Innovation House Shanghai has recently opened its doors to encourage Norwegian entrepreneurs, tech start-ups and small- and medium-sized companies to gain foothold and develop their businesses in fast-growing China.
As the first incubator in Asia, funded by Innovation Norway, Innovation House Shanghai, is strategically located in Shanghai’s KIC hi-tech Innovation Park, also known as China’s Silicon Valley. The Innovation House offers full-range consulting services as well as cost-effective platform for Norwegian businesses to take part in pulsating international and Chinese business environments. “This is a great opportunity for Norwegian companies to get a foot in the door of the ever-growing Chinese market,” said Paal Braathen, Commercial Consul and Director of the Shanghai office for Innovation Norway.
“We need to inform Norwegian business people that China is the place they cannot afford to overlook. From our perspective, Norwegian businesses do need more understanding of the development that is going on here. There are still areas that should be explored in different segments, so this is an exciting opportunity for us,” he stated.
One of the key instruments to broaden the horizon is the creation of the new Incubator. “This is a tool for small- and medium-sized businesses, which have arrived at a stage where they have to seek a foothold in the Chinese and Asian markets, to come and get a local presence.”
Innovation Norway is the Norwegian Government’s main instrument to promote business enterprises, both domestically and internationally. Innovation Norway has for some time been supporting incubators around the world with offices in places such as Stockholm, Copenhagen, London, Houston, Silicon Valley and Rio De Janeiro. Now the time has come for Shanghai, one of the biggest, fastest-growing cities in the world. The Incubator is already open for business and a Norwegian Seafood and two IT companies have taken up more than half of the ten available vacancies that Innovation Norway offers so far.
“One company that already has started here, actually come from our Incubator in Silicon Valley, California, and they have decided to expand to this region,” Paal Braathen said.
The KIC high-tech Innovation Park in Shanghai is growing into the Chinese equivalence of the Californian epicenter of information technology. For a modest amount of 1,820 NOK per month, Norwegian entrepreneurs or small- and medium-sized enterprises will get office space facilities, including a full-time employee to help with practical things needed to settle in.
The office is located at the KIC Innovation Park, and is surrounded by Chinese, International and Norwegian start-up businesses, also aspiring to test their business models and perhaps a share in the enormous Chinese market.
Read more about Innovation House Shanghai here
PDF on Innovation House Shanghai
