Huawei to invest US$100m in startup programme as it expands in cloud computing

HUAWEI plans to invest US$100 million in startup initiatives in the Asia-Pacific as it expands its cloud computing business, a space where the Chinese giant is coming up against Alibaba, Tencent, Google, Microsoft and Amazon.

The investment will take place over the next three years through the company's Spark Program, a startup accelerator with operations already launched in Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand.

Huawei plans to expand the programme to Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. It aims to recruit 1,000 startups, of which 100 are mature companies, into the accelerator.

These startups will focus on industry sectors such as financial services and insurance, transportation and logistics, media and entertainment, education, and digital and platform services.

The programme already has 40 participants that tap resources such as product innovation, business development and fundraising, said Huawei's cloud business unit CEO Zhang Ping'an, at the company's inaugural Spark Founders Summit on Tuesday.

He said Spark Program is working with local governments, incubators, venture capital (VC) firms and top universities to support startups.

A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU

Monday, 3.30 pm

Garage

The hottest news on all things startup and tech to kickstart your week.

Sign Up

Cloud computing companies have been eyeing tech startups as the next frontier of growth for their businesses. Microsoft, for instance, made a strategic investment in Grab in 2018 that included Grab adopting Microsoft Azure as its preferred cloud platform.

These cloud players are stepping up their investments in South-east Asia amid a boom in the region's digital economy. "The need for South-east Asia's and Indonesia's growth online is pretty clear," Tencent Cloud International's senior vice-president Poshu Yeung told The Business Times in April, ahead of the company's first data centre launch in Indonesia.

Huawei Cloud said it supports regional customers such as VC-backed logistics player J&T.

While originally a smartphone maker, Huawei has risen rapidly through the ranks in cloud computing to challenge rivals Alibaba - China's dominant cloud player - and Tencent.

Huawei Cloud, which was founded in 2017, operates 45 availability zones in 23 regions. Chinese publication Caixin reported that Huawei's enterprise group, which includes Huawei Cloud, saw a 23 per cent revenue increase to 100 billion yuan (S$20.9 billion) last year. An executive said Huawei Cloud's revenue growth was 168 per cent year on year.

At its summit on Tuesday, Huawei also launched an innovation programme to support startups with US$40 million worth of resources. Half of the investment is coming from Huawei Cloud, while the other half is from mobile app arm Huawei Mobile Services (HMS).

In 2021, Huawei plans to support 200 startups in the HMS ecosystem globally and share its network of channel resources with developers worldwide who together serve a billion Huawei device users.

The company said 4.5 million developers from over 170 countries and regions rely on HMS.

READ MORE:

• Cloud computing firms hunt for startups to make it rain
• Tencent Cloud launches data centre in Indonesia to fuel South-east Asia growth