A lot of Chinese cities now has its own cradle of startups, endeavoring to create a fertile land that allow newborn companies to flourish, such as Zhongguancun (China’s Silicon Valley) in Beijing, Tisiwi and FuDiChuangYeYuan in Hangzhou, and TianFu Software Park in Chengdu, just to name a few.
The past years have seen the rise of Shanghai startup ecosystem, in particular, with the quick emerging of incubators, co-working space cafes for startups, including:
9 incubators/investment institutions: iStart Ventures, iCamp, SuHeHui, FeiMaLv, Innovation Works Shanghai, Shanghai Technology Entrepreneurship Foundation for Graduates (EFG), Innospace, Shanghai Cloud Valley and Startup Commune;
3 co-working offices: People Squared, KeXiang, and 517Office;
6 startup-themed café: AitaCafe, WeeCoffee, ICCafe, IPO Club, JiuCengGeCafe, iCoffe in Startup Commune
3 Salons: iTalk, TopGeek and Techyizu
Address: Building 8, No. 990, Changping Rd, Jing’an District, Shanghai
Since its inception in March 2012, People Squared provides co-working space for entrepreneurs. Its loft office is spacious with majestic glass façade mounted into walls.
In weekend evenings it usually holds different kinds of startup salons and activities. Non-profit activities are free of site use fee. With convenient transportation and roomy space, it is almost one the most dynamic places for startups in Shanghai.
Address: Building 6, No.380, Xinsong Rd, Minhang District, Shanghai
iStart Ventures is an incubator slash investment company co-founded by local government, SBCVC and angel investor Cha Li.
Covering an area of about 10k square meters, it offers space rental service, training program and other services for startups. It mostly invests in seed stage and series A round with a fund size of RMB200 million and has focus on wireless Internet, new media, health service and environmental technology.
3. Knowledge & Innovation Community (KIC)
KIC is a big community situated amidst Shanghai’s sub- center Wujiaochang with an aim to become the Chinese Silicon Valley. Multinational enterprises like IBM, startup service agencies like Silicon Valley bank and South-South Global Assets and Technology Exchange all have offices in KIC. The famous Fudan University and Tongji University also stand near it. With so many SMEs scattered around and about 100 activities held there annually, KIC has formed an ecosystem of startups in north of Shanghai, echoing the iStart Ventures in the south.
KIC consists of —
1) KIC Venture Park
Consisting of 4 independent buildings, the venture park boasts a total area of 3k square meters that home to incubators and ventures.
2) KIC Square Building No.7
It’s the conference centre of KIC and many events are held there.
3) InnoSpace Incubator
Located at B1 floor Building No.7 KIC Square, it has 5oo square meters. Its strength lies in the abundant resources around.
4) IPO CLUB
It intends to become a café house providing opportunities for startups to network.
The cloud computing startup boot camp. Local government provides public resources, funding and industrial collaboration opportunities to incubate cloud computing-related startups in Shanghai.
It’s an incubator mainly focusing on mobile internet, providing tutor, funding and physical space. All the four co-founders studied or worked abroad.
7) AitaCafe
Address: No.196, Zhengmin Rd
It’s the first startup café in Shanghai, initiated by the insiders from internet/investing trade. It provides space for startups and holds various salons and events.
4. Shanghai Entrepreneurs Public Training Base
Address: No.300 East Guoding Rd, Huangpu District, Shanghai
Not far from KIC, this place is supported by Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau and the local government, and it provides startups with tutorial, funding and training service. In addition to startups, there are also 3 service agencies worth mentioning:
The Shanghai branch of Innovation Works. In the No.3 Building of the base, can accommodates more than 1000 staff. Innovation Work has shifted itself from incubator to venture capital.
YBC offers young entrepreneurs with RMB 30k~50k load which is free of interest and guarantee. Along with the funding, it also offers tutorial for three years. The government supports YBC.
3) Shanghai Technology Entrepreneurship Foundation for Graduates
Located in Building No.5 in the base, STEFG is an angel fund for public benefit. It has an area of 8k square meters, providing space of nearly 200 square meters together with policy, intellectual property, human resources, law and financial service support
5. SuheHui
Address: Room 401, No. 700, Guangji Rd, Hongkou District, Shanghai
SuHeHui is an incubator similar to TiSiWi in Hangzhou. It selects about 10 startup teams out of a competition for every batch and provides necessary services for startups during a 4-month-long incubation period along with a funding of 200k RMB (an exchange for 8% share). At the graduation ceremony slash roadshow all teams are presenting ideas to attract further investments.
6. ICCafe
Address: 3rd Floor, No.635, Bibo Rd, Pudong New District
ICCafe stands inside the Zhangjiang High Technology Park and was founded by about 70 insiders from semi-conducter industry and related field. ICCafe wants to foster industry communication and share of resources.
7. WeeCoffee
Address: Room 102, No. 365, Xinzha Rd, Huangpu District, Shanghai
WeeCoffee is situated by the SuZhou River in Shanghai. It has something to do with weibo as all its 50+ shareholders are Weibo addicts. Compared with other startup cafes, Weecoffee has a wider range of focus including lifestyle, internet, advertising, media and internet.
Address: Building F, No. 27, Lane 345, Shilong Rd, Xuhui District, Shanghai
Startup Commune was initiated by Li Yi and his friends, aiming at becoming a public service and resource integration platform and providing startups with guidance, consulting and investing service. It covers an area of 20k square meters, and 43 companies opened offices in it.
Address: Room 912, No. 668, East of Beijing Rd, Huangpu District, Shanghai
JiuCengGeCafe opened on October 15, 2012 and is curated by Shanghai IC Design Incubator. It targets at providing offices at low cost for entrepreneurs and building a platform for them to cooperate and communicate.
Established in 2000, Shanghai IC Design Incubator only focused on IC design companies before, but now the company pays more attention to mobile internet companies since 2010.
It is sponsored by the government and enjoys convenient transportation. It is in People’s Square, the centre of Shanghai.
1o. KeXiang
Address: 3rd floor, No.8, Changyang Rd, Hongkou District, Shanghai
KeXiang also has co-working space and provides services including company registration, agent accounting and angel financing, in an aim to become the cluster of innovation.
KeXiang covers an area of 1k square meters, with an offering of 18 independent offices. It belongs to KeXiang the corporaton which set foot in property, investment, etc.
11. Italk Salon
Address: 3rd Floor, No.635, Bibo Rd, Pudong New District
Italk is a regular salon in Zhangjiang High Technology Park, initiated by Shanghai Computer Trade Association. Since March 2008, the salon has been holding at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday nights every other week.
12. Feimalv
Address: Room 126, Building A, Anhua Rd, Lane 492, Changning District, Shanghai
Feimalv is a startup service agency initiated by well-known entrepreneurs in China including Yu Minhong and so forth, emphasizing on providing guidance and resources for startups.
It mainly concentrates on service industry (logistics, e-commerce, chain, educational training, entertainment, etc), providing services like resources consolidation, management, brand communication and capital optimization in exchange for a small portion of share (2%~4%) of startups. Feimalv also has subsidiaries in investment business.
13. TopGeek
TopGeek is a community for technicians covering topics ranging from Internet, software to other topics.
14. Techyizu
Techyizu (sounds like tech ants in Chinese) is a nonprofit organization targeting at supporting startups, holding/ assisting offline events about startups, such as Barcamp and Demo Day. The events are mostly in English, so foreigners, ABCs and overseas returnees have more interest in it.
15. 517office
Established in 2009, 517office has co-working space to rent and other basic services as well. It has seven offices in Shanghai, covering a total area of 3k square meters. Besides Shanghai, 517office also has branches in Tianjin, Wenzhou and Xi’an, etc.
16. iCoffee
Address: Floor 2, Building E, No.27, Lane 345, Shilong Rd, Shanghai
iCoffee belongs to Startup Commune and holds startup activities/salons regularly.
You can also check out the Map here.
