Tencent to support startup incubator scheme with Singapore university
Tencent is teaming up with the National University of Singapore (NUS) to establish an incubator programme aimed at nurturing local startups. Under the scheme, the Chinese technology giant will offer its cloud services and technology as well as marketing support to help these young companies get a headstart.
Its partnership with the university's entrepreneurial arm, NUS Enterprise, would span three years and aimed to enrol up to 20 NUSTe startups within the first year. Tapping Tencent Cloud's services, these companies would receive technical support, software, online and offline training for Tencent Cloud products, and insights on best practices relevant to their respective sectors.
In addition, Tencent would help the NUS startups with their marketing initiatives as well as allow selected companies to take the stage at events organised by Tencent.
The startups also would be given access to the Chinese vendor's Artificial Intelligence (AI) Lab, AI services, and other tools to develop applications and other features.
Furthermore, Tencent would provide the startups with "reasonable access" to other ecosystems the vendor supported, which would encompass opportunities to receive direct or other investments, get potential customer leads, and establish connections with other partners in the ecosystem.
Tencent Cloud currently operates 53 availability zones across 25 regions worldwide, including Singapore, Tokyo, Sydney, Seoul, Mumbai, and London.
RELATED COVERAGE
Tencent sees Q2 total revenue climb 21% to 89 billion yuan
Fintech and business, online games, and streaming services boosted overall revenue for the period.
Tencent to open cloud data centres in Korea, India
Chinese internet giant launches a new data centre in Silicon Valley, with another four to open in Mumbai, Seoul, Frankfurt, and Moscow as it looks to expand its portfolio to include cloud and AI.
Singapore 'deep tech' startups face funding hurdle as risks higher
Because investment risks typically are higher and returns slower with startups that deal with deep technology such as artificial intelligence and medtech, venture capitalists in Singapore are less willing to stick their bets in early-stage startups.
Singapore university puts up $18.1M to help students, researchers create startups
National University of Singapore pledges S$25 million (US$18.18 million) over five years to co-create 250 tech startups with its graduate students and research staff.
Tencent's messaging app WeChat now available for cars
Drivers will be able to operate the in-car app through voice commands or steering wheel buttons to check unread messages, send new messages, as well as make WeChat calls.