Aliyun, the cloud subsidiary of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NASDAQ:BABA), has announced a program called ‘Founder+‘ that will provide help to Chinese startups. Aliyun has created this program with the collaboration of 30 venture capital firms including Zhenfund, IDG and Innovation Works. The program also includes 20 research institutes, incubators and 20 firms that work in distribution, marketing and development sector.
The platform is created with the aim of supporting Chinese startups for success and innovation. The program will offer funding, office space with office management resources and hardware, Tax breaks, development units, and online distribution and marketing services for startups. Entrepreneurs will be provided contact and guidance from investors. Founder+ will support startups in the internet and cloud computing sector in China. Industrial parks in China such as Hang Seng Science Park, Tsinghua Science Park have volunteered for the program.
The program is open to any entrepreneur who has a convincing business plan to meet consumer needs. Once selected, the entrepreneur will be provided with a free office space. The office space will be made available in cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, and Wuhan. The company will give each founder cloud based services worth RMB 30,000 to RMB 40,000 (US $4,800- $64,000). A free cloud training will also be provided.
Wang Ming, Operations Manager at Aliyun, commented that cloud computing has changed the way startups are founded. Aliyun want to make the process more convenient with Founder+ program. The company is also seeking to bring more and more investors to participate in the program. These efforts will help the company to provide its services to more number of startups in the future.
The program seems to be just a corporate social responsibility of the company. But there is more than meets the eye. Aliyun is product of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NASDAQ:BABA), the company which specializes in e-commerce. The Founder+ program, while catering to entrepreneurs, will also create greater demand for cloud services of the company. All that can be said now is that the company has finally launched its ambitious program.
