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August 15, 2018

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Grants4Apps (G4A): for a better and healthier future

BAYER successfully held the Incubator Kick-off Party this month to provide a chance for the selected four startups in the “Grants4Apps accelerator program” in Shanghai to showcase their innovative digital solutions to the public and the media as well as acting as a platform to communicate with potential investors.

The third round of the Bayer “Grants4Apps accelerator program” Shanghai 2018 Incubator Program has selected a total of four startup finalists as it continues to support and foster entrepreneurship in China and to allow better synergies between these startups and its own businesses.

Bayer has been assessing and evaluating the applicants’ structural attractiveness, performance, overall vision and development ambitions.

Bayer will be providing further guidance and support to the startups to promote together the evolution of health and nutrition field in China.

The four finalists are Metabonose, LINKHEART, Farmonize and Grandbiotech, which cover the areas of intestinal health detecting solutions, implantable biological energy supply system, sustainable farming platform and gene editing technology for drug discovery.

All four have been invited to Bayer and been involved in the 88-day program training in Bayer’s Shanghai Lujiazui office since July 9 and in addition, they will also receive financial support from Bayer.

“We very much look forward to them joining this Bayer program and working with them on their journey to bring their innovative solutions to the market,” said Celina Chew, President of Bayer Group Greater China.

The Grants4Apps(G4A) program has been running as a global open innovation initiative since its debut in 2013.

It aims to provide financial support to startups for their software, hardware and technology projects, which contribute to improving health outcomes or pharmaceutical processes.

Grants4Apps Shanghai was first launched in Shanghai in 2016, which is an 88-day program that brings the best of China’s powerful innovation capabilities together with Bayer’s global reach.

Bayer offers experienced managers as coaches to the startups, in addition to intensive mentoring by external entrepreneurs.

“This will be the third year that G4A Shanghai is running in China and, based on the success of the past two years, I am confident that new ideas will be sparked in this year’s open innovation collaboration between the startups and Bayer,” Chew added.

Bayer will be sharing with the finalists its rich experiences in efficient and rapid product marketization as a well-established multinational corporation with a long history of innovation and will be providing relevant guidance for the startups.

“Innovation is vital to the sustainable development of society. It is also deeply rooted in Bayer’s long history and culture,” Chew said.

“We are very happy to provide a platform and resources to support innovation in China in digital health and nutrition and look forward to the mutual learning and exchange between the startups and Bayer.

I believe that, together, we can bring more positive impact to Chinese society and help to create a better life for Chinese people.”

She also noted that Bayer differs from startup accelerators or incubators in that it offers professional and industry expertise and capability to raise the feasibility of the startups’ prototype business models and to help them trial and test whether the current model would work well.

Fostering entrepreneurship and innovation has been a crucial part of China’s 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020), which sets an aim for the country to become an “innovation nation” by 2020, an international leader in innovation by 2030, and a world powerhouse in scientific and technological innovation by 2050.

It also for the first time incorporated accelerators into the national incubator system.

A number of policies and incentive measures have also been unveiled to encourage startups from both domestic entrepreneurs as well as overseas Chinese.

The country aims to increase the total number of domestic incubators, makerspaces and accelerators to more than 10,000 by 2020, with a target of 100 overseas incubators, makerspaces and accelerators for the same period.

Established companies and Internet giants are seeking to set up their accelerator or incubator programs to offer startups their resources covering the entire value chain from research and development to the commercialization of new technologies or business models.




 

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