Constantijn van Oranje, StartupDelta Special Envoy, and a delegation of eight Dutch startups just came back from their visit to Shanghai, China to promote the Netherlands as a leading startup ecosystem in Europe and as the gateway to Europe for Chinese companies.
On his trip to Shanghai, Constantijn was accompanied by eight promising Dutch startups: AgrenNewEnergy, AtMall.com, Bambi Medical, European Water Stewardship, Simbeyond, Sound Insight, The Hyve, and Widget Brain and Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship. These startups are about to enter the Chinese market and are actively seeking out potential partners, investors and customers.
During his speech at this year’s Cleveringa lecture at the Consul-General’s residence in Shanghai, Constantijn emphasized that, despite the many cultural differences, the Dutch and Chinese also have a lot in common when it comes to core values and ambitions for innovation and technological advancements. “We need to collaborate to provide Chinese and Dutch startups with more opportunities; we need to build Orange Bridges”.
Constantijn and Consul-General Anneke Adema further met with the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce that invited the Netherlands to be the Guest Country of Honor for the China (Shanghai) International Technology Fair (CSITF) in April 2017 and presented an invitation letter to Constantijn to attend CSITF. They discussed innovation policies and opportunities for collaboration on startups and entrepreneurship.
Together with the Shanghai incubator XNode and their international partners, some Dutch entrepreneurs based in Shanghai shared experiences on how to successfully cooperate in China. Furthermore, StartupGrind Shanghai and Holland Innovation Network co-organized a pitch event, where the startups pitched their businesses to an audience of potential business partners and investors. Constantijn and the Chinese executives of two large Dutch multinationals, Philips and DSM, shared valuable insights about Dutch-Chinese opportunities.
To end this exciting day in the Shanghai startup scene, Dutch and Chinese startup founders presented their entrepreneurial highs and lows at the ‘Mandarins & Oranges II’ Pecha Kucha event at WeWork.