Xinhua News Agency, Guangzhou, August 7th (Reporters Ziyang Zhou and Haoming Wang) Located in the headquarters of Puqiang Times (Zhuhai Hengqin) Information Technology Co., Ltd. in the Hengqin·Macau Youth Entrepreneurship Valley, founder and CEO He Guotao trot non-stop in the afternoon To receive all kinds of people who come to visit, there are many potential partners and investment institutions.
The young maker who grew up in Macau told reporters that now he can settle down in Hengqin, Zhuhai, and his business has flourished. It started with an entrepreneurial competition a few years ago.
In 2018, Zhuhai Hengqin New District decided to hold an annual global innovation and entrepreneurship competition, focusing on supporting innovative and entrepreneurial teams that have achieved advanced innovation results, achieved key technological breakthroughs, and have good industrialization prospects, and provided no more than 10 winning teams. 300 million yuan of free funding for research and development. One of the super winning teams each year can receive 100 million yuan in funding.
The process of participating in the first competition was also a "legendary" experience for He Guotao. He said that before that, he had never seen any competition to get a prize of 100 million yuan. But based on the company's own projects in Zhuhai, he decided to participate in the competition after obtaining investor approval. After strict evaluation and defense by the professional judges of the competition, the "Puqiang AI Automotive Core Brain Project" finally won the first China Hengqin Technology Entrepreneurship Competition in 2018.
He Guotao said that the competition brought a lot of gains to the company. "The competition has accelerated the company's development a lot. R&D bonuses also speed up the research and development efficiency of new products. In addition, in terms of company brand promotion and marketing, the competition itself is a good way of publicity and promotion." He said.
Through the first competition, He Guotao and Zhuhai Hengqin officially became attached. After the first free grant of R&D fees was issued on time, Puqiang Company received strong support from the Zhuhai Municipal Government, the Macao Special Administrative Region Government, and the Hengqin New District Management Committee. On December 9, 2019, Puqiang Times (Zhuhai Hengqin) Information Technology Co., Ltd. officially opened in Hengqin·Macau Youth Entrepreneurship Valley.
He Guotao also worked and studied in many places before he made his home in Hengqin. After graduating from middle school, he followed his brother to study at Huaqiao University in Xiamen, and then went to Peking University to study computer science after graduation. After that, he went to the United States to study and worked in Silicon Valley for more than 10 years. After working for a period of time, He Guotao chose to start a business. After obtaining the initial financing, he returned to Zhongguancun, Beijing, "carrying a bag and a computer," and established Pultron Information Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd.
For He Guotao, returning to the motherland for development is the result of careful consideration and a natural choice. "The market in China is bigger and it was not fully developed at that time. In China, it is easier to have like-minded teams." He said that he felt a clear cultural difference in Silicon Valley, and returning to China made him feel more involved.
When I first returned to China, Puqiang Company was in the exploratory stage, and the company's development also experienced a difficult period. After 2010, technologies such as artificial intelligence and neural networks have emerged rapidly. In order to adapt to domestic development, in addition to technical capabilities, the direction and scenarios of the technology are also urgently needed to be resolved in the early stage.
"Artificial intelligence must have a landing direction, because your technology may be different from the needs of the market." He Guotao introduced that in the first few years, the company has been trying to explore, and finally in the field of financial data analysis, the company found A unique stage that suits you. In the automotive field, which is another key development, as one of the shareholders, NavInfo's investment in capital and resources has also accelerated the strategic layout and promotion of Puqiang in the automotive field.
Looking back on his own entrepreneurial history, He Guotao said that the project opportunities and policy support given by the government have benefited a lot from the company's development, and it also pointed out the direction for entrepreneurs to find opportunities.
After the company opened in Hengqin, it received strong support from the local governments of Zhuhai and Hengqin. In the company's exhibition hall, the "visualization platform for government government data" on the big screen is a typical case of the company from technology research and development to product landing. In recent years, the state's special support for artificial intelligence has also allowed companies to see many business opportunities. In the company exhibition hall in Hengqin, there is a full wall of partner lists and a full wall of patent certificates. These are proofs that He Guotao is most proud of the company's development.
In Hengqin, Zhuhai, Puqiang has a very international team. He Guotao said that the company faces different partners around the world and can find suitable talents from various countries for projects in different languages in the field of speech recognition. He Guotao is very optimistic about the future development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, especially Zhuhai Hengqin, in the field of technological innovation.
"For me, as long as the company does a good job in technology. Often as long as there is a successful company, others will follow." He said, "As long as the policy does not stop, talents will definitely come. Talents are mobile. Go to a good place."