SparkLabs Launches in China with Guoan Academy and Beijing As Its First Location

BEIJING, CHINA--(Marketwired - April 18, 2017) - SparkLabs, a network of accelerators in Asia, has signed a partnership with Guoan Academy is a subsidiary of CITIC Guoan Group, which is the largest industrial subsidiary of CITIC Group. CITIC Group is a leading state-run financial institutional in China with over US$514 billion in assets under management.

Guoan Academy is the largest professional knowledge service provider in China's startup ecosystem. This is nationwide partnership that will initially launch in Beijing and later open in Shanghai, Chengdu, and Shenzhen. Applications will open for SparkLabs Beijing on May 15, 2017.

"We are excited to be working with Guoan Academy and believe they are the ideal partner for our entry into China. We are ecstatic to bring on board Colin Qu, who will lead SparkLabs Beijing. His experience as an investor and entrepreneur in China is perfect to help the startups we work with launch and grow," explained Bernard Moon, Co-founder of SparkLabs.

Peter Guber, CEO of Mandalay Entertainment, Owner and Co-Executive Chairman of the 2015 NBA Champion Golden State Warriors, an owner of the LA Dodgers, and former CEO of Sony Pictures, joins SparkLabs entry into China on their honorary advisory board. Also joining is Justin Kan, the Founder of Zero-F, Co-founder of Twitch (acquired by Amazon for $970 million), and former Partner at Y Combinator; Lili Cheng, the General Manager of Fuse Labs at Microsoft, and Eric Ly, Co-founder and founding CTO of Linkedin.

David He, President of GUOAN Academy, stated, "SparkLabs' past track record of made them an ideal partner for our efforts to help China's entrepreneurs to develop and go global. Our team has enjoyed working with them and we look forward to building another center of entrepreneurship in China."

"SparkLabs global network is what China's entrepreneurs needs to take the next stage of development on the world's stage. I believe our entrepreneurs' creativity, drive and engineering skills are ready to make a greater impact beyond China that has been limited to just a handful of companies so far," said Colin Qu, Managing Partner at SparkLabs Beijing.

"I'm excited to be working with people such as our distinguished Venture Partners, Gang Lu (Founder & CEO of TechNode) and Sun Shaw (former CTO at Kingsoft), and my partners at SparkLabs, such as Frank Meehan who led investments into companies such as DeepMind and Siri."

About SparkLabs Beijing
SparkLabs Beijing is a startup accelerator founded by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, and launched in partnership with Guoan Academy. The focus is on helping China's entrepreneurs to go global and will target startup companies from the Internet, online gaming, mobile, ecommerce, digital media, and healthcare sectors. The mentorship-driven program will be three months in length and provides funding, office space, a structure program and access to a top-tier network of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, angel investors and executives.

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