In October 2019, Mizuho Bank, Ltd. (President & CEO: Koji Fujiwara) will launch Mizuho Crowd Brain, an accelerator program mainly supporting the growth of startup companies throughout the Greater Bay Area, which includes Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou.
Recently, the Greater Bay Area has been experiencing an influx of newly established startup companies, and the support of government policies is driving the rapid development of programs that provide multifaceted assistance to innovative startups. Nevertheless, startups in the Greater Bay Area still face a range of business issues including a lack of urban office space and insufficient information networks for gaining traction in overseas markets.
To address this business environment, Mizuho Crowd Brain will operate in collaboration with New World Development and together with other partner companies1 to provide highly specialized mentorship services in a broad range of fields, and work to create more opportunities for business matching in the East Asia market focusing on China as well as Japan.
Mizuho Crowd Brain will be located in a private office space at our Hong Kong Branch to provide fixed–term support for the growth of participating startup companies including mentorship on a range of business issues, matching with businesses that are able to assist the expansion of sales channels and technological innovation at startups, and matching with venture capital partners to finance growth, as well as collaboration with M’s Salon2 events held in Japan.
In order to implement an Open & Connected approach, which is a part of our action principles of Mizuho’s 5–Year Business Plan, we are working as a unified group on strategic priorities such as investing in growing companies, contributing to industrial growth, and supporting personnel development. By providing mentorship services to address the business issues faced by tech startups, and providing key business opportunities through our matching services, we will support the growth of these companies and contribute to the development of the startup ecosystem in the Greater Bay Area.
Notes
- Cyberport, Hong Kong Science & Technology Parks Corporation, Research Institute of Tsinghua University in Shenzhen, Deloitte, and Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund.
- A membership service for innovative companies that drive social and industrial innovation with their technology and business models. M’s Salon currently has about 2,700 member companies, and 63 support companies supporting the growth of such innovative companies (as of the end of July 2019).
Note: Eureka Nova is an accelerator powered by the New World Group committed to business integration.