Huawei Reveals Initiatives to Drive Startup Ecosystems in APAC

The Asia-Pacific Spark Founders Summit, held simultaneously in Singapore and Hong Kong SAR, featured announcements of four initiatives — including the Cloud-Cloud Collaboration and Innovation Program — from HUAWEI CLOUD, with a key goal to supercharge startup growth.

Zhang Ping'an, Senior Vice President of Huawei, CEO of Huawei Cloud BU, and President of Huawei Consumer Cloud Service, said at the event: "Going forward, we will step up our support for startups through joint outreach by HUAWEI CLOUD and Huawei Mobile Services, as well as by leveraging our continuous technological innovation, global and local services, and high-quality business ecosystems."

Huawei's four initiatives to supercharge startup growth

"HUAWEI CLOUD has always been supporting startups." Zhang Ping'an said during his speech. "Huawei works with local governments, leading incubators, well-known VCs, and universities, building support platforms for startups across many regions." "We launched the Spark Program in Asia Pacific last year, with 40 startups joining us so far." Zhang Ping'an added. "We have already helped four of these startups launch new products and completely transform their businesses, while helping eight enter new markets."

Initiative 1: Joint outreach by HUAWEI CLOUD and HMS

Huawei combines HUAWEI CLOUD infrastructure with Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) to empower all industries, from media, entertainment, and finance, to the industrial Internet, healthcare, and education. HUAWEI CLOUD and HMS developers and partners will benefit from unified accounts, one-stop development platforms, and one-stop app distribution and marketing.

By relying on Huawei's global HMS ecosystem, startups can have access to more growth opportunities. Today, HMS is the world's third largest mobile app ecosystem, serving 4.5 million developers in over 170 countries and regions. Working with customers and partners, Huawei is committed to building an all-platform, all-device application ecosystem, and delivering the best digital experience to users worldwide.

Initiative 2: Continuous tech innovation

By providing cloud services worldwide with rapid elasticity, excellent performance, and a consistent experience, HUAWEI CLOUD helps startups accelerate their growth and expand into global markets.

More specifically, HUAWEI CLOUD's Cloud-Native 2.0 solution helps enterprises build full-stack, agile capabilities by leveraging highly efficient infrastructure and leading cloud-native technologies, from containers to big data.

Nestia, a Singapore-based startup, has built agile capabilities using HUAWEI CLOUD, improving performance by 20% and cutting costs by 30%. In addition, by joining the HMS ecosystem, Nestia's app can be distributed through Huawei AppGallery, expanding the startup's reach to 1.3 million registered users and 200,000 active daily users.

UCARS, an online car marketplace in Singapore, used HUAWEI CLOUD ModelArts to build the first AI-driven car valuation tool in Southeast Asia. This tool can estimate a car's resale value within seconds, vastly improving the efficiency of sales. Today, UCARS is one of the fastest-growing online car marketplaces in Singapore.

J&T EXPRESS is an Indonesian express delivery company operating in several countries and regions in Southeast Asia. To meet the demand for rapidly scalable IT resources, J&T worked with HUAWEI CLOUD to build on-premises cloud resource pools, resulting in a five-fold improvement in system capacity. Now, J&T has become the No. 1 delivery services company in the region.

Initiative 3: Global + local services

HUAWEI CLOUD operates 45 availability zones in 23 different geographic regions around the world. In Asia Pacific, it operates seven AZs in Hong Kong SAR, Singapore, and Thailand, with local service teams in over 10 countries and regions. Capable of delivering cloud services globally with a consistent experience and superb performance, HUAWEI CLOUD is an ideal choice for startups in Asia Pacific that wish to expand into global markets.

Initiative 4: High-quality business ecosystems

A high-quality ecosystem is crucial for startups to succeed. With this in mind, HUAWEI CLOUD has built high-quality ecosystems for startups in Asia Pacific, covering consulting services, SaaS partners, software partners, as well as governments, and top venture capitals. HUAWEI CLOUD has in-depth cooperation with over 2,000 ecosystem partners in Asia Pacific.

In Hong Kong SAR and Singapore specifically, the cloud service provider is working with local governments, top VCs, and top universities to build support platforms for startups. These platforms provide a range of services, from resource support and financing opportunities to coaching and more.

Cloud-Cloud Collaboration and Innovation Program

Combining the strengths of HUAWEI CLOUD with HMS, this program helps accelerate the growth of startups through the following initiatives:

Resource support: HUAWEI CLOUD and HMS will each provide US$20 million worth of resources and benefits for free.

Funding opportunities: This year, Huawei plans to support over 200 startups in the HMS ecosystem and recommend over 100 HMS partners to top investment organizations.

Channel sharing: Huawei will share its global channels with developers worldwide and help them reach 1 billion device users through Huawei's consumer cloud service platform.

Talent cultivation: Huawei will build HMS developer innovation centers by working with 210 well-known universities in Asia-Pacific.

The goal to cultivate over 100,000 HMS cloud-native developers.
Startup are the future of the economy and seeds of potential just waiting to be unleashed. Going forward, in Asia Pacific, HUAWEI CLOUD will continue to invest heavily and work with partners to build inclusive, robust, innovative startup ecosystems, in turn transforming them into powerful engines that drive digital transformation.

HUAWEI CLOUD is second in China and No. 5 in the global IaaS market, and remains one of the fastest growing major cloud service providers in the world.