Huawei to invest in PHL tech startups
SHENZHEN-BASED multinational company Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. plans to invest $100 million in technology startups in Asia-Pacific countries, including the Philippines.
In an e-mailed statement to reporters on Tuesday, Huawei said the investment “aims to build a sustainable startup ecosystem” in the region “over the next three years.”
“Huawei has been helping Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Thailand build their startup hubs,” it added.
Huawei also said its four additional startup hubs are the Philippines, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam, where the company targets to recruit 1,000 startups into its accelerator program and shape 100 of them into scale-ups.
“Startups and SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) are the innovators, disruptors, and pioneers of our times. 34 years ago, Huawei was a startup with just 5,000 dollars of registered capital. Recently, we have been thinking: How can we leverage our experience and resources to help more startups address their challenges? Doing so would allow them to seize the opportunities posed by digital transformation, achieve business success, and develop more innovative products and solutions for the world,” Huawei Senior Vice President and Board Member Catherine Chen said.
Zhang Ping’an, chief executive officer of Huawei’s Cloud Business Unit, said: “Starting today, we are stepping up our support for startups through four new initiatives, aimed at cloud-plus-cloud collaboration, continuous tech innovation, global and local services, and high-quality business ecosystems.”
Huawei announced in July its intention to invest $150 million in digital talent development in the Asia-Pacific region over the next five years through its Seeds for the Future Program 2.0.
The company said the program will benefit three million people in the region, including the Philippines. — Arjay L. Balinbin
