Opportunity

Sponsored by: MIT China Future City Lab

The MIT-Tsinghua Future City Innovation Connector (FCIC), initiated by the MIT China Future City Lab and Tsinghua University, connects MIT and Tsinghua urban tech startups with the plethora of application scenarios in China.

Each year, FCIC selects outstanding startup teams, prepares them with the most relevant knowledge, equips them with the most useful market-launching tools, and locates the best Chinese pilot sites for them. FCIC sponsors field work in China, supporting the startup teams with abundant government, market and industry resources. Teams have unique opportunities to engage with city leaders, industry-leading business partners, China experts, entrepreneurs, and local innovation communities.

Call for MIT startups that:

  • Have at least one founding member who is an MIT student, faculty, researcher, or affiliate
  • Aim to develop products or services that solve urban problems and has a strong urban technology focus in the field of smart society, Real Estate tech, construction tech, or mobility & delivery
  • Have a prototype
  • Passionate about launching their business in China, and have or are open to have a Chinese speaking partner in the team

What FCIC offers:

  • A new MIT course for Spring 2019: 11.s951 (FCIC China Connector Workshop: Urbanization, Technology and the Innovation Market ) is a new course that provides startups with a structured roadmap (frameworks, tools, and strategies) to bring urban technology innovation to the China market.
  • A network of partners and customers: Connections with leading real estate conglomerates, city and district leaders, and other key stakeholders in China who are keen to work with startups on pilots and as potential customers.
  • China Trip: Structured 4-week trip in China in July 2019 that includes workshops with city leaders, roundtables with industrial executives, demo day events, and more. Participating startups will work towards launching pilots in test sites.
  • Funding: Each selected team will be awarded $8,000 FCIC travel grants, plus partial local accommodation. FCIC is partnering with Leping Foundation to select 1 team to offer extra $20K equity-free seed grant to advance technology driven social innovation in China. The selected team will need to spend at least 3 months in China. Leping Foundation will also provide in-kind free acceleration service with their Beijing headquarter.
  •  Opportunities to build future livable cities from ground up: FCIC startups that have successfully validated their solution through pilots will gain access to partners from new city development corporations to transform the cities of the future.

Required team commitment:

At least one core member of each team is require to attend the 11.s951 course in the spring semester. The goal of the workshops is to prepare the teams well enough to be efficient and resourceful in the China trip.

* Please note: team does not have an automatic right to China trip and travel grants unless they pass the assignment of 11.s951.


Details

Key Dates:

  • February 25: Deadline to apply
  • March 1: Announce shortlist for Interview Day
  • March 4–5: Interview Day
  • March 12: Final Decision
  • March 19: Deadline for teams to reply confirmation
  • March 30: Announcement of 2019 FCIC Cohort
  • April 4–May 9: Spring workshops (class meets every Thursday, 9 am–12 pm)
  • May 20: Industry Partner Roundtable at MIT
  • July 1–27: FCIC China trip (teams arrive in Guangzhou by June 30)

For more information and to apply, visit the FCIC website.