Hundreds of venture capital companies are gathered in Shashan Road, Menlo Park, Silicon Valley, USA. This place called “West Coast Wall Street†not only has strong capital, but also becomes the investment vane of new technologies and new applications around the world. At the end of 2012, Samsung invested $1.1 billion to open the "Samsung Strategy and Innovation Center" (SSIC). Two years later, the Samsung American Research Center (SRA) in Mountain View, California, was completed.
"People always think that Samsung has chosen to do it by itself. This is not the case. We are looking for new projects in Silicon Valley, and we will also use external capital to accelerate the development of new businesses outside of Samsung Capital." Samsung Ventures General Manager Shankar Chandran told the First Financial Daily reporter. In the past 2016, Samsung Ventures invested a total of 200 million US dollars, and invested in 50 companies in the fields of cloud computing, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, VR/AR, and intelligent hardware.
From mobile phones, TVs, refrigerators, washing machines to monitors, Samsung, which is known for its hardware, is also quietly deploying software service applications. Like many large companies, in order to avoid the potential risks brought about by the rapid change of the industrial market, we will diversify through strategic or financial investment. Layout, incubate more innovative business to create strategic coordination with existing businesses, and let yourself not miss the "next big thing".
Bet on VR, artificial intelligence, IoT
In the past 50 years, Silicon Valley technology innovation has also experienced three times of the era of PC, Internet, and smart phones. Every technological innovation will experience the “Death Valley†cycle, eliminating nearly 90% of the bubble before it can The wave of transition between survival and maturity. According to Shankar Chandran, the new generation of information technology is spurring the arrival of the fourth wave of innovation in Silicon Valley, the era of smart devices. “The first three waves are the connections between people and machines. More opportunities in the future lie between learning and communication between machines and machines.â€
From the investment projects of Samsung Venture Capital in the past year, its investment targets are mainly concentrated in cloud computing, IoT, digital medical, intelligent hardware, equipment solutions, artificial intelligence, VR, AR, and more focused. Key components and core technology innovations that are closely related to Samsung's main business. For example, in the field of cloud computing, it pays more attention to flash memory technology, storage technology, next-generation machine learning and analysis tools, and in the field of artificial intelligence, it focuses on machine analysis and prediction capabilities, image and video recognition technology, unsupervised learning and control technology.
"For Samsung, VC is more than to make money, but to develop." Shankar Chandran said frankly. At this year's CES, Samsung introduced a new smart refrigerator equipped with a liquid crystal display that can post messages, upload pictures, update schedules, share information, memo messages, etc. It is reported that the screen display technology and applications are derived from Samsung. Incubating a startup company.
"In addition to financial support, more is to help start-up companies achieve technology and technology, cross-border cooperation between companies and companies, accelerate technology landing and commercial applications." Samsung NEXT fund manager told reporters that they just in January this year A $150 million fund was set up to focus on virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things.
For the project selection criteria, Shankar Chandran said that he would stick to three points. First, pay attention to “Big Idea†and “Big Thingâ€, that is, the market capacity should be large enough, and the whole industry or the whole world may be changed in the future. Second, pay more attention to the composition of entrepreneurial teams and entrepreneurial experiences, especially those who have failed entrepreneurial experiences. At the same time, the open mind and cooperation ability of the entrepreneurial team is also an important consideration.
Silicon Valley Venture Circulation System
From a geographical perspective, Samsung's investment projects are concentrated in the United States, Israel and Europe. The global chief strategy officer is placed in Silicon Valley, not the Korean headquarters, and it is regarded as the commanding heights of Samsung's global strategy. Quickly reach new ideas, new products and top talent.
In addition to a good natural environment, a diversified entrepreneurial atmosphere, and a strong economic foundation, Shankar Chandran has repeatedly stressed that the secret of Silicon Valley's success lies in a very sound entrepreneurial cycle system that allows and contains failure. In its view, the growth of a startup is like a child growing up. In the early stages of growth, Silicon Valley startups can get unique help from personal entrepreneurial incubators, top universities, technology companies, government laboratories, and university research institutes. And encouragement, and with the company's growth and growth, it can be supported by banks, law firms, venture capital institutions, media public relations, and talent recruitment, and grow into a young person.
“After this, 90% of entrepreneurs failed to start a business, and less than 10% eventually succeeded in IPO or being acquired.†Shankar Chandran said that the main reason for Silicon Valley’s success is “allowing failure, and The failure system of the losers has been formed, and the failed entrepreneurs can return to the infancy or youth, and get the corresponding funds and resources again."
Another key point in the entrepreneurial system's ability to circulate is that while new companies are being created, there are also existing companies exiting the market, and there are many ways to exit, including mergers of similar startups, or mergers and acquisitions of large companies. Or direct IPO listing, of course, entrepreneurial failure is also an exit mechanism. For successful Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, they often choose to continue investing in start-up projects and pass on successful experiences to startups, which keeps Silicon Valley's innovative machines running.
Internal entrepreneurship platform
In addition to the development platform, the external entrepreneurs' creativity is absorbed, and the internal employee entrepreneurial “accelerator†platform is provided. The internal entrepreneurial channel is opened, and the internal and external innovations are mixed to continuously inspire the innovation vitality of the big company. Including all kinds of “small micro†entrepreneurial “accelerator†platforms built by Haier, Lenovo also established the “Xiaoqiang Entrepreneur†accelerator, which guarantees the bottom-up innovation of internal employees through the resources, operation and decision-making mechanism. , quickly enter the vision of decision makers, and quickly become a product to accept market testing, product iteration.
In 2012, the company also established the CreaTIve Lab Creative Lab (C-Lab), which is mainly to cultivate innovative ideas of Samsung employees. This year's CES Samsung presented a solution for consumer skin care consisting of a microneedle patch and a portable device that can analyze and care for the skin. The microneedle patch delivers active ingredients by deep penetration into the skin, enhancing absorption.
The care device measures the moisture content, redness and melanin of the skin and, based on this, provides the user with a custom-tailored skin care via LED light. Skin detection is stored in a companion app for long-term tracking of skin changes. It is reported that the project comes from employee creativity and tests the commercial value of each project through public response, thus helping the project to improve.
How the new track evolved into the main track is a challenge that faces all major companies. After building a strong brand, they hope to accelerate the search for more integration opportunities in the segment to gain a more lasting strategic and technological advantage, as Brendon Kim, vice president and general manager of Samsung's NEXT Ventures, said “will be great ideas. Create products, grow products into prosperous companies, and expand the scale to transform the company's ecosystem."
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