On June 13, 2016, as part of the German-Chinese collaboration framework, representatives of the leading Entrepreneurship Centers in China and Germany signed a joint Memorandum of Understanding on collaboration between German and Chinese start-ups in Beijing.

Professor QIAN Yingyi, Dean of Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management in Beijing and Dr. Helmut Schönenberger, CEO of UnternehmerTUM, Center for Innovation and Business Creation at Technische Universität München and representative of the Entrepreneurship Center Tsinghua x-lab, agreed on measures for mutual support in the internationalization of high-tech-start-ups.

Chinese Premier LI Keqiang speaks at the 8th German-Chinese Forum for Economic and Technological Collaboration 

The 8th German-Chinese Forum for Economic and Technological Collaboration

For start-ups, too, globalization and digitalization are opening a window of opportunity for growth – but to become internationally successful, they have to understand different customer needs in different markets at an early stage and integrate them into their products and services.

Dean QIAN commented on the signing, “I visited UnternehmerTUM Center for Innovation and Business Creation last November. It is the largest center for innovation and business creation among universities in Europe. I am truly impressed by its achievements. This cooperation is a milestone in exploring international innovation and entrepreneurship education.”

"The German-Chinese bridge is very important for us and for the founders and start-ups in our field, and we are very glad that the German-Chinese exchange is also being driven on the foundation level. We are happy to realize projects with excellent partners like x-lab and Tsinghua University, and hope to further strengthen collaboration between German and Chinese founders and start-ups in the future", said Dr. Helmut Schönenberger, CEO of UnternehmerTUM, at the signing ceremony.

Professor QIAN Yingyi, Dean of Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management and Dr. Helmut Schönenberger, CEO of UnternehmerTUM, Center for Innovation and Business Creation at Technische Universität München

The goal of the exchange is to support young and promising high-tech-start-ups from universities with their market entry into other countries, in order to set up an innovation network made up of talented people, successful founders, established entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, and to initiate joint projects and investments. The intention is to enable at least ten high-tech start-ups to enter the market each year in China and Germany.

The first activities were already initiated in May of this year, when seven teams from Technische Universität München worked at Tsinghua x-lab in Beijing together with seven teams from Tsinghua University on products, the development of business models, and market-entry strategies for the relevant countries. The teams were also granted access to Chinese industrial firms and entrepreneurs. In October the same seven Chinese Tsinghua x-lab teams will be the guests of UnternehmerTUM in Munich. This approach to cooperation between high-tech start-ups from two of the leading entrepreneurship centers is so far unique.