Intrinsic Innovations and TusStar announce the launch of their accelerator program
by CM Staff
The Global Accelerator program, to be headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, offers insights into local requirements and expectations for business operations.
CALGARY — Intrinsic Innovations, a Canadian Not-for-Profit Technology Accelerator established by Intrinsic Venture Capital, and TusStar, a Chinese network of incubators, announce the launch of the TusStar-Intrinsic Global Accelerator, an exchange accelerator program for Canadian companies looking to expand into the Chinese market, and for Chinese companies looking to expand into the North American markets through Canada.
The Global Accelerator program, to be headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, offers insights into local requirements and expectations for business operations, intellectual property, human resources, legal and regulatory requirements between the two countries, as well as the sometimes subtle differences in business culture and etiquette.
“Intrinsic Innovations was launched as a way to facilitate global connections,” stated Andrew Sanden, co-founder of Intrinsic Innovations and Intrinsic Venture Capital. “The COVID-19 pandemic drove home the importance of having trusted connections off-shore for establishing a cross-border business. This relationship with TusStar is all about creating and fostering those important cross-border connections to create a pathway for businesses from Canada to enter the Chinese market in a more seamless manner, and vice-versa for Chinese companies interested in coming to North America via Canada.”
Ms. Wei Han, Vice President, TusHoldings, Executive General Manager, TusStar and Chairwoman, TusStar Canada, confirmed the value of the partnership. “We hope that by integrating all the different partners and stakeholders, we can support more talent and start-ups. Canada is one of our important regions inside our incubation network. We have great local partners like Intrinsic, and we also have our great international partners in China and around the world. I believe that with support from our local partners in Canada, we can work closely and support more great entrepreneurs both from Canada and from China, building a unique bridge to support the talents in both countries.”
As a global accelerator, the TusStar-Intrinsic Global Accelerator’s focus is to ease cross-border business growth. When companies look at entering a foreign market, one of the biggest challenges is understanding the intricacies of getting the business set up and established, with many companies underestimating how time and resource intensive this process might be. The TusStar-Intrinsic Global Accelerator program will help educate businesses in Canada and in China on the rules, regulations and customs in either country to help aid businesses get off the ground and establish themselves in either foreign market.
Intrinsic Innovations and TusStar’s decision to headquarter this accelerator program in Calgary is a welcome one for the city. Despite its population of just 1.6 million, Calgary has been quickly advancing its technology ecosystem. Previously known for its energy industry, the city is seeing a trend for investment to be moving away from resource extraction and downstream to technology development.
The TusStar-Intrinsic Global Accelerator program also opens up an important channel to new international markets for local tech companies in both countries through TusStar’s global network of incubators across the globe.
