From left: James Wang, councillor of Burnaby; Douglas Horne, deputy speaker of the British Columbia Legislative Assembly; Yu Shanjun, chief economic and commercial consul of the Consulate-General of China in Vancouver; Amrik Virk, BC's minister of technology, innovation and citizens' services; Ethan Sun, president and CEO of Istuary Innovation Group; Gail Gillian-Bain, president of the Canadian Association of Business Incubation; Harry Bloy, president of Global Business Canada; Ian G. McKay, CEO of Vancouver Economic Commission; Jimmy Mitchell, vice-president of AdvantageBC; Kenny Zhang, director of business development at HQ Vancouver, cut the ribbon to open Istuary's new Vancouver headquarters at the company's 2nd anniversary celebration on May 23. [Photo/Yaxin Liu]

One of Canada's leading technology research companies, Istuary Innovation Group, is taking a big step in its efforts to nurture technology innovation and startups.

Istuary CEO Ethan Sun announced a newly created investment fund of $15 million along with new Idea Labs to support technology entrepreneurship and young talent.

"Launching [the fund] makes the celebration of our achievements and milestones all the more meaningful," he said at the company's second anniversary celebration held on May 23 in Vancouver. "As entrepreneurs ourselves, we understand how critical funding is during the first stage of creating a prototype or beta testing your product."

Over the past two years, the company has been building an international network of incubation hubs — centres that provide assistance and support to new, startup companies — that bridge North America and China, allowing startups to access talent, innovation and markets on both sides of the Pacific.

In addition to setting up branches in China, Istuary has also set up cooperative relationships with top schools in China, including Beijing University, Zhejiang University and Sun Yat-sen University.

The agreement to establish the Zhejiang University Science & Technology Park (ZJUSTP) – Istuary International Entrepreneurship Service Center was signed on November 8, 2014 in the presence of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper during his visit to China.

The service centre, located in the Zhejiang University Science & Technology Park, is designed to bring elite programs and high-caliber talents from Istuary and other enterprises in Vancouver, and conduct the technology transfers and pre-incubation processes for the programs.

To spur cooperation between tech incubators in China and Canada and to explore ways to achieve sustainable growth, Sun and several other startup incubators and accelerators from provinces across Canada have embarked on a week-long mission to Beijing, Guangzhou, Hangzhou and Jiaxing from May 24 to 31, meeting with government representatives, accelerators and small- to medium-sized enterprises in those cities.

Istuary is set to sign an agreement of for a strategic partnership with Zhejiang University Technology Venture Capital Co during this mission.

"We hope Istuary can continue to facilitate bilateral cooperation in the fields of trade, investment and technology between China and Canada, as well as to catalyze technological innovation in the two countries," said Yu Shanjun, chief economic and commercial consul of the Consulate-General of China in Vancouver, at the celebration.

dan.bu@ostvna.com