As an integral part of the 17th Pujiang Innovation Forum, WeStart2024 was held at Dongjiao State Guest Hotel and Zhangjiang Science Hall, Shanghai from September 7 to 10. Under the theme of “Refactoring & Renewal”, this year’s conference focused on sci-tech entrepreneurship and investment, aiming to create a global entrepreneurship investment platform that bridges projects with capital. This platform leverages capital to bolster sci-tech innovation and economic transformation. The four-day event boasted two main forums, one symposium, 13 roadshow marathons, and multiple industry sharing sessions. Renowned investment agencies like CICC, Zero2IPO, and Shenzhen Capital Group were invited to delve into the innovative investment landscape, exploring avenues for global collaboration, building a new paradigm of entrepreneurship investment, and stimulating new drivers to sci-tech innovation.
Let’s review the highlights.
Shanghai has been fortifying its position as a global sci-tech innovation center by intensifying element concentration, enhancing functions and services, and cultivating a comprehensive sci-tech ecosystem. This has turned Shanghai into a heaven for entrepreneurship and a magnet for investment. WeStart2024 brought together government bodies, experts, scholars, venture firms at home and abroad, sci-tech businesses, and nearly 1,000 audience professionals to discuss entrepreneurship investment and create an ecosystem for sci-tech innovation together through diverse sci-tech innovation stakeholders, transforming this ecosystem from a strategic blueprint into reality.
On September 8, WeStart2024 kicked off with main forums, featuring 13 keynote speeches and two roundtable dialogues. Key sci-tech finance terms such as “patient capital”, “fundraising, investment, management and exit”, “investment in early-stage, small, long-term and hard technologies”, “angel investment”, and “high-quality development of the capital market” were frequently mentioned, becoming the focal point of discussions and highlighting the future development of sci-tech finance. The roundtable dialogues unveiled the latest sci-tech investment opportunities and delved into trends, current statuses, and strategies of sci-tech entrepreneurship investment amidst new situations and transformative environments.
The exhibition hall housed a Start-ups Exhibition Zone, showcasing nearly 20 TOP100 roadshow projects and products and the investment ecosystems and achievements of three to five leading venture firms through the linkage of the Entrepreneur Joint Exhibition Zone, the Investment Institution Zone, and the One-to-One Negotiation Zone. There were boards briefing on typical sci-tech businesses in the fields of biomedicine and AI. Social scenes for entrepreneurship investment were also offered to facilitate direct communication between projects and investors.
WeStartTOP100, a new addition to the Startup in Shanghai International Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, was launched in June. It selected 100 projects from over 2,000 global entries for on-site roadshows during the conference. The four-day event featured 13 marathon project roadshows with over 100 projects, focusing on six key areas: three in hard tech—biomedicine, artificial intelligence, and advanced manufacturing—and three in future industries—future information, future materials, and future energy.
A special roadshow for universities was also held, where Shanghai-based universities, including Shanghai Jiao Tong University, ShanghaiTech University, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai University of Engineering Science, Shanghai Ocean University, East China Normal University, Shanghai University, and Shanghai Polytechnic University, displayed high-quality research projects. Focusing on exchanges and investment and financing matchmaking in cutting-edge interdisciplinary areas and core technologies in key fields, this roadshow further propelled the commercialization of S&T outcomes in universities. The special roadshow for Hong Kong University of Science and Technology introduced top-notch innovative projects from Hong Kong universities to Shanghai, fostering a new chapter for sci-tech cooperation between the two cities.
In particular, the conference prioritized global vision and international cooperation. During the international roadshow, high-quality projects from countries and regions like France, Germany, Hungary, Zimbabwe, and Morocco, as well as Hong Kong (China), were selected to compete. This facilitated interaction between domestic and foreign entrepreneurship investment resources and explored new paths for global collaboration. A 365-day “never-ending” global entrepreneurship investment cooperation and matchmaking mechanism was established to effectively link international sci-tech innovation talent, technology, capital, and market, empowering the sound development of sci-tech entrepreneurship investment.
Furthermore, the conference collaborated with leading players in entrepreneurship investment, Shanghai State-owned Capital Investment Co., Ltd. and CICC Capital, to open special roadshows. Leveraging the expertise and resources of investment agencies, these roadshows directly linked both sides of entrepreneurship investment, working with numerous sci-tech players on-site to explore high-quality projects and fully support entrepreneurs.
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Tata Electronics today signed a memorandum of understanding with Tokyo Electron Limited (TEL), a leading global supplier of semiconductor equipment and services. The two companies will collaborate to accelerate semiconductor equipment infrastructure for India’s first Fab being built by Tata Electronics in Dholera, Gujarat, and for its assembly and test facility in Jagiroad, Assam.
Through this partnership, Tata Electronics and TEL will also focus on training Tata Electronics’ workforce on TEL equipment and supporting ongoing improvement and R&D initiatives. This collaboration will leverage the strengths of both companies to establish a robust semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem in India.
As previously announced, Tata Electronics is building India’s first Fab in Dholera, Gujarat, with a total investment of INR 91,000 crores (~US$11bn). In addition, another INR 27,000 crores (~US$3bn) will be invested in a greenfield facility in Jagiroad, Assam, for the assembly and testing of semiconductor chips. Together, these facilities will produce semiconductor chips for applications across automotive, mobile devices, artificial intelligence (AI), and other key segments to serve customers globally. As the construction of these facilities progresses, it is critical to grow partnerships across the entire semiconductor ecosystem, spanning process and design technology, as well as equipment suppliers. With this announcement of the partnership with TEL, Tata Electronics has solidified a critical pillar to achieve its execution targets.
Dr Randhir Thakur, Managing Director & CEO, Tata Electronics, said, “We have a bold vision of becoming a leader in electronics manufacturing by offering integrated solutions across the value chain to our global customers. TEL has a history of working closely with its customers, and its expertise in the semiconductor equipment space will help build a dynamic ecosystem to support the timely execution of bringing up our Fab and advanced packaging factories. We are excited about the customer centricity that TEL brings to this partnership.”
Toshiki Kawai, President ＆ CEO of Tokyo Electron Limited, emphasised, “We are delighted to announce our partnership with Tata Electronics, which brings together our combined expertise and resources to strengthen the semiconductor ecosystem in India significantly. This strategic collaboration spans both front-end fabrication and back-end packaging technologies, highlighting our commitment to delivering exceptional support and value to Tata Electronics. By leveraging our collective strengths, we aim to accelerate development and drive innovation across multiple technology nodes. Together, we are poised to set new benchmarks in the industry, fostering a robust and dynamic semiconductor landscape that will benefit all stakeholders.”
TEL is committed to supporting the Indian semiconductor ecosystem. Both the front-end and back-end product groups will provide resources and technology support to bring advanced TEL products to the Indian market. TEL will lead this effort by also offering diversified products for the MAGIC market (MAGIC—Metaverse, Autonomous Mobility, Green Energy, IoT & Information, Communications). TEL will actively explore opportunities to leverage India’s talent to establish an engineering service in India to support its global product development.
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Blackwired, the leading cyber observatory for disruptive cybersecurity technologies, has announced the launch of ThirdWatchSM, a groundbreaking solution to identify direct threats facing an organization and its Third Parties.
ThirdWatchSM is a subject-directed monitoring platform that provides a comprehensive 360-degree view in 3D of existential threats that impact organizations and the associated cyber risks posed by their vendors, partners, suppliers, networks, and digital assets. Utilizing a non-invasive, zero-touch technology process, ThirdWatchSM generates Direct Threat Intelligence while cross-referencing this intelligence with traditional vulnerability assessment data. This integration produces evidence-based scoring and specific solution sets to mitigate all direct cyber threats facing an organization.
Direct Threat Risk Management
This innovative platform establishes a new category—Direct Threat Risk Management. By incorporating all features of Attack Surface Management (ASM) and Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) tools, ThirdWatchSM surpasses conventional offerings, delivering enhanced usability, substantial value, and unique Direct Threat Intelligence.
Central to ThirdWatchSM are its pivotal features, including Direct Threat Intelligence, Direct Threat Mitigation, Third-Party Risk Management, Network Vulnerability Assessment, 3D Visualization, a comprehensive Ecosystem and Evidence-Based Scoring. The platform is designed with five key configurations: Enterprise, Audit, Managed Service Provider (MSP), Incident Response (IR), and Legal.
“Implementing a ‘defend forward’ mentality is crucial. To combat modern threats, organizations need to pivot to a proactive approach to threat management, seeking out threats and neutralizing them before they escalate into attacks. ThirdWatchSM empowers organizations to identify and eliminate direct threats that jeopardize core operations, subsidiaries, and affiliates while mitigating risks posed by third parties in their ecosystems.” – Jeremy Samide, CEO & Co-founder, Blackwired.
ThirdWatchSM ensures compliance with third-party regulatory cybersecurity requirements and helps organizations navigate potential supply chain disruptions caused by cyber events.
Management teams can utilize the platform to monitor their cybersecurity operations’ effectiveness, access cyber threat landscapes swiftly, and provide a digital witness record of pre-event direct threat intelligence.
Blackwired leverages industry and government expertise to deliver innovative solutions that integrate cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, edge computing, blockchain, and quantum computing. This strategic integration is underpinned by a methodology that starts with the premise of proactive prevention and, when necessary, offense – a notably different approach compared to traditional reactive cybersecurity measures.
The launch of ThirdWatchSM marks a significant evolution in cybersecurity strategy. Organizations can utilize the platform to enhance cyber resilience while safeguarding their digital assets against a rapidly changing threat landscape. As cyber risks escalate, ThirdWatchSM offers a proactive defense mechanism designed to help organizations stay one step ahead of malicious threat actors.
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