over 18 Indian unicorns; it amounts to around $3.9 billion in investment in 2019. But the growing conflict between the two countries is making it challenging for these unicorns to receive further investment capital from China.
BigBasket is an Indian online grocery delivery service. Alibaba invested in BigBasket in 2018. The investment assists BigBasket in competing with the US-based Amazon and India’s Flipkart. The company’s valuation exceeded $1 billion with the help of Chinese investment. The decision to boycott Chinese products affected BigBasket in several ways.
Dailyhunt
Chinese Investor: Alibaba
Dailyhunt – Chinese Investment In India
Dailyhunt is one of the fastest-growing startups in this list. Dailyhunt is an Indian news content aggregator. It is considered as one of the world’s top mobile applications for staying abreast of the latest happenings across the globe. With 22 million users and 30 billion page views per month, Dailyhunt has indeed cemented its status in the Indian startup ecosystem. Alibaba holds an investment in Dailyhunt.
Healofy
Chinese Investor: Ant Financial
Healofy – Chinese Investment In India
Healofy is India’s largest women-oriented social network; it helps women connect with other women. Healofy raised $1 million in seed fund from Omidyar Network in 2018. Healofy then received $8 million in fresh funding from Alibaba-backed parenting platform BabyTree Group and BAce Capital, a fund anchored by Alibaba’s Ant Financial.
Paytm Mall
Chinese Investor: Alibaba
Paytm Mall – Chinese Investment In India
Paytm launched the Paytm Mall app in Feb 2017. Paytm Mall follows a business to consumer model. It is an e-commerce platform that allows consumers to shop from 1.4 lakh registered sellers. Alibaba invested in Paytm Mall for a 40% stake but refused to fund Paytm Mall further. Paytm is one of the biggest e-commerce organizations to be featured in this list of Chinese-funded companies in India.
Paytm
Chinese Investor: Ant Financial
Paytm – Chinese Investment In India
Paytm is an Indian e-commerce payment system and financial technology organization. Paytm was valued at $10 billion in January 2018. Paytmvaluation was $16 billion in 2021. Ant Financial has become the largest shareholder in One97 Communications, the parent company of Paytm, by investing $680 million.
TicketNew
Chinese Investor: Alibaba
TicketNew – Chinese Investment In India
TicketNew is a privately owned company that provides online ticket booking services for movies, theatre plays and sports. Chinese e-commerce giant, Alibaba has reportedly provided over $30 million in funding to TicketNew and has acquired the ticket booking platform..
Vidooly
Chinese Investor: Alibaba
Vidooly – Chinese Investment In India
Vidooly is an online video analytics and marketing company. It provides video analytics tools and video marketing services. Vidooly raised over INR 15 crores from the Alibaba group.
XpressBees
Chinese Investor: Alibaba
XpressBees – Chinese Investment In India
XpressBees is an e-commerce logistics firm that offers delivery, order management, shipping, and tracking services. Founded in 2015, XpressBees secured over $35 million in funding from Alibaba in 2017. Again in 2019, the e-commerce giant invested $10 million in the logistics starteup.
Snapdeal
Chinese Investor: Alibaba
Snapdeal – Chinese Investment In India
Snapdeal is an Indian e-commerce behemoth. Snapdeal received over $500 million in funding from three of Asia’s largest tech companies: Alibaba, Foxconn, and SoftBank. Snapdeal is another e-commerce giant that made it to this list of Chinese-backed companies in India.
It is an Indian restaurant aggregator and food delivery start-up that provides information, menus, and user-reviews of restaurants. Zomato also offers food delivery options from partner restaurants. Zomato has raised over $150 million from Alibaba.
BYJU’s
Chinese Investor: Tencent
BYJU’S – Chinese Investment In India
BYJU’S is an Indian educational technology (edtech) and online tutoring firm. It is considered as the largest ed-tech company in the country as well. Tencent, one of Asia’s largest valued Chinese tech company investor, has invested in Byju. The amount invested on the ed-tech was undisclosed.
Ola
Chinese Investor: Tencent
Ola – Chinese Investment In India
Ola Cabs is an Indian ride-sharing company offering services that include peer-to-peer ridesharing, ride service hailing, taxi, and food delivery. Ola was founded by Bhavish Aggarwal and Akit Bhati. Ola raised over $1.1 billion in funding from Tencent.
Doubtnut
Chinese Investor: Tencent
Doubtnut – Chinese Investment In India
Another ed-tech company, Doubtnut is an Indian online tutoring platform. Doubtnut operates as an e-learning platform that enables users to ask questions related to Physics, Chemistry, and Math. Tencent provided over $15 million funding to Doubtnut in the year 2020..
Dream11
Chinese Investor: Tencent
Dream11 – Chinese Investment In India
Dream11 is a fantasy sports platform that allows users to play fantasy cricket, hockey, football, kabaddi, and basketball. Tencent has a $100 million investment in Dream11 in the year 2018. Dream11 has become the first Indian gaming company to enter the unicorn club.
Flipkart
Chinese Investor: Tencent
Flipkart – Chinese Investment In India
It is an Indian e-commerce company based out of Bangalore, India. Flipkart was founded in 2007 and has been one of the e-commerce giant in India by serving . Chinese investor Tencent Holdings have invested more than $300 million in Flipkart.
Niyo
Chinese Investor: Tencent
Niyo – Chinese Investment In India
Niyo is one of India’s largest and fastest-growing fintech ventures with the vision of making banking simple, smart, and transparent for everyone. Niyo got its funding from Tencent, although the amount raised were not disclosed to the public.
Gaana
Chinese Investor: Tencent
Gaana.com – Chinese Investment In India
It is the largest Indian commercial music streaming service. Gaana.com was founded in 2012. Gaana raised over $115 million from the Chinese internet giant Tencent. Again in 2020, Tencent invested $50 million and in 2021 another $40 million on the music streaming app.
Khatabook
Chinese Investor: Tencent
Khatabook – Chinese Investment In India
Khatabook is a mobile app targeted towards small shopkeepers and kirana store owners in India. Khatabook app helps them manage their books by tracking the money owed to them through the means of a digital ledger. Tencent has invested over $75 million in Khatabook app.
MX Player
Chinese Investor: Tencent
MX Player – Chinese Investment In India
MX Player is an entertainment app that offers its viewers quality, digital-first content, it is a very popular OTT service in India for giving access to many exclusive content to it audinence. MX Player gained popularity as an Indian OTT platform. Tencent has invested over $11q million in MX Player in the year 2019.
MyGate
Chinese Investor: Tencent
MyGate – Chinese Investment In India
MyGate is an India-based security and community management app for gated premises. The security management startup raised an undisclosed amount from Chinese tech company Tencent in the year 2019.
Pine Labs
Chinese Investor: Tencent
Pine Labs – Chinese Investment In India
Pine Labs is an fintech startup and an Indian merchant platform company. Pine Labs provides financing and last-mile retail transaction technology through its help your business can accept different modes of payment. Tencent has invested and undisclosed amount in Pine Labs.
Pocket FM
Chinese Investor: Tencent
Pine Labs – Chinese Investment In India
Pocket FM is a social audio platform for Indian languages where users can find great quality audio content comprising audiobooks, stories, and podcasts. Tencent invested in this entertainment app, although the amount invested was not disclosed to the public.
Practo
Chinese Investor: Tencent
Practo – Indian Companies with Chinese Investment
It develops and distributes medical information systems. Practo Technologies Private Limited offers an online software platform that provides automated appointment scheduling, billing solutions, and storage of medical records. Practo raised over $55 million from Tencent.
Swiggy
Chinese Investor: Tencent
Swiggy – Indian Companies with Chinese Investment
Swiggy is one of the most popular a food delivery company in India. Swiggy is one of the unicorn in India and in fact, it is also India’s fastest unicorn. In 2018, Tencent invested on Swiggy again in 2020, Swiggy got a good amount funding from Tenvcent. Both the times, the amount is not diclosed.
Udaan
Chinese Investor: Tencent
Udaan – Indian Companies with Chinese Investment
Udaan is a network-centric B2B trade platform designed specifically for small and medium-scale businesses in India. Udaan brings traders, wholesalers, and retailers into one place. Udaan raised funds from Tencent,the amount invested was not diclosed.
Hungama Digital Media Entertainment Pvt. Ltd
Chinese Investor: Xiaomi
Hungama Digital Media – Indian Companies with Chinese Investment
Hungama Digital Media Entertainment serves as an aggregator, developer, publisher, and distributor of Bollywood and Asian entertainment. Xiaomi made its first investment in an Indian company by pouring $25-million in Hungama Digital Media Entertainment.
Marsplay
Chinese Investor: Xiaomi
Marsplay – Indian Companies with Chinese Investment
Marsplay is an online platform that allows users to discover and share fashion and beauty tips. Marsplay Internet Private Limited, the parent company of Marsplay, raised funding from Xiaomi in 2018, although the exact amount was not disclosed.
Oye! Rickshaw
Chinese Investor: Xiaomi
Oye! Rickshaw – Indian Companies with Chinese Investment
Oye! Rickshaw is an electric rickshaw mobility platform that connects driver-partners and users. The best part is it is environment-friendly and is on a mission to make people commute without any problem. Oye Rickshaw raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Xiami in 2020.
ShareChat
Chinese Investor: Xiaomi and ShunWei Capital
ShareChat – Indian Companies with Chinese Investment
ShareChat is an Indian Social networking service, and it was incorporated on January 8, 2015. The main attraction of this app is that it support over 15 languages. ShareChat raised funds from Xiaomi and ShunWei Capital, a Chinese venture capital firm. Both the investment amount was not disclosed
ZestMoney
Chinese Investor: Xiaomi
ZestMoney – Indian Companies with Chinese Investment
ZestMoney is the largest and fastest-growing consumer lending fintech company in India. ZestMoney’s platform enables instant approval and disbursal of small-ticket loans. Xiaomi invested an undisclosed amount in ZestMoney in 2018.
OYO
Chinese Investor: Didi Chuxing
OYO – Indian Companies with Chinese Investment
OYO, the multinational hospitality chain is famous for its budget rooms and it is considered the biggest network of hotels in India. It is also spread in more than 199 cities and serves its people. In the year 2019. Didi Chuxing a transport company invested $100 million in OYO.
PolicyBazaar
Chinese Investor: Tencent
Policy Bazaar – Indian Companies with Chinese Investment
Policy Bazaar is a company that provides online life insurance and general insurance. The Indian multinational fintech company has been here for 14 years and has been serving people. Tencent invested $150 million in PolicyBazaar in the year 2019.
Delhivery
Chinese Investor: Fosun
Delhivery – Indian Companies with Chinese Investment
This Indian logistics and supply chain company’s main service is to transport parcels and provide third-party logistics for e-commerce companies. In the year, 2017 Fosun, a Cho9nese conglomerate company invested $3o million in Delhivery.
FAQs
How many Chinese companies are there in India?
There are 105 Chinese companies in India.
Is BigBasket funded by China?
BigBasket is an Indian online grocery delivery service. Alibaba invested in BigBasket in 2018. The investment assists BigBasket in competing with the US-based Amazon and India’s Flipkart. The company’s valuation exceeded $1 billion with the help of Chinese investment.
Is flipkart funded by China?
Flipkart is an Indian e-commerce company based out Bangalore, India. Chinese investors like Tencent Holdings and Steadview Capital have invested more than $300 million in Flipkart.
Is Paytm owned by China?
Paytm launched the Paytm Mall app in Feb 2017; Paytm Mall follows a business to consumer model. It is an e-commerce platform that allows consumers to shop from 1.4 lakh registered sellers. Alibaba invested in Paytm Mall for a 40% stake but refused to fund Paytm Mall further.
What are the Chinese Investment Companies in India?
Top Chinese Investment Companies in India are:
Tencent
Alibaba
Xiaomi
How many Chinese companies are listed in Indian stock market?
There are a total of 16 Chinese FPIs registered in India.
What are the top companies that received funding from Chinese company in India?
Top companies that received funding from Chinese company in India are:
The government of India brought in a lot of changes in the FDI norms. This was done keeping in mind the nation’s condition amidst the global pandemic. The main aim was to prevent foreign companies from opportunistic take overs of Indian firms.
The recent investments made their point on curbing Chinese investments in Indian Firms. As per the new FDI norm any country that shares a land border with India will no longer be able to use the automatic route in the FDI. The companies who would like to invest must seek government’s clearance over any investment proposal.
The changes were brought in late April earlier this year. The main aim was to stop Chinese Investors from their predatory behavior. These rules would be applied on countries such as Bhutan, Pakistan, Nepal, Myanmar, Afghanistan. But there is a very small flow of investments from these countries. So, this is evident that the norms are to keep an eye on China for any signs of exploitative behavior.
All this was not done on any sudden decision. The reason behind all this is form the year 2015. Since 2015 China has increased its investment in India. This looks like a very strategic move. According to a report by the DPIIT, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade. The total amount of FDI that has flown from China to India is around $1.8 Billion. All this within a 2015-2019. In the year 2015 itself there was an investment of total $494.75 million.
The industry that has particularly caught the eye of the Chinese investor is the Indian Automobile Industry. Between the same period that is from 2015-2019. The automobile Industry has seen a total investment of $876.30 million. The electrical equipment manufacturing along with the book printing sectors have also seen a hug inflow. All this FDI flow confirms the foothold of Chinese investors in the nation.
Yearly FDI Inflows (in USD Million)
The companies that would be affected the most would be the companies like BigBasket, Paytm and Ola. These companies are just collateral damages of the governments new rules to protect minor companies. The online Grocery vendor Gofers along with the digital payment app and OLA have received millions of dollars as investment from Chinese Investors.
The new norms would effect the fresh funds that were supposed to role in.
“The new FDI guidelines essentially imply Chinese capital would require prior government approval. In effect, given the uncertainty around approval, startups will shy away from Chinese capital. In the immediate future, this could impact PhonePe and potentially Paytm at a later date,” said Ashneer Grover, CEO and co-founder, BharatPe
According to a report by the Think Tank Gateway House a total of $4 Billion has been invested in Indian startups by the Chinese tech investors. Another report said that 18 of India’s 30 Unicorn Startups are funded by Chinese Investors.
BigBasket the online grocery store got a $50 million funding from Alibaba. This investment rolled in when the company was facing its own share of problems in the lockdown. But these new FDI norms would hit the company. BigBasket would face troubles for its capital infusions with Alibaba. BigBasket would now have to search other places to reach its requirements on the basis of investments.
Paytm raised a huge sum of $1 Billion from the Soft Bank in Japan and from Ant Financial from Alibaba. Paytm faces tough competition from Google and PhonePe(owned by Walmart). To fight these competitors Paytm has to be always on the edge of innovation . But the company would face a major fallback after the new norms. Alibaba is the largest share holder in the company. This would indeed affect the digital payments platform.
Alibaba’s Ant Financial has been an investor in Zomato since the year 2018. Ant Financial invested $210 million in the food delivery app. It go a stake of 14.7%. By this Ant Financial became the company’s Largest investor. This stake was raised to 23%. According to news reports this was going to be increased earlier this year. But between that the Indian government revised its FDI norms.
18 of the 30 Unicorn Startups who are funded by Chinese Investors would face a lot of troubles. The move of making changes in the FDI norms is to hurt the Chinese Investors. But this would hurt the unicorn startups. This move has put many jobs on risk.
Michelle D’souza
