Paralleling global innovators in the like of Steve Jobs, Shenzhen innovators such as Ren Zhengfei of Huawei, Wang Chuanfu of BYD, Pony Ma of Tencent and Frank Wang of DJI have profoundly transformed the way we live, work and communicate. The biggest challenge for the coming decades, which will certainly be shaped by technology-driven innovation, is that we will need more innovators and innovative products.
To address this challenge, Shenzhen InnoX Academy（InnoX） was founded in 2021. InnoX’s founder Professor LI Zexiang from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, has incubated 265+ smart hardware startups, including 2 listed companies and 13 unicorns & potential unicorns, with DJI being the most well-known. Since its establishment, InnoX has been committed to building an ecosystem that nurtures innovative and entrepreneurial talents, cultivates tech startups, and creates a community for tech startup founders. InnoX aims to explore new paths in engineering education and empower individuals, businesses, and cities through innovation. InnoX provides systematic entrepreneurial studies, leading academic and industry experts as mentors, rapid prototyping facilities, supply chain resources and marketing channels. It aims to establish a robust ecosystem for talent development, project incubation, and entrepreneur empowerment.
Our vibrant entrepreneur community connects global resources, government partnerships, and investment networks to accelerate venture growth. Over four years, Innox has attracted applications from nearly 900 universities worldwide, involving over 14,400 individuals. Our entrepreneurs have launched 80 ventures, including 27 angel-round companies valued over ¥1 billion collectively.
The portfolio shows distinct strengths: 80% focus on consumer smart devices leveraging Shenzhen's supply chain; 75% combine AI with hardware; and 70% target global markets. We're strategically expanding into AI, embodied intelligence, low-altitude economy, marine technology, and healthcare - targeting specialized applications to build sustainable competitive advantages.
