Next Step, A Care Robot

By Aijing Cao, Junior Project Manager - Art-Science

According to China’s latest national population census, the size of the Chinese elderly population has grown prominently and the birth rate continues to fall. In the meantime, the mounting shortage of caregivers for the aging populations has put the elderly care industry in a situation with enormous demand and unprecedented potential as well.

Therefore, the 28th Café des Sciences is pleased to invite two speakers Michael Früh, CEO of F&P Robotics, an innovative robotics company headquartered in Glattbrugg, Switzerland and with a subsidiary in China, and Monica Zhang, Director of the Business Development of F&P Robotics’s APAC region, to share their expertise and insights about the robotics industry in elderly care, current developments and user cases from Switzerland to China.

First, Michael reaffirmed the indisputable elderly wave in certain countries and the solution of using robots to ease the challenge of shrinking labor force. The market potential in Europe is estimated to be more than 250,000 robots (1 robot per 20 nursing beds). As one of the three main product units of F&P, Lio, the mobile robotic assistant can help increase the quality of life and independence for the elderly while relieving care personnel from routine tasks, reducing infections, and improving health with an outstanding maximum of 16 working hours per day. Michael elaborated the user cases of Lio at care institutions in Switzerland and Germany to further present the versatility and intelligence of Lio with a list of activities, such as activation, delivery, disinfection, reminding, interaction, entertainment, and physical support at home.

According to Michael, relying on the support of the AI lab of the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, F&P Robotics can be considered as the pioneer of this niche market, which aims to blend smart and safe robots into human’s daily life with the utilization of Robotic arm technology, Applied AI and self-developed own Robot Operating System, together with the specialization on safety and personality for an improved user experience.

Michael also pointed out the importance of market knowledge to achieve constant optimization. Their efforts in this regard include experiencing unique projects in healthcare, hiring in-house interdisciplinary talents in neurobiology, medicine, AI, psychology, and health economics, co-authoring books on healthcare robotics, and establishing and maintaining connections to top Swiss institutions in the healthcare industry. In addition, F&P has been trying to increase robot technology acceptance through improvements in their function, social capability, appearance and autonomy level, and local culture adaption.

In the end, Michael summarized critical success factors for F&P to have grown from a startup to an SME: product development to cater customers’ needs, providing helpful services, education and training, involving various stakeholders from the beginning, taking concerns seriously, networking to facilitate the first contact, offering USPs based on needs, managing production and logistics and securing sufficient capital.

Following Michael’s overview in Europe, Monica gave an analysis of the care industry in China, challenges of the care robots in the local market and potential solutions. China’s aging population is foreseen to grow up to 27.9% of the entire Chinese population by 2050. The smart care industry size has also soared from CNY1.41 billion to CNY3.76 billion in 2020, almost taking up 42.9% of the global care industry. At the current phase, China’s elderly care mode has formed a “9073 ” structure; namely, 90% of the elderly would live at home and be supported by families and social forces, 7% of the older people are taken care by the communities, and 3% of the aging population live in care institutions. The lack of skilled caregivers and the digitization in the healthcare industry accelerated by the pandemic, have been driving the demand for care robots.

Furthermore, Monica touched upon the existing challenges in introducing care robots into the China market. First, the long-rooted mentality of saving money has made the Chinese elderly groups less willing to pay for care robots even though they have the capability. Second, data collection and data security need more clear and explicit guidance. Despite the strong support from the government policy, technical feasibility, interdisciplinary cooperation, low expectation, and fear against the care robots are still impeding the acceptance of the care robot. As Monica stated, China is still in the stage of market and consumer education, but she is positve about the market prospect in China.

During the Q&A session, both onsite and online audiences were curious about limitations of current robot technologies and the potential of care robots. Due to time constraints, we could only take a limited number of questions. If you have further questions for our speakers regarding robot technology in elderly care, please email us at artscience@swissnexchina.org. We will try our best to forward them to the speakers.

Click here to watch the recording of the event.

Swiss Pavilion with Superlatives at InnoMatch

By Lefei Chen, Junior Project Manager - Academic Relations

Swissnex in China had the pleasure to participate in InnoMatch in the framework of the Pujiang Innovation Forum from May 31 to June 2 2021. The three-day event, also known as the Global Tech-Matching Fair in Shanghai, gathered global frontier technologies in various industries, presented the latest innovations from the world, and integrated the global needs for innovation.

Dr. Felix Moesner, Science Consul & CEO, Swissnex in China, together with consular officials from Canada, France, Germany, and UK joined the Roundtable Discussion on “Transnational Innovation Exchanges Under COVID-19” and shared best practice in connecting Switzerland and China in research, education and innovation during and after the pandemic.

On the same isle with Belgium, France & UAE, the Swiss Pavilion showcased inspiring achievements driven by the aim for a climate neutral Switzerland by 2050 and China by 2060 with the intention to spark future collaborations towards a more sustinable world. The most eye-catching exhibit is “gotthard,” a driverless electricity-powered race car built by AMZ Racing from ETH. This car is loaded with LiDAR (light detection and ranging) and optical velocity sensors with autonomous capabilities, cameras and a GPS system, featuring for its 0-100km/h acceleration capacity within just 1.9 seconds, faster than F1 race cars. This showcase demonstrated the huge potential of clean-tech to permeate in every situation of life and be applied in a wide range of instruments.

Several superlatives from world-renowned Swiss universities and research insitutions were also presented, namely the Guinness World Records most fuel efficient car PAC-Car II by ETH Zurich, the Guinness World Records long-range solar-powered aircraft SOLAR IMPULSE by EPFL and the next generation lithium-ion batteries developed by Empa (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology).

Founded in 2008, Pujiang Innovation Forum is organized by the Chinese Ministry of Science & Technology and Shanghai Municipal Government to build a platform for high-level exchanges on emerging global S&T innovation and trends. As one of its core events, InnoMatch presented 200+ innovative products by small and medium-sized enterprises, 200 solutions for common demands, and more than 500 international and domestic achievements to be transformed, covering Carbon Neutrality technologies, Life Science, Semiconductor, IoT, IP and AI etc.

Impressed by the high demand for technology and the huge potential for the development of the Chinese domestic technology market, Swissnex in China appreciated this opportunity to connect with people and companies from China and all over the world to match the needs of innovation and help to land Swiss innovative products in China.

Post Pandemic VC Landscape in China

By Duy Nguyen, Junior Project Manager Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Venture capitalists in China are operating under a climate of increasing uncertainty, while startups have taken hits and are being scrutinized more rigorously than in the past. Significantly impacted by a series of factors such as the trade tension between China and the US and the slow-down of the Chinese economic growth rate, Chinese VCs are undergoing a shuffle and are changing their game. In the meantime, as China marches towards technological advancement, the dynamics of China's innovation landscape are changing as well. Furthermore, as with the situation all over the world, the unexpected outbreak of the COVID-19 coronavirus has shifted the established order of things, and startups are forced to look further afield for investment.

In this webinar, swissnex China has invited speakers with investment and accelerator management backgrounds to share tips on how Swiss startups should present themselves in meetings with Chinese investors.

Before the presentations from our three speakers, our moderator Jordi Montserrat, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Venturelab, reminded the audience about how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting Europe and that we are all looking at the same challenge: in particular, how startups have been affected, and how the investment landscape will evolve. He pointed out that relationships built over the past years between Switzerland and China, and opportunities for Swiss startups still remain despite the current evolving situation. Support from Swiss startup programs ranging from financing to international roadshows including training, supports and global scaling, has culminated in many success stories of Swiss startups funded by Chinese investors in the past, and this will continue in the future.

Hao Tang, Deputy General Manager of TusPark Jiangsu Development Co., Ltd. and the General Manager of TusPark Innovation Research Institute, presented an overview of support platforms and development ecosystem for startups in China.

He suggested that, before entering China, international startups face some challenges which can compromise their transition to a new market if they do not pay attention to some particular Chinese characteristics. Hao Tang gave us some prerequisites such as business knowledge, customer needs or law/regulation that have to be acknowledged beforehand. In addition, Chinese VCs expect the operations of the invested startup to take place in China. As a consequence, most of the foreign entities failed to achieve any fundraising due to the fact that they remain established abroad outside of China. In order to gain a foothold in China, it seems inevitable to dig into the Chinese landscape by adopting local business partners, using local customers' insights and adapting to the local market. To do so, he suggested leveraging the network of established local incubators and science parks which will benefit the startups to gain access to local companies, capital, and government’s incentives…

A personal and precious comment from his side was to not neglect the smaller towns (Tier 2 and Tier 3) where there is usually better policies in place for new startups when considering the place to start your business as there is less competition compared to the big cities such as Shanghai, Shenzhen or Beijing.

David Chang, Vice President of Shanghai Blockchain Association and CEO of Blocknology Digital Ventures, talked about the funding landscape for international startups.

Structured in three parts: the BAD, the GOOD and the GREAT, David mentioned that along with national priority, VCs are currently focusing on the digital economy, digital supply-chain and digital transformation. Both the healthcare and sustainable development industries are raising their importance due to the global pandemic, but are also encouraged by the Chinese government who attaches more focus and funding. There is a pivot of focus that can open some opportunities for startups from Switzerland, the leader in these two areas. Indeed, as David claimed, the China economy is currently accelerating.

However, in order to capture these opportunities, while private investors are now working closely with government programs, flexibility is the key in the form of a mixed pie of private and public funding. Moreover, another constraint is that investors in China will give priority to the domestic, consumers, and enterprise markets. Contrasting with the past, establishing and presenting a good market strategy in China to investors is a must to raise any funds in China. Last but not least, David Chang underlined the importance of exit strategies for investors. As China landscape presents two different ecosystems: from one side the private tech unicorns, and on the other side the larger tech SoE ecosystem, international startups need to define their position before stepping into the China market with a clear M&A strategy in order to be potentially acquired.

Looking back at China, the pandemic situation exposed some vulnerabilities in terms of digital infrastructures as the Chinese government is trying to rebuild the entire system. As a consequence, the local government is looking for local solutions which serve as an open call for global startups specialized in the domain of digital infrastructure.

Presentation slides of David Chang

Finally, the last speaker, Dr. Rajwinder Lehal, Chief Scientific Officer at Cellestia Biotech AG, shared his success story as a Swiss startup entrepreneur having raised about CHF 50 M from Asian and Chinese investors.

Firstly, he presented some numbers to introduce the background and the role of China in the area of Biotech. There is no doubt from his presentation that the healthcare industry is booming in China, a country with huge medical needs and a huge need for innovative drugs. Hence, Dr. Lehal gave advice to Swiss startups by recommending some strategic considerations. The main question remains for the startups to define their needs: access to the Chinese market or access to the Chinese capital? As China is becoming more and more integrated into global development for biopharmaceutical companies, Chinese market cannot simply be ignored. For instance, a soaring number of Chinese companies came to Basel Switzerland over the last two years looking for out-licensing opportunities.

Dr. Lehal also warned about the risk of joint ventures for the reasons of cultural or administrative differences. Furthermore, when considering raising funds from Chinese VC, it is important to raise the question of whether the Chinese VC possesses RMB funds only, or opts for a global focus with USD and EUR.

Last point, Dr. Lehal highlighted the difference in strategy of Chinese VC fund compared to a typical European fund or US-based fund. In fact, many Chinese VCs have a portfolio of companies. Therefore, there is a tendency for them to build synergies between portfolio companies by trying to out-license the product with one of the local companies. Regarding this strategy, he advised from his perspective that the equity investment should be kept separately from any joint-venture made on the road, as there is a lot of uncertainty over time.

During the Q&A session, when asked about the impacts of the current COVID-19 situation, all our speakers agreed on the fact that startups are currently suffering a lot from the loss of partners and postponement of contracts. From an investor's point of view, investments are conducted more cautiously with slower due diligence before any decision-making, while the terms for investment will be longer. But the Chinese government is providing immense support to incubators to deal with the current situation.

Another comment on the necessity of starting a joint-venture, Dr. Rajwinder Lehal insisted on the fact that it is not the perfect structure for his startup as it requires a share of resources and financial commitment which for a startup, cannot be affordable. On the other side, investors are always welcoming towards startups which can potentially be acquired by the tech ecosystem. This strategy benefits the startup by providing them with funding and market entry in exchange for a share of the technology and know-how.

Finally, regarding the best time to create IP in China, Hao Tang provided precious insights: It always depends on the industry or the current level of competition in the market. Are you competing with the speed or not?  There are advantages of being the first entrants with a disruptive technology or new products such as in the healthcare industry. Otherwise, IP is a requirement if there is an intention of establishing a Chinese entity. But this option presents a huge cost for startups, which can be reduced with the support from the Chinese government pushing to find new IPs.

We would like to thank Hao Tang, David Chang and Dr. Rajwinder Lehal for their excellent presentations and Jordi Montserrat for his masterful moderation of the event. Last but not least, we would like to express our appreciation to our viewers for having participated in the event and for all the interesting questions during the Q&A session!  

How to Succeed in China by Lucas Rondez

By Nicole Jucker and Florian Moeri, Junior Project Managers

On March 31, the fifth Fireside Chat took place. “Build an Empowering Business Ecosystem” was the first webinar version of our event series, co-organized with SwissCham. Lucas Rondez, the founder and CEO of nihub Innovation Center & Startup Accelerator & Incubator, shared his experience and knowledge about the Chinese market and outlined his understanding of an open ecosystem in a fast-growing environment.

Lucas Rondez (l.), founder & CEO of nihub, and Dr. Felix Moesner (r.), Science Consul & CEO of swissnex China.

Lucas started off with the remark that he wants to tell his story not only to be listened to, but also to provide a vision and motivation for like-minded people. He opened his presentation with a short introduction about his company, nihub, and their working processes. Being a business ecosystem itself, nihub wants to share the gained knowledge and resources with others. With a mix of investment and mentoring, they want to provide the support that their CEO, Lucas, did not have when he started his first company, Nihao. In 2015, the Swiss national achieved his dream of becoming an entrepreneur by creating this all-English app to provide life services to China’s expatriate community. He used the same experience to explain the danger of growing too fast: If you don't have a precise revenue model, it becomes difficult – even though you have the best product on the market.

Afterwards, Lucas took us on a time travel into his past: growing up in the canton of Jura, he began an apprenticeship at UBS at the age of 16. There, he was able to acquire a strong basic foundation, for which he is still grateful today. In addition, the education of his parents, who supported him in everything he liked to do and always motivated him to strive for more, has had a great influence on him. He understood that no matter what you want to achieve, you have to put up with sweating and work hard for it. Lucas still goes by the motto "Challenge yourself", which was also the title of one of his slides.

Following a successful startup launch, an expansion to 30 employees, a dismissal of 25 of them and the start of nihub later, Lucas developed further guiding principles:

• Perseverance is the key to success

• Important is not the financial but the backpack (the experience)

• Grow together

• Get connected: Stop being a listener – become a speaker. Learn and get important (Let people come and connect to you)

• Ask yourself “Where are the problems?” and then “What is the solution?”

• Things we may learn during the COVID-19 pandemic: There is a lack of information and a non-use of technology that already exists. People should work as a community not as individuals.

• Learn & Love Chinese

• Do not waste time to complain. But: Spend time with people who are complaining

• Innovate or work with innovators

• Take care of your health – eat and drink good things

• Work with a lawyer from day -1

• Play golf or tennis and use your credit card (invest in networking)

• Be patriotic: Let’s be a community

• Give and not only take. Give your time, your money or your knowledge, if you can. The most amazing thing you can get back is trust.

A recurring element in Lucas' presentation was the changing dynamics in his development. He is convinced: you have to like the “roller coaster of life” to be an entrepreneur. This basic understanding was packed into the following slide:

Lucas salary and asset development compared with the salary and asset development of his father.

(Lucas introduced the slide with the comment that he chose his father for comparison because he is the motivation in his daily work. Having benefited from a great support in his childhood, he now likes to give back.)

After a short Q&A session, Dr. Felix Moesner, Science Consul & CEO of swissnex China, rounded off the webinar with a closing word. He stated that Lucas Rondez is a perfect reflection of the Swiss dual education system: "There are many opportunities for people to prove themselves at a young age already - if you are willing to accept challenges. And this is how you can make it from an apprentice in Switzerland to a successful, solution-oriented entrepreneur in Hangzhou!”

To end this blogpost, we would like to express our gratitude to Lucas Rondez for sharing his experiences and insights. Many thanks also to SwissCham Shanghai for co-organizing this edition of the Fireside series. 

 We look forward to seeing you at our upcoming events!

 Please contact Lucas below if you would like to have access to his resources and work with him:

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Fireside Chat is a format inviting seasoned Swiss speakers to talk and discuss their experiences in China; this presentation series is a collaboration between swissnex China and SwissCham. Please join us for interesting talks, discussions and networking!

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Innosuisse Startup Roadshow: We stand ready to support you in China

By Simin Yang, Project Coordinator Innovation & Entrepreneurship

It has been six years that swissnex China and Innosuisse launched the Innosuisse China Camp. Throughout this time we have witnessed a tremendous growth in the number of swiss startups keen on exploring the Chinese market potential, and we are delighted to be here in China to support Swiss tech-driven startups in market validation or help them take the deep dive into the local ecosystem.

This March, in collaboration with our colleagues from the US, Brazil, the UK and India, we planned an intensive one-week roadshow with public events and individual meetings to direct engage with our Swiss startups and entrepreneurs. Regrettably, the unexpected outbreak of COVID-19 coronavirus negatively impacted our journey. In the interest of public health and safety, the decision was taken to cancel all public events while still keeping personal meetings with startups, thanks to our Junior Project Manager Niccolò Schlueb who was able to represent swissnex China in Switzerland.

While it was difficult to confirm a large number of meetings due to the COVID-19 situation, we were able to meet and discuss with some particularly ambitious startups including Marc from Juvabis AG, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, a joint spin-off of ETH Zurich and University of Zurich. Juvabis will discuss with their Innosuisse coach about further participation for China after being introduced to the Marktet Validation and Market Entry Camp support offered by swissnex China.

Back in China, due to the circumstances we were prompted to cancel our SwissTech Pavilion at CES ASIA in June and postpone Venture Leaders China to this autumn. Nevertheless, we swiftly initiated a series of webinars and remain supportive online to help swiss startups gain intelligence into the China market. Our upcoming webinar on April 3rd features speakers from the Chinese investment sector to share their insights on Chinese VCs’ appetites and aptitudes regarding foreign startups. 

Although international visits are currently on halt, we remain ever-responsive to all inquiries on fact-finding about the China market. Online applications for market validation and market entry are ongoing as well, as we’re expecting a startups influx and will be ready to carry out our next roadshow in Switzerland in the near-future! It would be a fantastic moment join all our swissnex Network colleagues and provide Swiss startups with a glimpse on Innosuisse Internationalization Camps under the context of different innovation ecosystems.

swissnex Global Innosuisse Internationalization Camps

Innosuisse China Camp Services

Innosuisse China Camps in Beijing/Shanghai/Guangzhou/Shenzhen/Hong Kong

New Year Café des Sciences: IoT & Organic Waste

By Percy Chen, Junior Project Manager Art-Science

All of past Café des Sciences lecture event pages

Started exactly one year ago in January 2019, Café des Sciences is a format at swissnex China offering a monthly platform for scientists, start-ups, and artists with Swiss background to present their projects and connect with the local community. The lectures aim to provide a casual setting in which speakers can present their works and engage with the attendees in meaningful manners.

Twelve months later, the Café des Sciences series has garnered a solid track record — 12 events at 5 unique venues, 480 total attendees with 80 plus core community members, as well as 20 speakers on novel topics ranging from shadow banking, drone revolution, to VR, biosensors, and smart home technologies.

Therefore, on 9 January 2020, to formally wrap up a year worth of content and celebrate its success, the New Year Café des Sciences featured multiple past speakers for their project updates, a keynote presentation from Enwise CEO Stéphane Vernède, a live performance from Passepartout Duo, and a community award for those who have voluntarily shared their ideas, expertise, and time with this diverse and interactive group of people.

Past speakers presented in the New Year event include Ying Liu, Assistant Professor, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics and Alumna HEC Lausanne (Café des Sciences #1: Shadow Banking in China); Laurent Coulot, Co-founder and CEO of Insolight, a startup based at the EPFL Innovation Park in Lausanne, Switzerland (Café des Sciences #3: Looking Beyond the Horizon); Hao Hua, Associate Professor, Architecture at Southeast University, Doctor of Science ETH Zurich (Café des Sciences #7: From Architectural Anthropology to Digital Fabrication); Laura Couto Rosado, Swiss Artist and Designer, 2017 Residency at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Café des Sciences #8: Technical Spiral that We Inspire) and Xueying Mao, Biomedical Engineering Master ETH Zurich, Chief Representative of rqmicro AG China Office (Café des Sciences #10: Lives in Our Water). 

From left to right: Enwise CEO Stéphane Vernède; Percy Chen, Junior Project Manager at swissnex China; Cissy Sun, Head of Art-Science at swissnex China; Christopher Salvito from Passepartout ​Duo; and Felix Moesner, Science Consul & CEO at swissnex China

Ying Liu, Assistant Professor, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics and Alumna HEC Lausanne (Café des Sciences #1: Shadow Banking in China)

Laura Couto Rosado, Swiss Artist and Designer, 2017 Residency at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Café des Sciences #8: Technical Spiral that We Inspire)

After the updates from previous speakers, Stéphane Vernède, CEO at Enwise, shared the mechanism behind modular digester for organic waste: dry anaerobic digestion technology OSCAR and a real time IoT monitoring technology OTTO. His presentation really puts the issue of waste processing into perspective. For example, in 2018, China has produced 1,000,000,000 tons of organic waste, amounting to 1,500 Shanghai Tower put together in volume. In Shanghai alone, 9,500 tons of municipal organic waste are produced daily. Today we barely have the capacity to process the first 1,000 tons of waste. What is good, however, is on 1 July 2019, Shanghai has enforced waste sorting policy, taking its first step towards this serious matter.

“China’s war on trash is the world’s too.” concluded Stéphane after a long Q&A session where many people demonstrated strong interests in Enwise’s technology and waste processing issue in general.

Stéphane Vernède delivering the introduction

One of Stéphane’s slides showing the amount of organic waste China produces yearly.

Another slide on OSCAR and OTTO technologies

Christopher Salvito during his live performance

The next speaker is Christopher Salvito from Passepartout Duo, a music group comprised of himself and pianist ​Nicoletta Favari​. The​ musical events​ they create focus on reconsidering the modalities in which people listen to and connect with music and are cast from a wide range of aesthetics and disciplines. Their mission is to become ambassadors for contemporary music through performance, to cross cultural and aesthetic boundaries through interdisciplinary projects, and to be catalysts for the global mobility of art and artists.

Christopher went into details about their experience in North America and Europe: over a dozen artistic residency programs in USA, Canada, Italy, Spain, Lithuania, Finland, Iceland, and more nations. Their extensive travel gave them rich opportunities to collaborate with all different kinds of artists, such as dancers, visual artists, animators, as well as other musicians and composers. Recently, Passepartout Duo has done residency programs at Dimensions Art Centre in Chongqing, T3 Art District in Beijing, and currently they are among the artists in residence at the Swatch Art Peace Hotel in Shanghai.

As We Speak, the snare drum solo Christopher performed focuses on the relationship between recorded voice and music. A machine-like monotone female voice plays in the background, introducing itself as “Vicky”. At first, it speaks coherently, announcing its joy to be the chosen voice. Yet, very soon it realizes as the musical piece comes to an end, it too will cease to speak. It starts to glitch, producing repetitive noises, affirming itself, “I am alive”, and questioning itself right after, “Am I alive? Am I a live?” The 5-minute piece ends with prolonged reiterations of “Stop speaking”. The cold, monotone voice gives the statement a nebulous meaning. Is it questioning whether or not it will stop speaking? Is it lamenting the fact that it will stop speaking? Does it accept its fate towards the end? It is up to the audiences for interpretation.

Likewise, Christopher plays snare drum alongside the voice. Using drumsticks, jazz brush, snare string and his fingers, he compliments the voice with different timber and volume of sounds. The interaction between Christopher and the voice creates a constant feedback loop where one listens and reacts to the other, forming a true cybernetics system.

Christopher Salvito introducing his trips in Europe

Finally, the event finished with multiple community awards. As mentioned before, Café des Sciences lecture has gathered a solid core community. We wanted to award those who voluntarily contributed their time with us through constant participations. The award winners are Zhenyu Peng (10 CdS attended), Xueying Mao (7 attended), Jina Zhu (7), and John Evans (6). We would like to thank you for sticking with us and shaping this series for the better!

Felix Moesner, Science Consul & CEO at swissnex China, and John Evans with his community award

Felix Moesner, Science Consul & CEO at swissnex China, and Jina Zhu with her community award and iconic gesture

The New Year Café des Sciences started this year on a high note. In 2020, we plan to keep the current format of Café des Sciences and bring in more engaging topics. Thank you again for all those who have been involved in this project!

Stay tuned for the next event!

(For more event pictures from the night, please click here.)

Future with 5G and AIoT

By Florian Moeri, Junior Project Manager

On the evening of November 28, swissnex China hosted a joint lecture with nihub about the future impact of 5G and AIoT.

The numerous visitors were welcomed by Felix Moesner, Science Consul & CEO at swissnex China. He emphasized the importance of emerging technology and innovation, which are a major part of the efforts at swissnex. And, according to him, the future of 5G and AIoT in particular is already very near.

After the short introduction, Sergio Medyk, Product Line Manager at Nokia in China, held a presentation about 5G. This upcoming standard for mobile telecommunications service promises to be significantly faster than today's 4G technology.

To illustrate this dimension, Mr. Medyk needed the following comparison: With today's LTE technology (standard for wireless broadband communication), you can achieve a capacity of 1 GB per second. With the new 5G technology it is 10 GB per second. In addition, a much larger number of devices can be connected together. And it makes it possible to connect not only people but also things, for example robots in a factory. A keyword here - and this was often mentioned in the discussion - is "low latency". The processing of data between machine and network now works as fast as possible. This prevents accidents with automatic cars, for instance, through increased reactivity. The background is the transfer of frequency, which can be raised from 2 - 2.5 Gigahertz (LTE) to 3 - 5 Gigahertz (5G). "A physical principle: the better the frequency, the more data can be transported in less time" said Medyk.

The general structure of the network will also change: We are now trying to prioritize the various applications differently. That means “dividing the network”. Subsequently, factory machines that require low latency will be prioritized over mobile phone users, who will not experience any negative impact either way. Finally, what is important with 5G is that the network no longer runs in hardware, but in the cloud. This means that it is programmable for all conceivable purposes. And if you put AI, machine learning and 5G wireless connection together, you get a foretaste of what the future of the industry looks like. This brings us to the possibilities of mobile providers, where Nokia, for example, is taking action: offering 5G as a network which can connect not only people but everything to create new verticals that can produce new sources of revenues and new business models.

Mr. Madyk went on to show a number of use cases, e.g. a Smart airport, where a robot will soon guide passengers from the entrance to the check-in area and then to the boarding area. Or the influence of new technologies on education, also called Smart education, where remote teaching or lessons with preproduced content become possible. Or finally, the fundamental advantage of the so-called Fixed Wireless Access: a 5G Gateway, where with the new connection no more cables have to be laid. At the end of his presentation, Mr. Medyk mentioned which changes will come fastest according to him: “The first phase will be access and the second phase will be the industrial cases that become reality. For those interested in 5G and its possibilities, Nokia has developed the following public platform: https://open-ecosystem.org”.

After the basics of 5G were explained to us, Qian Hao, founder of Taro.AI spoke about the Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT). He did this, as well as the other speakers, in a very innovative way: he talked with a handheld microphone connected by a tracker to the tripod on which the mobile phone camera was placed. This product is an example of the product series of his company "Taro.AI": http://taro.ai.

In addition to this item they work with AI technology and transform spoken words into text. The vision is a search engine for keywords of a speech. Mr. Hao started by explaining his thoughts on the development of AIoT using keywords like "Great Company Originate from Great Episode (Big Changes). Great Episode Originate from New Dimension". He talked about the trends, included the last wave: the mobile Internet, where the key to the revolution was the "touch" factor (especially Apples iPhone display). He considers this wave as a big wave, because now it was possible to segment sources in marketing, whereas up to now 90 % has been done via TV advertising.

In contrast stands the small wave, AIoT. Small because it connects things rather than people. That's why it is especially interesting for the industry. And the technology of 5G will advance the technology of AIoT. The methodology, the distance and the service will adapt. According to Mr. Hao, in addition to the flow of people, money and things, a new dimension will emerge with the flow of robots. Every object will be connected. And with Blockchain there is even a payment method that could be used offline for selling 5G usage rights. The difficulties in rural areas and the correct handling of sensitive data will become a challenge when dealing with AIoT.

Next, Mr. Hao explained the characteristics of the interface between AIoT and 5G. Among there is the difficulty of localization in buildings, which is quite disrupted by walls and should therefore also be seen as a different scale than positioning outside. Another challenge is also the fact that in addition to the protagonist (e.g. the automatic car), its environment should also have low latency so that the technology works at its best. This is exactly where the big technology companies such as Huawei come in. In the course of the presentation, even the concept of the company as we know it was questioned, because in the future many things can be controlled centrally and remotely. Finally, the economic possibilities of the new technologies got mentioned. Focus here is not so much the already saturated market of applications, but the demand for control units: speakers and screens. Mr. Hao also made his personal prediction whereas he thinks that over the next 10 years, we will not offensively be connected but passively grabbed by the internet, especially by AIoT.

Sergio Medyk, Product Line Manager at Nokia in China, during his presentation about 5G.

Qian Hao, Founder of Taro.AI and in the foreground his "AI Cameraman".

It was at this aspect of potential new innovation and investment that Lucas Rondez, Founder and CEO of nihub, picked up with his speech. His company also believes in the "new waves" which is why they work with startups to create opportunities and develop new technologies. They do this through strong collaboration with VALID, a Brazilian technology provider. Together they co-organize an Acceleration Program in China: https://validaccelerator.com. This program supports 5 early-stage companies working in the field of 5G and AIoT and consists of at least three employees. In addition to a special focus on increased visibility, it is also possible to generate an investment - e.g. from VALID - in addition to cash prizes. The program thus helps companies to gain a foothold in the sector. Or as Mr. Rondez puts it: "The Accelerator creates an ecosystem where VALID & nihub share knowledge and resources to innovative startups & talents to create value for tomorrow".

This is exactly where the whole range of presentations were aimed at, showing us what the current status with 5G and AIoT looks like, what the future might bring and what challenges we will be facing along the way. We would like to thank all three speakers for their fantastic presentations and also those who participated in the subsequent discussions. We are looking forward to the next event!

Lucas Rondez, Founder and CEO of nihub, on the possibility of supporting start-ups.

From Left to Right: Sergio Medyk, Product Line Manager, Nokia; Qian Hao, Founder, Taro.AI; Lucas Rondez, Founder and CEO, nihub; Felix Moesner, Science Consul & CEO, swissnex China.

Scaling up in Asia for Swiss Startups

By Simin Yang, Project Coordinator - Innovation & Entrepreneurship

From December 3 to 6, swissnex China organized a series of events and one-on-one meetings to present our services that effectively help Swiss startups to leverage business opportunities in Asia. swissnex China helps the startups to take their first steps into the Chinese market with multiple programs, support them with local resources and connect them with the right contacts.

During the events, I was able to meet with over 13 Swiss startups in Zurich, Basel and Lausanne, introducing how swissnex China can help them enter the China market through different programs in the upcoming year of 2020, which include Innosuisse Market Entry Camp (Market Validation camp, Market Entry Camp), Life Science Bootcamp 2020, CES Asia 2020 and etc.

Meeting Swiss startups- Public event at ETH Zurich

Meeting Swiss startups in person in Switzerland enables a smooth understanding of each other, about their projects and our camp services. For startups who are interested to join our programs next year, a meeting session makes the communication efficient & effective. For example, Seervision planned to discuss with Coach to elaborate milestones after meeting.

swissnex China meets Seervision

swissnex China meets Eyeware

We are looking forward to supporting Swiss startups to scale up in Asia with Innosuisse Market Entry Camp, CES Asia and other programs at swissnex China in 2020.

Venture Leaders Fintech in Hong Kong Puts Swiss Fintech in the Spotlight

By Niccolò Schlueb, Junior Project Manager Innovation & Entrepreneurship

There was no better destination for the Swiss National Fintech Team than the heart of Asia’s Financial markets and the gateway to the most dynamic region in the world: Hong Kong. Led by swissnex China and Venturelab, ten selected top Swiss fintech startups arrived on Sunday November 3 in Hong Kong to kick-off their week-long program of meetings with potential investors and partners, workshops and discussions. The startups also partook in the Hong Kong Fintech Week 2019 including two days of participating at the Fintech conference and a day trip to Shenzhen. Because this was the first Venture Leaders Fintech to take place in Asia, both expectations and excitement were extremely high and we could not wait to get started the next day.

The 10 Swiss National Fintech Startups:

Billte AG - Andrea Girasole | Crypto Finance AG - Jan Brzezek | Loanboox - Andi Burri | Orca AG - Tomas Hurcik | Pexapark - Michael Waldner | Raized.ai - Penny Schiffer | Tokenestate - Vincent Trouche | turicode - Martin Keller | vestr AG - Simon Hasenfratz | vlot Ltd. - Daniel Schmidheiny

Day 1: Monday November 4

First up on the agenda was a company visit to the Swiss investment firm Silverhorn Group to attend two consecutive workshops. The delegation was warmly welcomed by Patrick Heuscher, Olympic bronze medallist in beach volleyball, who now creates a stir in Asia’s investment sectors at Silverhorn Group. Musheer Ahmed from the Fintech Association of Hong Kong then spoke about the Fintech ecosystems in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area. Edward Webre and Isabella Wong from Deacons, Hong Kong’s oldest first-tier law firm, addressed important aspects in the local legal frameworks for foreign fintech companies that plan to set up an office in Hong Kong. A hot topic of discussion for the first, but certainly not for the last time, was the difference between the financial markets of Hong Kong and Singapore.

Subsequently, the Venture Leaders had the chance to pitch their startups at LGT in front of a high-ranking delegation and received valuable feedback from top experts within the banking industries.

Afterwards the delegation was welcomed by Howse Williams, a HK based law firm which made a brief introduction and answered questions regarding the judicial systems in Hong Kong finance. Representatives from CIGP investment advisors joined the meeting and gave helpful advice to the startups, which received another opportunity to present their exciting businesses.

The last meeting of the intense, but insightful day consisted of a meet-up with Standard Chartered Ventures, who specifically focus on the support of emerging fintech companies. The meeting included a pitch-session, which was also broadcasted to SC Venture’s office in Singapore.

Andrea Girasole from Billte about the investor meetings: “This is extremely important for us as Asia is a booming market in general, especially Hong Kong and China. We are looking to expand into this area as well. I delivered the pitch of our company to several investors and potential partners. Partners being banks and financial companies. It’s been a fantastic experience and I highly recommend it.”

Meeting at Howse Williams with CIGP

Michael Waldner presenting Pexapark at LGT

Day 2: Tuesday November 5

In the early morning, the delegation visited Eureka Nova, an accelerator by the New World Group, who held a workshop about the Hong Kong startup ecosystem and answered the startups’ many questions. Then, Oriente, a successfully launched Fintech startup welcomed the Swiss Fintech champions to its office. Oriente provided insightful information about their progression as a startup and answered the various questions of the team.

Visiting the accelerator Eureka Nova

Company visit at Oriente

A lunch meeting with Invest Hong Kong and GP Bullhound was scheduled next as they presented more details about their programs and the general investment environment in HK. Afterwards, the startups were able to present their ideas in an intensive pitch-session to invest HK and GP Bullhound.

GP Bullhound introduction

Two important pitch-sessions followed: firstly, at HSBC and secondly, at the Swiss Bank UBS. With great enthusiasm, the Swiss National Fintech Team made a lasting impression with their exciting business strategies.  

Tomas Hurcik pitching Orcas at UBS

Andrea Girasole introducing Billte at HSBC

In the evening, the long-awaited first highlight of the week took place. The Venture Leaders and our other 50 high-profile guests boarded the beautiful Aqua Luna, which set sail in Victoria Harbour surrounded by the millions of lights of Hong Kong’s skyline. Of course, the purpose of the cruise was not only to admire the stunning scenery: We also challenged our entrepreneurs to pitch on the swaying boat! Nevertheless, it is safe to say that all startups did a great job and they made valuable connections with our guests.

Day 3: Wednesday November 6

The Hong Kong Fintech conference (HKFTW2019) opened its doors on Wednesday and the Swiss National Fintech Team was ready to showcase high quality in Swiss fintech. The delegation was represented through the Swiss Fintech Pavilion, in which every startup had its own booth with promotion material. During HKFTW2019, various meetings with Hong Kong government, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, interviews with South China Morning Post and Hong Kong Economic Times were scheduled.

Hong Kong Government delegation visiting the Swiss Fintech Pavilion

In the evening, the second main event was held, granting a somewhat different view of the skyline.  On 100th floor of the ICC – Hong Kong’s tallest building - the startups engaged in a lively pitching competition in front of 100 guests and the critical eyes of our jury: Brian Ma from AngelVest, Veronica Fung from the Fintech Association of Hong Kong and Peter Luk from Hong Kong Science and Technology Park assessed the startups’ presentations and asked challenging question in the end of each pitch. Andi Burri from Loanboox topped the high quality of pitches throughout the evening and won the Venture Leaders Fintech Hong Kong Pitching Award for the best pitch of the evening. 

Andi Burri about Venture Leaders Fintech: “So, for me personally, I had maybe around 100 contacts and personal interactions already, alongside the 20 pitches, and I learned so much about whether Loanboox has the potential to access the Asian market or whether we need to grow a little bit more in Europe first. For that, I am highly thankful. I thank for the whole organization and I think this is one of the best pitching event organization that I’ve seen in my life and I am very thankful.  Also, I am looking forward to getting further feedback from the interviews I’ve had. I wish all the best to my colleagues with whom I’ve had the pleasure to be part of this journey and to Venturelab and swissnex China going forward.”

Day 4: Thursday November 7

The focus of Thursday’s program was the Hong Kong Fintech Week. The startups attracted a lot of attention and could deeply connect with interested visitors. A pitching session on the exhibition’s stage was organized and Mr. Rolf Frei, incoming Consul General of Switzerland to Hong Kong, visited during the day and took his time to talk to each startup. A stunning 8’000 people in total visited the expo. It is estimated that each startup held about 30-50 conversations during the HKFTW2019, with some being busy almost non-stop.

Consul General Rolf Frei visiting the Swiss Fintech Pavilion

Day 5: Friday November 8

On Friday, the final day, the ten entrepreneurs travelled to Shenzhen for company visits. The startups could select between four tours, which brought the representatives to either WeLab-Tencent, WeBank-ZhongAn, Gala Lunch-Tencent or ZhongAn-WeBank.

Visiting Tencent

The intense 6-day Venture Leaders Fintech program concluded on Friday evening with a hearty farewell dinner. Despite the short time together, the team grew close and everyone was excited to find out which contacts and opportunities made in the past week would bear fruit and open the gateway to the Asian fintech markets. Everyone agreed that their paths would cross again in the future as there is no way on their professional roadmap that would go around Asia.

swissnex China looks back at a very successful first edition of the Venture Leaders Fintech program, linking our 10 Fintech startup champions with local multi-$B investors, mentors, experts and business partners. swissnex China also made sure to provide the startups countless opportunities to pitch, including the two highlights of the week: the pitching events on the 100th floor of the tallest building in Hong Kong and on the iconic red-sail Aqua Luna. Luckily, Daniel Schmidheiny didn’t lose count: “An exceptional week has come to a close here in Hong Kong. It was just as intense as fun, in short: vlot Ltd. pitched and presented a total of 16 times. I made countless interactions with interested parties and now have no business cards left. Furthermore, I got a a first taste of the actual market size (still struggling on this one) and received extremely helpful insights from local experts to the needs and expectations of the clients”

Daniel Schimdheiny pitching vlot at HK Fintech Week

Congratulations to our Swiss National Fintech Startups - we wish them every success with their follow-up discussions and meetings!

We would like to express our special thanks to our program partners, without whose generous support this incredible program would not have been possible: digitalswitzerland, EPFL (École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne), ETH Zürich, IMMOMIG V8.0, PostFinance Ltd, Redalpine, Presence Switzerland, Swiss Consulate General in HK, Walder Wyss Ltd., Volkswirtschaftsdirektion Kanton Zürich and Zühlke Group HK.

Venture Leaders Fintech 2019 is co-organized by Venturelab and swissnex China.

Cellestia Biotech Wins swissnex Innovative Startup Award at SSBA Award Ceremony

By Danli Zhou, Head of Marketing & Communications

Congratulations to Cellestia Biotech for winning the swissnex Innovative Startup/Entrepreneur Award at the Sino-Swiss Business Awards 2019 organized by SwissCham China! Our CEO Dr. Felix Moesner, a Guest of Honor at the event held in the evening of November 1, handed the award to Cellestia CEO Michael Bauer and CSO Raj Lehal onstage with words of congratulations. The award is entirely dedicated to Innovation and startups, putting Switzerland’s world-leading innovation on the main stage. Cellestia Biotech CSO Raj Lehal participated in the Venture Leaders China 2018 program, a 10-day pitching and fundraising roadshow across 5 Chinese megacities, co-organized by swissnex China and Venturelab. According to CSO Raj Lehal, the company have already raised multiple millions CHF from China, and initiated a partnership with Tianjin Hospital. Other Guests of Honour at the event included Swiss Ambassador to China HE Bernardino Regazzoni, Head of Presence Switzerland Ambassador Nicolas Bideau, Swiss Tourism Director China Simon Bosshart, Swiss Sport Legend Bernhard Russi and Nestle Greater China Region CEO Rashid Qureshi.

Cellestia Biotech, a clinical-stage biotech company based in Basel is developing innovative first-in-class cancer drugs based on its innovative discovery platform. The company’s lead development candidate CB-103 targeted cancer therapy is a small molecule that inhibits the NOTCH signalling pathway –a key factor in certain cancers and in resistance to standard treatments. The company is conducting phase one clinical trials of its lead drug candidate in cancer patients in Europe, with planned expansion into China and the USA.

Our congratulations also to the other nominees - Swiss startups holo|one (Dominik Trost) and Foodcoin Group AG (Gregory Arzumanian) for their contributions towards furthering Sino-Swiss collaborations in innovation and entrepreneurship! Both holo|one and Foodcoin Group joined 20 other Swiss startups at the #SwissTech Pavilion at CES ASIA 2019, while holo|one also participated in the Venture Leaders China 2019 roadshow. They joined the swissnex table alongside Prof. Jay S. Siegel (Tianjin University), Roger Parodi, (Silverhorn Group), Simon Vericel (Influence Matters), Douwe van den Oever (DomainShift.com) and Sandro Wirth, S&T Section, Embassy of Switzerland.

Lives in Our Water

By Percy Chen, Junior Project Manager Art-Science

On October 21, the tenth Café des Sciences: Lives in Our Water took place at the swissnex China office. Ms. Xueying Mao, the Chief Representative of rqmicro AG China Office, gave an exceptionally educational presentation on water safety and legionella detection technologies.

Ms. Xueying Mao giving the introduction

Water safety is a subject that almost all of us take for granted. Yet, water is ubiquitous and a necessity - we are constantly exposed to water vapors. In fact, as Ms. Mao points out, one of the crucial water safety applications is in the central air conditioning systems at enclosed public space, such as shopping malls and subway stations. This is due to the fact that instead of transmitting through drinking water, legionella pathogen bacteria spread via airborne transmission. A compromised central air conditioning system could lead to a legionella outbreak, sickening tens of or hundreds of citizens.

rqmicro AG device that shortens legionella pathogen bacteria detection cycle from 7 days to 2 hours, reducing response time by almost 99%.

Audiences curiously asking about the science behind rqmicro AG technology

Moreover, Ms. Mao went over her experience surveying Chinese hospitals for legionella outbreaks. To her astonishment, almost all Chinese hospitals lack the proper equipments to diagnose legionnaires' disease. Since legionnaires' disease share symptoms with pneumonia and is sensitive to antibiotics as well, doctors will treat it as if they were treating pneumonia. This leads to antibiotics overuse, which is contributing to antimicrobial resistance, threatening the effective prevention and treatment of an ever-increasing range of infections and could turn treatable illnesses, such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, or minor infections incurable in the long term.

Therefore, rqmicro AG is actively working together with China CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) on a 2-year project to validate its innovative method for rapid Legionella and Salmonella testing in water samples. We hope as well as firmly believe rqmicro AG will accelerate the development of a proper solution to legionnaires’ disease prevention and treatment.

At the end, we would like to thank Ms. Mao for her fantastic presentation and all those who were involved in the discussion. We aim to create and share values among our community members and this Café des Sciences was more than informative. Thank you! Stay tuned for our next event.

To view more photos from the event, click here.

Changzhou National Hi-Tech District (CND) and swissnex China Signed MoU to Strengthen Innovation, Exchanges and Cooperation

By Simin Yang, Project Coordinator - Innovation & Entrepreneurship

On September 26, 2019, Sino-Swiss International Industrial Innovation Park (Changzhou) commenced operations in Changzhou National Hi-Tech District (CND), Jiangsu province, China.

Changzhou National Hi-Tech District (CND) is located in the north part of Changzhou city, taking a central location in the Yangtze River Delta and enjoying a convenient transportation network. CND has successfully attracted more than 1,800 foreign-invested enterprises.

Inauguration ceremony –Swiss Innovation board

Sino-Swiss International Industrial Innovation Park (Changzhou) starts operations in CND, welcoming six foreign-funded firms

In order to promote the sharing and matching of resources between CND and Switzerland and to deepen Sino-Swiss industrial innovation cooperation, through friendly bilateral exchanges, swissnex China has signed an MoU with CND.

Signing ceremony for the cooperation between CND and swissnex China

This MoU is to strengthen mutual exchanges and cooperation, as well as deepen friendly relationship with Switzerland, encourage local influential innovation platforms to connect with Switzerland by establishing a long-term joint mechanism and establishing bridges for innovative cooperation，as well as promoting Swiss technological innovation and obtaining more cooperation results.

Entrepreneurs - The new rock stars

By Niccolò Schlueb, Junior Project Manager - Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Last week, a very Scandinavian start-up fair took place in shanghai: Slush Shanghai and swissnex China’s Innovation & Entrepreeurship team was there!

A black interior, glaring lights, loud music and animators on no less than four stages – Slush certainly resembled more a huge concert hall than an exhibition for entrepreneurs and innovators.

Nevertheless, Slush impressed with a large line-up of high-level keynote speakers and panelists such as Peter Vesterbacka, Finnish mobile game developer of Angry Birds and Tony Han, Cofounder and CEO of WeRide.

Slush Shanghai also hosted lively pitching competitions in Healthtech, 5G and IoT & IoV. Last but not least, it featured various upcoming companies showcasing and promoting their products.

Bobby Lee, co-founder and former CEO of China's first crypto exchange BTCC on ownership in blockchain

Slush Shanghai impressively demonstrated that innovation and entrepreneurship can be energetic as well as cool and attract an overwhelmingly young and modern audience.

Amongst all the companies we met at the fair, we felt that a high focus was put on the new technologies in the Greentech and Cleantech environment. We deeply exchanged with startups that aimed at having a sustainable impact for the planet through new mechanisms transforming waste into any kind of reusable material.

Shanghai has become one of the major epicenters of innovation and the hot spot for startups and entrepreneurs. This is proven by the fact that next to Slush, startupgrind, in cooperation with Google, organized a China Startup Ecosystem Summit at Explorium Shanghai. The summit offered insightful speeches with the CFO of Luckin Coffee, Reinout Schakel, and interactive workshops, for example Google’s perspective on IP protection in China.

Fireside talk with the CFO of Luckin Coffee Reinout Schakel at China Startup Ecosystem Summit

The Invisible Growth of Food Tech

By Percy Chen, Junior Project Manager Art-Science

On September 19, the ninth Café des Sciences: The Invisible Growth of Food Tech took place at the swissnex China office. Mr. Fabian Graf, the Co-founder and CEO of the food technology startup Faitron, gave an exceptionally interesting presentation on the new trend Food 2.0 and its connection to his entrepreneurial development. 

Mr. Graf introducing Food 2.0 concepts

What is Food 2.0?

Food 2.0 is a trend that aims to transform the way we eat and make food more sustainable, innovative, wholesome, as well as responsible. 

Why do we need Food 2.0?

Three reasons.

1. The majority of diets nowadays focuses on meat, which uses up a lot of resources. Producing a pound of beef consumes 16 times more energy than a pound of grain and requires up to 100 times more water. 

2. Animal brutality and its consequences: to make more profit, factories use all means to reduce costs and increase unit output. Animals are almost always stored in tiny spaces with bars limiting their movements, forcing them to eat, sleep, and repeat. In addition, the extensive use of various antibiotics is problematic, for it will eventually be passed on to humans. Finally, once an infectious disease breaks out, all the animals in the farm must be culled. Recently, more than 100 million pigs died to a swine fever epidemic and it is still on going.

3. Finally, in terms of nutrition and health care, researches have shown that in general cases, plant proteins are healthier than red or white meat.

How do we do Food 2.0?

Many startups have attempted to develop new ingredients or processing methods to replace animal proteins with plant proteins. One example is the startup Impossible Food – its impossible burger received favorable reviews for tasting like beef. Likewise, in Switzerland, ETH Zurich is working with companies such as Nestlé to launch its future food initiatives. The aim is to train students to address the challenges of sustainable food supply by researching and developing high quality, healthy and cheap food.

In the second half of the presentation, Mr. Graf elaborated on his inspirations for Faitron. Founded in 2016, Faitron’s timeline coincided almost perfectly with the paradigm shift towards healthier food. Faitron’s two products, HeatsBox and BabyBoo, provide convenient ways for people to take out food and monitor food temperature to ensure safety.

The audiences showed immense interests and asked questions ranging from the technologies and patents, to the reasoning behind certain designs, as well as Mr. Graf’s opinions toward cheaper alternatives on Taobao. Indeed, the discussion was fruitful and it continued even after the event.

Once again, we would like to thank Mr. Fabian Graf for his excellent speech and our audiences for their enthusiastic engagements!

If you are interested in Faitron and would like to provide feedbacks via a survey, feel free to join here. Likewise, for more pictures from the event, please click here.

Stay tuned for our next event！

Audience members asking about BabyBoo, one of Faitron’s products.

Swiss Startups Participated in China Innovation Workshop

By Niccolò Schlueb, Junior Project Manager - Innovation & Entrepreneurship

This week, swissnex China warmly welcomed nine startups from Switzerland in the sectors of new energy, medical, drones, robotics, agriculture and electronics. They are NewGreenTec GmbH, Amena AG, Pilotec, SunRegen Healthcare AG, JB Tech Group, Energy Depot Swiss GmbH, BlueBCI, 赛纳拓有限责任公司 and Song’s International.

Rahel Gruber, Head of Operations and Co-Deputy CEO offered a deep insight into swissnex’s various services for startups that attempt to set foot in the Chinese market. Rahel Gruber especially underlined the Innosuisse Market Entry Camp, organized by swissnex China, through which selected startups receive tailored coaching and the opportunity of meeting possible future partners.

Many thanks to Simin Yang, Project Coordinator in Innovation & Entrepreneurship, for running a workshop about China’s innovative drive and the opportunity behind entering the Chinese market for Switzerland’s emerging companies, as well as the challenges and advantages for Swiss startups when they enter China’s markets.

Many thanks to the Swiss startup representatives for visiting us and we are looking forward to cross ways again in the future! 

Impressive and Well-deserved: Deep Cube's success at the DeepBlue Cup A.I. Competition

By Percy Chen, Junior Project Manager Art-Science

Supported by swissnex China, Deep Cube, a leading artificial intelligence healthcare technologies startup for Dermato-Oncology and skin beauty, participated in the DeepBlue Cup International A.I. Science and Innovation Competition on August 30 and 31 during the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) 2019. Matt Morawski, BDO and Co-Founder of Deep Cube, represented the Swiss AI startup at the competition.

DeepBlue Technology, the host of the competition, is a fast-growing company in the artificial intelligence industry focusing on the fundamental research and practical development of AIs. The DeepBlue Cup was a part of the World Artificial Intelligence Conference that is happening in Shanghai. It is thus meant to explore and connect startups that could utilize the potential of AI in unique ways. Indeed, with 40 AI startups, each covering a different and niche field such as precise farming, road disease Inspection, and power generation, the DeepBlue Cup is an intense, competitive, and simultaneously rewarding experience to all the people involved.

The DeepBlue Cup International AI Science and Innovation Competition was part of World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIF) 2019, taking place Aug 29 - 31 in Shanghai.

Matt Morawski, BDO and Co-Founder of Deep Cube introducing his team.

The first day of the competition had ups and downs. Matt Morawski, the speaker of DeepCube, was met with technical issues during the presentation: the slides displayed garbled characters. Despite the difficulty, Matt calmly explained the situation and continued his pitch. His eloquence, combined with his winning smile, charisma, and determination on stage, helped deliver a clear vision to the judges. As a result, DeepCube advanced to the final round and eventually won the second place out of 40 startups at the main event and out of 600 startups that applied to the competition. Matt and his team received 10,000 RMB as well as direct meetings with potential investors — an amazing feat indeed.

Matt Morawski holding the 10,000 RMB check and the winning certificate.

We would like to congratulate DeepCube for its impressive journey this weekend! We would also like to thank both DeepBlue and DeepCube for this unique experience with various interesting AI startups. Living in this period of rapid change, most of us are certain that the AI paradigm shift will transform almost all aspects of ordinary lives and even the fundamental fabric of society. How much can we push the technology? And how much more will we see in the next decade is a sight to behold.

Opportunities Everywhere in China for the Swiss National Startup Team!

By Frans-Emmanuel Bengtsson, Junior Project Manager and HEC Lausanne Ambassador

2019 is a very interesting and passionate year for the overall innovation ecosystem in China. Amongst the impactful activities was the return of Venture Leaders to China, with its pitching roadshow and taking part in several high-level events across 6 megacities in China!

Venture Leaders China is a unique 10-day business development program to explore the Chinese market potential for high growth Swiss startups. It is an exclusive opportunity to be part of a top entrepreneurial team, accelerate ones’ business growth and showcase Switzerland as a leading country for innovation. Every year, 10 carefully selected high-tech entrepreneurs get a unique chance to give their technology and business a commercial boost, thanks to Venture Leaders.

For the sixth consecutive year, swissnex China was proud to be accompanying a high-quality delegation of top Swiss startups in China for a roadshow that span 10 days and 6 cities. Venture Leaders China 2019 took place from June 25th to July 5th and included business workshops, investors meetings and public events in Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Changzhou, Dalian and Beijing. The roadshow offered the startups unparalleled exposure and insight into the Chinese market, along with learning about business opportunities, how corporate affairs work, pitching to investors and getting insights from experts.

The delegation was led by Jordi Montserrat, co-founder and managing partner at Venturelab and Felix Moesner, CEO at swissnex China and was composed of the following startup champions: Daniel Sztutwojner, Beekeeper | Peter Ruff, Exploris AG | Samir Bouabdallah, Flybotix | Dominik Trost, holo|one | Simon Bachmann, IDUN Technologies AG | Yannik Kopp, LORIOT | Marco Pisano, Lymphatica Medtech | Dorina Thiess, Piavita | Alexis Steinmann, Tomplay | Maurizio Migliore, Touchless Automation. In addition, the team could count on Simin Yang and Frans-E. Bengtsson, both from swissnex China, for the organization and the coordination of the trip and events.

Hong Kong 06-25-2019

The Venture Leaders’ 10 day’s journey started off as intensive and dynamic as expected. Freshly arrived from Zurich, the 10 startups kicked off their intense pitching roadshow as soon as they set foot in Hong Kong. The 2019 Swiss Innovation Night taking place at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center offered great networking opportunities and paved the way for the many upcoming events.

Alexis Steinman, co-founder of Tomplay pitching in front of a very interested crowd in Hong Kong

Once the networking event was over, it was time for the entire team to jump into the bus towards the next adventure: destination Shenzhen!

Shenzhen     06-26-2019

For many of the Venture Leaders, it was their first time waking up in mainland China. This brought even more excitement among the team as they were really looking forward for the upcoming program. During the morning, our startup champions were warmly welcomed at Colibri Technologies (technology-oriented automation company providing simple solutions for R&D) and at DJI (drone manufacturers). They got the great privilege to meet Colibri CTO Dr Liu Shaoming which appeared to be an EPFL alumus! Switzerland is really everywhere!

The Venture Leaders visiting DJI in Shenzhen

The entire team gained great insights from the people they met at Colibri and DJI. After their morning visit to Colibri and DJI, our National Startup team jumped straight into their first pitch in mainland China at the magnificent Shenzhen Stock Exchange building, gaining access to the network of local industry experts and investors.

The pitching event at the Shenzhen Stock Exchange was very appreciated from the startups as it was the first time that some had the chance to confront themselves to Chinese investors. Moreover, the networking session was very fruitful and great connections were made! Next stop: Shanghai!

Shanghai      06-27-2019

On the 3rd day of the roadshow, our 10 top Swiss startups were joined by 170+ registered investors and industry leaders in Shanghai: the "Capital of capital" for the Swiss Startup Pitching Night. The dynamic Q&A interaction and networking clearly demonstrated the rich startup funding opportunities in China's wealthiest city!

As Simon Bachmann, CEO of IDUN Technologies puts it: “We arrived at the venue tired since we had just landed from Shenzhen. However, as soon as we saw the venue, the mood lightened up. The scenery on the stage was amazing and the audience was packed of interested listeners. I particularly liked the couch and how we were all sitting on the stage. This gave the whole event a very relaxed mood.  These two events where my highlights but we had many more promising stops on our incredibly packed journey through China.”

Maurizio Migliore, Toucheless Automation posing with Jordi Montserrat and Felix Moesner after receiving the Venture Leaders Shanghai Pitching trophy

Changzhou   06-28-2019

The day started off with the visit of Rieder, a Swiss company producing manufacturing machine for all kinds of businesses. It was very interesting to understand how this Swiss firm established themselves in China and how they perceived the future in this particular market.

Later that day, we had the immense chance to take part into the Swiss Innovation Day, organized by the Changzhou National High-Tech Development Zone CZND. It gave the opportunity to the Venture Leaders to pitch in front of investors & industry experts. Furthermore, next to the Venture Leaders pitching highlight, Consul General Olivier Zehnder & Vice-Mayor Chen Zhengchun gave their addresses, which was followed by a panel on innovation-driven smart manufacturing. Thank you to Jay Jiang and Ryan Zhang from CZND! Next stop: back to Shanghai!

“The visit to the Changzhou innovation park has been one of the most valuable moment of the whole trip. It allowed us to get a real grasp on the potential industrial opportunities for foreign companies in China. The development shown by companies already established in the area is astonishing and the support from local organizations is truly valuable.”

— Maurizio Migliore, Toucheless Automation

Shanghai     06-29-2019

We are now back in Shanghai for a morning workshop session where our Venture Leaders team joined industry leaders at Rouse Consulting for a deep dive into some essential topics such as IP & trademark and how to attract venture capital in China. Many thanks to Melvin (Yuan) MEI, Nigel Wong, Haifeng Wang, Ruixing Zhu and Ren Zhanbing for sharing their valuable insights!

The team enjoyed an activity-free afternoon where many individual meetings with investors were scheduled, resulting from very fruitful pitching sessions previously held. Next stop on the list: World Economic Forum in Dalian!

Dalian          06-30-2019 / 07-01-2019 / 07-02-2019 / 07-03-2019

After days of intense pitching, networking, coaching as well as signing deals while roadshowing in Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Changzhou, our National Startup Team arrived in Dalian for the World Economic Forum's global meeting on innovation, science and technology!

Our Venture Leaders spent 3 intense but fruitful days at the World Economic Forum of the New Champions and enjoyed meeting other leaders from everywhere in the world. Great business leads and great networking!

“These have been three amazing days at the World Economic Forum and a unique opportunity to present Tomplay to leaders from all around the world.”

— Alexis Steinmann Co-founder of Tomplay

On the final evening in Dalian, the Venture Leaders pitched at the Swiss Incubator event during the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions. We had the great pleasure to welcome the Swiss Ambassador Bernardino Regazzoni, who gave the opening address, which was followed by Olivier Schwab, WEF’s Managing Director & Jordi Montserrat, Managing Partner of Venturelab.

This 5th pitching session was the second competition of the Venture Leaders China tour, following the one that saw Toucheless Automation win in Shanghai. The winner elected by the crowd was Dorina Thiess with Piavita. Congratulations!

Next and final destination: Beijing!

Dorina Thiess, pitching Piavita

“It was very inspiring to see the Swiss Startup Champions giving their pitches at the Swiss Incubator Night in Dalian. Congrats to Dorina Thiess and Piavita! And a big thank you to Jordi Montserrat for moderating the event.”

— Lukas Zuest, Counsel & Head China desk @ VISCHER AG

“Proud to be representing Venture Leaders and Switzerland at the World Economic Forum in Dalian, China, thanks to the work we do at Beekeeper empowering and digitalizing the non-desk workforce. Excited to meet other global leaders and share ideas / experiences on how to make an impact in this world.”

— Daniel Sztutwojner, CCO & Co-founder of Beekeeper

Beijing          07-04-2019 / 07-05-2019

On the final day, our 10 amazing startups pulled an incredible feat of 3 pitches in 1 day!

Pitch #1 at Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business to CKGSB's Chuang investors network.

Back on the road towards the next pitching location: PnP!

Pitch #2 at Plug and Play China to investors from Beijing’s dynamic innovation ecosystem.

“Because one of our ambitions and goals is to bring the ‘plug and play’ in the IoT. This meaning to make it as easy as possible for our customers and users to connect devices and focus on generating business value from sensor data. We work hard to make it possible and it was nice to say it while pitching our solution, in Plug and Play!”

— Yannik Kopp from Loriot

Pitch #3 at Swiss Ambassador Bernardino Regazzoni’s invitation. This 8th pitch & grande finale of the 10-day-roadshow was held at the Embassy of Switzerland in the People's Republic of China where Alexis Steinmann, Tomplay won the coveted Swiss Embassy Award – Congrats!

“The atmosphere and setup at the embassy in Beijing were the perfect finale to an incredible China tour. Thanks to the whole Swissnex team for the perfect organization and wonderful hosting.”

— Dorina Thiess, CEO & Co-founder of Piavita

“The venue was of course very extravagant. We had the chance to pitch outdoors in the Embassy Garden in front of a large audience (I think the pictures speak for themselves). They audience was hand selected and personally invited. Never have I ever seen such a high-level audience of relevant contacts at an event. I was contacted by several interested investors and potential partners. It was a blast.”

— Simon Bachmann, CEO of IDUN Technologies

The roadshow ended in the best manner it could possibly have. After a very powerful networking session at the embassy, the Venture Leaders discovered Beijing by night, enjoying a well deserve taste of baijiu before heading towards new horizons. As a matter of fact, some Venture Leaders even extended their stay here in China to meet investors they had previously connected with during the pitching events.

“The baggage that we bring back from China is certainly heavier than at the beginning, on a human level, of knowledge and experience.”

— Yannik Kopp from Loriot

“This roadshow was an excellently organized trip that gave us tremendous exposure and extremely valuable contacts. In these 10 days, not only did we learn from the different people we met during the networking events, but a great added value came from meeting and discussing with the other startups within the team.

Business wise, we now do have a lot of different prospects that we now have to follow up. We have had 5-6 meetings already with people we met at the pitching events. This 10-day trip here in China really helped us to see the different possibilities offered to us to enter the market early.”

— Dominik Trost, Holo One

We would like to express our deep gratitude for the strong support of all our partners, especially to Jordi Montserrat and his team from Venturelab who produced extraordinary work with the startups, co-organizing the roadshow with swissnex China. A huge thanks to the Swiss Ambassador in China, Ambassador Regazzoni and his amazing team, our Embassy colleagues Nektarios Palaskas, Jonas Thürig, Chenchen Liu, Yijun William Wu and Tobias Werder for the stellar work they did in organizing pitching events and business meetings, to Andreas Rufer and Winnie from the Consulate General of Switzerland in Hong Kong, to Zhen Xiao and Kuno Gschwend from the Swiss Centers China and to all the other supporting partners that made this journey happen, such as digitalswitzerland, Canton de Vaud, VISCHER, Canton of Zurich, EPF Lausanne, ETH Zurich, Gebert Rüf Stiftung and the Changzhou national high-tech district. A huge thanks also goes to the company that kindly received us, Colibri and DJI, and to the speakers Melvin Mei, Nigel Wong, Haifeng Wang, Ruixing Zhu and Ren Zhanbing for sharing their valuable insights during our workshop at Rouse in Shanghai and to all the other key people who shared their experience and expertise of the Chinese market with our startups.

A big thank you to all of you who made this possible!

Vielen Danke & see you next year!

Home of Drones – Cutting-edge Drone Race Over the Swiss Embassy in Beijing

Guest contributions by Tayan Wagner and Steven Wang, edited by Gabriel Bishop

With a well-established leading position in terms of innovation, Switzerland has fostered fruitful bilateral relations with China in this field. Notably, the Free Trade Agreement was signed in 2014 and the Innovative Strategic Partnership and the High-Level Platform of the Sino-Swiss Innovative Strategic Partnership were established respectively in 2016 and 2019.

These partnerships fall in line with the Swiss tradition that consists in continuously investing in brains, producing smart solutions and adding value by providing cutting-edge products; and so has Switzerland steadily established itself as an innovation pioneer. An example of it can be traced back 50 years ago as Switzerland was part of the moon landing program with the OMEGA Speedmaster, the first watch ever worn on the moon, and it has since never ceased to push the limits and explore new frontiers.

People interacting with the AEROTAIN’s drone.

Drones represent one of the success areas of the Swiss new technologies. Switzerland is indeed a forerunner in the development of specialized drones, particularly for the commercial use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). This can in part be explained by the close collaboration between the federal institutes of technology, the industry and the public authorities. More than 2,500 people in over 80 companies in Switzerland now work in digital aviation and in 2017 Swiss Post launched the world's first medical delivery service for business customers in Lugano.

Representatives of Swiss drones companies invited to the Innovation Week.

The Drone Grand Prix race (DGP) that took place at the Swiss Embassy in Beijing on June 14 showed just how much Switzerland is at the forefront of drone technologies. This collaboration between DGP, swissnex China and the Swiss Embassy caped off the Innovation Week 2019, Home of Drones, an initiative of Presence Switzerland.

Felix Moesner giving a speech before the race started.

A track race designed especially for the occasion was set up over the perimeter of Embassy, going through the Embassy buildings and the Ambassadors’ residence. It consisted of LED and light loops which illuminated the venue and through which the drones flew.

The final gate illuminated with the swissnex China logo.

The drone race confronted two Swiss and two Chinese pilots for a friendly competition. They were flying the drones with a system called first person view (FPV), which is the most popular commanding method as it allows to pilot a drone as if one was inside of it. The DGP drones can reach up to 200km/h, which can prove to be dangerous for the average drone user who may easily lose control of the device. It takes a great amount of training and expertise to be able to fly the drones with such precision at this speed! On this note, swissnex China would like to congratulate the highly skilled pilots for their outstanding performance.

Four drone pilots from left to right: Wang Jinzheng, Kong Haisen, Michael Husarik, Maxime Guarnero.

The race was groundbreaking in many ways. It was the first drone race ever held in an Embassy compound, and the first one to ever take place in the Beijing city center. The event proved to be a big success, with over 1000 guests attending. The race was also live-streamed and attracted over 51,000 viewers across various broadcasting platforms, as well as 1.2 million views on the CCTV-CGTN livestream! This showcase of drone racing, which has become the most popular drone sport among pilots, not only left the audience in awe, giving them a thrill similar to the one that comes with F1 racing, but it further provided new insights on the potential use of drones in different contexts. Drones are indeed a multi-faceted and versatile technology and high-speed flights could be a very promising sector for them. 

Pilots receiving their prices.

External link:

CCTV2 documentary of the drone race:

http://tv.cctv.com/2019/06/16/VIDEh6GUMSY0EP1CvBqSgiCc190616.shtml

Fireside Chat with Urs Mattes – Perspectives on MedTech potential in China

By Gabriel Bishop, Junior Project Manager - Academic Relations

On June 4, Urs Mattes came to swissnex China for a presentation entitled Opportunities and Challenges in the Chinese Medtech landscape. His talk was part of the event series called Fireside Chat, a collaboration between SwissCham and swissnex China hosted every few months in the swissnex China space. This format is always the occasion for seasoned Swiss professionals in China to share their knowledge and experience with our community.

Having lived in the region for two decades, Dr. Urs Mattes, Director Asia-Pacific at Cendres+Métaux SA, is a well-established University of Zurich alumnus in China. He has accumulated extensive cross-functional expertise and has been a board member of several medical and non-medical Swiss companies.

After an introduction by Dr. Felix Moesner, Science Consul and CEO at swissnex China, Urs Mattes started off his presentation by painting a portrait of the Chinese healthcare landscape, often referring to other countries, namely Switzerland, in order to highlight its specificities and to put it into perspective. He specifically touched on the question of finding a balance between access, quality and cost in such a system. In his view, some specific challenges that the Chinese healthcare currently faces include the rise of chronic diseases, the absence of gatekeeper to enter the care system, the shortage of specialists and family doctors, the lack of acceptance by the population of community centers and the outbound medical tourism.

Based on the context he depicted, Urs Mattes reckons that this environment provides a sizeable market with many opportunities for innovation in the field of medical technologies. But he also pointed out some specific challenges that come with it. For instance, it is sometimes very difficult for companies to register a new medtech product to be marketed in China. But if the Chinese market can prove to be risky for foreign medtech companies, there is nonetheless a large potential for growth in this field.

At the end of the presentation, the public, notably composed of UZH alumni, could further interact with Dr. Mattes during a Q&A session and connect during the networking reception which concluded the night. For this edition, we would like to extend a special thank to UZH Alumni Shanghai and SwissCham Shanghai for their collaboration and support.

The swissnex China team looks forward to seeing you at our upcoming events!

Switzerland sets the tone at CES ASIA 2019——#SwissTech Showcases Value Creation through Innovation

By Luca Mondada, Junior Project Manager - Innovation & Entrepreneurship

The #SwissTech Pavilion comprising 22 leading Swiss startups had a dynamic and intense three days of pitching, networking and showcasing their cutting-edge innovations today at CES Asia - the biggest tech expo in Asia! With the largest ever country pavilion to date and featuring the CES ASIA awardees in 6 out of 20 categories, the 2019 edition of the Swiss pavilion at CES ASIA left no doubt as to Switzerland’s Number One position in Innovation. The feedback from all stakeholders was extremely positive, adding value for both startups and partners.

“The Swiss pavilion is the largest country pavilion, and it’s recording setting with 6 awards right away! These awards are very rare, and for one country to get six of them is a very big deal.” Gary Shapiro, CEO of CES.

The #SWISSTECH campaign landed for the first time in Asia in a resounding success to a deeply impressed audience with 22 startups from the very best of Swiss deep tech in fields ranging from AI, IoT, AR, Blockchain, Lifestyle, Robotics & Drones and HealthTech.

“With 3 potential clients we are already in discussion about specific projects. So that is a huge success for us. If those key clients will engage with us we will set up an office in China soon.” Jens Henker, CEO of CertX.

The Swiss pavilion was opened jointly by the Swiss Ambassador H.E. Regazzoni and the CEO of CES Gary Shapiro.

Switzerland was the spotlight at several occasions during the show. The ambition of #SWISSTECH was made clear from the start by the welcome addresses from Ambassador H.E. Regazzoni and from CEO of CES Gary Shapiro during the official opening ceremony. Our CES Asia #SWISSTECH team comprising 22 top-level Swiss also had the opportunity to pitch and network with 192 registered industry leaders and potential partners in a personal setting. During their 60 second pitches, the startups had the opportunity to showcase their products.

“CES was a great opportunity for us to confront our app to the Chinese market […]. I have now several meetings scheduled for the next days to come. I may even push back my flight to Switzerland!” Alexis Steinmann, CEO of Tomplay.

In addition to the access to over 1’400 members of the media and 40’000 industry attendees during the exhibition, the startups could meet over 150 of some of China’s most influential investors during the CES ASIA Swiss pavilion pitching night. The startups competed hard for the prize of the night that was awarded together by a panel of judges and the audience.

After three intense days of exhibition, over 100 onstage pitches and countless one-on-one meetings with potential partners, the startups are now either on their way back home, or busy keeping the streak in China with potential partners and investors – in any case, swissnex China wants to thank them for their brilliant showcase of Swiss innovation, and hopes to welcome them soon again in Shanghai.

Switzerland shone with a record number of CES ASIA Innovation Awards in 6 of the 20 categories.