NUS launches Block71 hub in Suzhou for start-ups

SINGAPORE — The National University of Singapore (NUS) officially launched start-up incubator Block71 Suzhou on Thursday (Nov 23) in China. It is the fourth such hub it has, with the others being in Singapore, San Francisco in the United States, and Jakarta in Indonesia.

The latest addition is meant to provide support to Singapore entrepreneurs and technology start-ups, to help them explore potential business opportunities in China.

Named after the original Block71 in Singapore’s own start-up hub at JTC LaunchPad@one-north, the incubator in the Chinese city of Jiangsu province will operate in two locations at the Suzhou Industrial Park.

The first is within the National University of Singapore (Suzhou) Research Institute (NUSRI), which is the university’s first overseas research institute offically opened in 2013 in partnership with the Suzhou Industrial Administrative Committee.

Over the last four years, some 50 companies have been incubated at the institute, and the incubator space will now serve as a Block71 facility. It will continue to focus on supporting start-ups in the tech field, and will look to encourage innovation and commercialisation efforts in areas such as artificial intelligence, biomedical sciences, cloud computing, robotics and smart devices.

The second location will be at science park Ascendas iHub Suzhou, and the facility is expected to be ready by the second quarter of next year. It will be developed in partnership with NUSRI and Ascendas-Singbridge Group, a sustainable urban and business space provider.

Ascendas-Singbridge, NUSRI, and NUS Enterprise, the university’s entrepreneurial arm which manages Block71 Suzhou, will be organising start-up activities and events for investors, government agencies, corporations and industry players.

Professor Tan Eng Chye, provost of NUS, said that the hub would help to “drive active interactions” between research and start-up communities in Singapore and Suzhou, “enabling them to reach international markets and scale more efficiently”.

Dr Lily Chan, chief executive officer of NUS Enterprise, said that Block71 Suzhou is “unique” as it enables companies to tap the research and technology expertise at NUSRI.

Among the companies which were incubated at NUSRI is Kosmode Health. It has commercialised an extraction and fermentation technology for phytochemical ingredients derived from plants.

Its founder and director Florence Leong told TODAY that the strong support and collaboration with NUSRI was helpful, especially given that “China is one of the world’s largest phytochemical ingredient and traditional Chinese medicine suppliers”.

Launching Block71 Suzhou on Thursday, Singapore’s Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat said that the space would help create a “technology start-up ecosystem that will make the most of Block71’s global innovation culture and Suzhou’s excellent resources and talent”. He hopes that Block71 will see the start of many beneficial breakthroughs.

While in Suzhou, Mr Heng also attended the 11th Singapore-Jiangsu Cooperation Council meeting to discuss new partnerships between Jiangsu and Singapore, among other matters.