 Well it's wonderful to talk with you today and you know we'd love to know more about Shenzhen Valley Ventures so I understand that the actually the SVV group it started out as an accelerator and today of course you're sort of the hub of manufacturing and you provide a platform where a lot of technology manufacturing or hardware companies are able to use your platform in order to prototype and in order to close. Can you tell us a little more about it? That's the idea just like our company name just you asking you asking Fred by calling ourselves as a venture whether we are accelerator but we're still and in a long run we'll be still investment company but we want to make we want to make the model different and as a venture firm really it's a capital it's using capital to just invest and get the financial return and the other one when investment get into hardware category money is not everything I mean the the there are problems that cannot be resolved but by money and since with my background we do have a very good resources on hardware ecosystem in Shenzhen the supply chain engineering and others and in many cases these resources are more helpful to start a company than money. If we could combine our resources in the industry and also the investment there might be a model that can increase the the survival rate of a start a company and also making the investment making for the for the financial return much better and the that is the model we are creating and even though we are still in in in the middle of of creating this model to prove this working but so far so far it looks quite promising. Sure and I mean you know given of course now the the pre-pandemic and the post-pandemic situation looks a little different so what kind of technology is according to you what kind of hardware according to you would now be more sort of would would be something that you are planning to look at in depth would be something that you would want to sort of get in the platform and be you know able to create it and help it grow much faster. So do you think in pre-pandemic and post-pandemic days the the kind of focus that the company platform manufacturing and hardware products is changing in some ways? There are several dimensions to to answer your question and the the first dimension is that even though we are a hardware company but the partner we are looking for is actually software developer and also algorithm developer and the the in the AI AI and IOT's year software and algorithm is the core value and also it's like the the soul of of hardware the brain of hardware and the the the the the company we're looking for is that the more of building a hardware and software combined technology and in many cases it's robotic related it's like providing providing robotic or providing automation system to improve the efficiency of a specific category like like manufacturing, agriculture, medical and how they can replace human being and also in another way how they can make the machine doing a better job than human being. Sure and I mean given the fact that automation is now the the new buzzword and you know even with contactless in the kind of world that we are living in today the humans want to have less interaction with other humans because of the pandemic so I mean manufacturing was already seeing a lot of automation happening but what other sectors do you also see with big automation I mean whether it is retail or whether it is hospitality some sectors where you see we are going to see a bigger flux of automation happening. Yes and certainly the automation is happening I would say it's happening in every in every business as far as I know it's only matter of to what level and extension it is deployed and the the more traditional the industry is the more demand we can see for automation. So and I mean you know what particularly in 2020 what kind of automation have you seen at SVP in terms of you know where you've seen more innovation happening and what kind of products are likely to come out in the market because of that prototyping in let's say by October 2020. We are currently we are serving quite diversified industry we have we have projects in medical in life science and medical agriculture manufacturing automation and also and also the oil industry so the even though the currently the the projects are pretty spread out but we think the the major path in future may fall into medical devices connected medical devices and and and environment production. Sure and I mean do you also see that today with I mean since you mentioned about medical field but I mean overall you know in terms of what people wear today do they want such fabrics which are probably less I mean less prone to catching such viruses and so on. So do you feel that even in sectors like fashion or even in the home or some other such areas which were very prone you know where where it's very easy to probably have these viruses seeping in do you see some developments happening there as well. Sure sure I see the even for for the even for the currently we're working on a project even though it's not fashion but it's close it's close to to the household and the now it's still still confidential but the we are working with one of the major family appliances retail giants and the how to dislize their showcase in in in the retailer and the how to make the shopping so it's more for for shoppers. So I think the and in the fashion industry the we already already met quite several certain companies that's providing 3d 3d 3d 3d fitting or 3d measuring for for for closets and shoes etc I think that could be could be a very example for for how AI could improve the fashion industry in the future. Sure and I mean your platform also extend itself to funding also in terms of helping some providing some seed funding or angel funding or at least being able to provide these startups with a network where they could go out and raise some capital for their startup as well. Yes and so far the the company as maybe was founded for about four years now and currently we have we invested into a 18 company already and now we are slowing down our investment our internal investment but we do have a network of our VC partners and the we'll be referring the the company we we feel that has the potential and so the we could use our network to help the company to to risk to make a fund reason. Right and I mean any of the startups that you sort of started with four years ago any sort of example that you have or any startup that you have who's been now become a large order driving force in the economy in terms of the kind of play and the network and impact that they have. Currently two of our portfolios are already already in quite a good size one is one is surgical robotic replacing replacing needs for making making need replacement surgery and that project is already it's already become a measure one in China and the now is going going through CFDA Chinese FDA approval and based on the current schedule they could be they could be officially officially launched deployed in two or three years at a time and we have another another digital digital security company that's providing data security tools for for corporate and also for you for for company with multiple operations and that company is already it's already quite profitable and the they are planning for IPO in in coming coming about two years. Oh that that's really nice and do you personally look for companies in in the startups in China only or do you also look in Southeast Asia let's say Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore so are you also looking at inviting startups to Shenzhen value ranges from there and in in in case you do what kind of startups would you be interested in coming from there? Currently our majority of our startup company came from Europe US and China I'll say the one third one third for for each area we we so far we have a very limited number of portfolios came from Southeast Asia and the we do have a we do have a very close collaboration with Singapore but not with other other Asian countries. I think the probably the the reasons that we are more of a hardware technology company and the Southeast Asia is not strong in that perspective and the Singapore is good on that and the most of the hardware innovation came from Europe US and China but in Indonesia we are very interested to see how we can how we can be connected with Southeast Asia market. And the existing portfolio companies do you have they are spread only in China quarantine or do they have presence across Asia as well? Currently since we are working with early stage startup company and our company is only in running for four years so the eventually they will be going global but so far they they still stay in in their home country but there will be a period of growth you know in the in the coming coming several years and they may stay in their homeland to develop the local market after they grow larger they may expand globally. I'll say the potential will be very attractive countries. There's many people over there, India, India, Malaysia and Indonesia. There's this country in 100 million people over there. Yes that's right. So I mean are you also working in some way with corporates because today all corporates are looking for innovation you know while they've had products which have worked for them for years and years but today they want more innovative products for example companies whether in auto in healthcare even in retail or you know hospitality different sectors today they are looking for innovations happening in their existing and large corporate setup. So do you work with corporates in terms of accelerating them to find new innovative products which they can add in their portfolio and therefore be able to extend the brand that they have to to newer areas or to newer fields? Yes we work with a corporate as well currently we have a three we have three major group of clients start a company corporate innovation arm and also universities and the for corporate business we usually we are in work with their innovation department and say the how to how to digitalize their current business and on this Friday on the coming on the coming Friday which is two days two days from now we will be will be having a corporate innovation center to be to be to be this grand opening for the joint jointly made by SVB and the third largest consulting company in work Capgemini this is this French company and the Capgemini has been has been serving the 4,500 companies and they are I believe they are the third largest IT consulting company in the world with 20 of us but they are I believe they have 270,000 people globally the 44 IT services and the AI the center short for applied innovation exchange is jointly made by 12 eyes and the purpose is to serve corporate innovation is when the corporate want to want to make an innovation how we can happen to make it faster and also we are the my team start company and the university to join in the same the same program sure but do you think in in hindsight because startups themselves they find I mean even with the best of innovations most startups and even with good funding they they have a hard time particularly hardware companies and a big burn in order to reach out or find their customers out there in the market and sometimes it takes years and years for them by the time the acceptance of the product comes so by tying up with or by you know collaborating with the corporates are they able to see that growth much faster than they would have otherwise if they would have gone on their own particularly where Frederick are you there I am yes yes I'm still here Chad are you able to hear us there we go so sorry did you did the lines broken did you I see the idea from my own from what I saw the corporate has been has been quite active in supporting startup community and you can see the if you can you can see the many many of many of the many of the the accelerator and and and incubator is has the sponsorship from corporate but the problem the problem for corporate business is that the corporate they have they care much about their brand image and for startup company even their technology and product is not stable or secure enough the corporate usually has is hesitating to deploy it commercially because the the when this if there's a quality problem happen it may damage their brand image and but but corporate is actually desperate for the for the for the creation and innovation from from from start company they're very active the uh the so there is upside and downside in the in the in the perspective of corporate and the and and the same as the other way the other way around for for start company they want to work with this corporate but their quality control and also product validation system is not good enough to for them to to to reach the standard of of corporate uh that is the role Capgemini and as we will play in the middle we will be serving as platform and we will be the party that's that's that's making extensive testing evaluation and the validation to make sure the the startup technology is good enough on quality to to fit into the the to meet uh corporate quality criteria sure and uh i mean on the other side uh from uh from a more i would say the personal side how have you seen the quality of entrepreneurship changing in the last uh uh you know the last let's say quarter since the pandemic hurt us so badly so what what have you seen or how what kind of resilience have you seen in startup entrepreneurs how are they coping up because it's hard time for them you know they as it is their companies are very small and in a prototype stage and at this stage when you know the economic climate is not uh extremely uh cooperative how is it that they are able to cope and what is it that you see a change in the quality of entrepreneurship of these startups uh i think the uh i mean the idea if you measure by by a quarter it's a it's a it's a it's a two-shot uh time period i've seen the uh usually since uh the it's supposed to be to measure by by years not by quarter i think the idea uh the past uh the past quarter will definitely be challenging for start company i mean the i would say the challenging for for challenging for everyone except for uh very selected uh online companies it's uh zoom and others which is uh they they actually get a benefit from from the current pandemic but for most companies and uh they are suffering a lot from it that's including most of the start company and the uh it's not only the anointing the the uh the uh the uh the supply chain the the ecosystem and others and also the the uh the fundraising is also becoming quite challenging so i say the uh uh for start company the the uh i'll say the even though the uh the past quarter is uh is tough uh it may not be the worst time the worst time may might be still waiting for them uh way ahead i'll say the the uh it looks like the situation is not improving uh in the in the second half of the year the sense may even going going going first and especially for hardware company since uh uh software software uh could be could be handled uh by online collaboration uh but hardware uh we all need a lot of face-to-face meeting that just you need to see outside and do to see the products and to to to to get the machine working so the the this uh online uh doesn't doesn't work for hardware in many ways so i think the uh the the challenge for hardware start company is even greater than software start company the is tough but the unfortunately there's not other there's not a good solution for it for now and the uh uh hope that the the uh the the pandemic could be could be could be uh eased uh a little bit in in the in the sense of so the the people can travel to china sure so one of the final questions to you would be that you know if you were today to think of an entrepreneurial venture yourself on a start-up yourself what areas would you like to consider first what can you say again as i've spoken a little bit today think of a doing an entrepreneurial venture yourself in technology what are some of the ideas you think which are the most promising in the next particularly let's say till the end of 2020 if you were to pick up a new startup idea what what startup idea is it that you would pick up and work on i think the in the past start company and also winch capitals care more about innovation uh how what is deep tech embedded in the in the technology the uh the driving the driving power has been has been the uh how advanced the tech is uh but uh but uh depending on the current uh situation i would say the capability of generating cash flow uh is also equally important or it might be even more important in the coming two or three years uh in a long run the in a long run the uh you'll be driven by by technology uh but uh but the uh survival uh survival is the key for the for the for these keywords for the for the coming several years especially in the current market situation i say the uh if a start company uh could generate profit along the way that's generating cash flow and supporting their their supporting the ongoing research and product development and that will be a more ideal uh model sure great thanks for talking to us Chadwick uh any final word for you or any final message that you have for startups out there uh in terms of how they can today be thriving and growing their business when it's when it's a tough business climate what is it that you would suggest that you now say the uh uh myself uh myself has been an entrepreneur uh myself the the uh uh i did one uh 15 years ago and the and doing another one uh now uh being an entrepreneur is it's not easy it's it's uh it's uh uh no one can make success uh just just smoothly there will always be challenges up and down and the uh uh both uh on both on the project itself and also on the environment i would say the uh uh the current challenge may not be a vaccine the city uh uh as an entrepreneur everyone needs to be prepared for the for the good time and bad time and the uh uh a full cycle of good time and bad time is uh is able to make a good entrepreneur i mean the some some some very small uh success but the the uh even though it may happen but the uh a cycle of of out now will be will be will be the uh i'll say the uh the most normal way for people to get uh succeed sure thank you very much for talking to us Chadwick i think it's a great opportunity today for a lot of manufacturing startups to be working with your platform and to find themselves in not in no man's land but to find at least some pathway for them to be able to uh create or go further and be able to give some wings to their startup thank you for joining us today at entrepreneur Asia Pacific um and uh we'd love to probably meet you next time not in the kinds of the windows but really in person and talk a lot more about technology thank you for joining us yeah thank you very much for you my team and it's really pleasure talking with you and the and to share the uh division with uh with uh with your readers