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