Alibaba Cloud has announced that it will expand its global start-up programme ‘Create@Alibaba Cloud’ to more countries, applying its growing global coverage and increasing support to local small enterprises.
The programme is aimed at empowering start-ups around the globe with Alibaba’s comprehensive support network and suite of cloud computing infrastructure services. Participants gain access to computing resources to innovate and accelerate their business growth.
In its third year, Create@Alibaba Cloud will now be expanded to cover Mainland China and 12 overseas markets and regions – Australia, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, the UAE, the UK and the US Local contests will be rolled out in all these markets beginning in June and regional winners will compete in Shanghai for the championship in October.
“As we continue to establish our cloud capabilities and international data centres, we are pleased to expand the programme to include markets such as Japan and Australia this year, and make our sophisticated computing solutions and big-data intelligence available to more and more local start-ups around the world,” said Ethan Yu, vice president, Alibaba Cloud. “Create@Alibaba Cloud celebrates the innovations of start-ups in these markets while providing these exciting drivers of change with access to Alibaba Cloud expertise, investment funding, work spaces and incubation, as well as Alibaba Group global market resources and ecosystem to help them grow.”
As part of the programme, participants will receive funding for investments into IT infrastructure for the first year, professional technology training, customised technology solutions designed by Alibaba Cloud architects and one-on-one post-sales support, to help start-ups scale their businesses rapidly and smoothly.
In addition, the River Hill Fund as well as Alibaba Group’s Strategic Investment Department will support the start-ups throughout the course of their development. Create@Alibaba Cloud also empowers start-ups through Alibaba’s ecosystem and with better access to overseas markets and an established network by inviting participants to join Alibaba Cloud’s marketing campaigns, both online and offline.
The development of last year’s Create@Alibaba Cloud champion XtalPi demonstrates the positive impact of the program. XtalPi is dedicated to expediting patient access to innovative, cost-effective medicines, leveraging Alibaba Cloud’s highly scalable cloud services.
After taking home $216,000 in cloud resource credits, the US-based pharma-tech company utilised Alibaba Cloud’s computing capabilities to further optimise its innovative solutions for drug solid-form screening and designing that can significantly boost cost-efficiency of drug development for pharmaceutical companies, and revolutionise the industry standard for drug development, risk management, patent strategy, and lifecycle management. XtalPi has recently won a contract with a top pharmaceutical company and currently expects to soon close its Series B financing round.
