The UK venture capital firm Draper Esprit and the German VC Earlybird have announced a strategic partnership to share deal, investment resources and expertise to co‐invest together in high-growth European technology companies. We will talk with Ben Tompkins from Draper Esprit and Fabian Heilemann from Earlybird about the decision to collaborate, the ability to build significant global businesses of the future and that this partnership will enable further growth within the ecosystem.

Moreover, we will be hosting the Semi-Finals of our Startup Contest "Are you China Ready?" – a partnership of THero, Brinc Accelerator and Startup Grind. With the Contest, we want to help local startups to test their products/services in China and to get the help they need to expand to the biggest market in the world.

Any startup or team could apply until September 24th and now, we are hosting a Startup Pitch Night with the best 10 semi-finalist. Startups will be pitching their business idea, product or service for 2 minutes in front of a jury of investors. The judges will choose the three winning startups of the night that will be flown in to Guangzhou, China for the Final Pitch Contest.