German telecom giant Siemens is committed to investing more in wireless start-ups in China as part of its drive to spur the development of the mobile applications sector.

Siemens Mobile Acceleration (SMAC), a subsidiary of Siemens Information and Communications Mobile, has injected an unspecified amount of venture capital (VC) into three start-up companies in China respectively, said Dietrich Ulmer, chief executive officer and president of SMAC.

SMAC has invested in 20 start-ups globally so far.

SMAC typically invests up to 1.5 million euros (US$1.83 million) each in return for a minority stake.

The SMAC was designed to identify and fund investments in emerging and innovative technologies, applications and services that will help enhance the core business scope of Siemens and boost wireless applications, such as gaming and ringtone downloading, which are becoming increasingly important to the mobile communications industry.

"The mobile data market is at the very beginning," Ulmer said.

"We decide to support those companies at an early stage before market entry to spur the data market."

SMAC offers support to those start-ups including capital, coaching and access to Siemens' global research and development (R&D) facilities as well as sales networks.

Hot investment areas in China cover "everything" in the wireless sector, ranging from WLAN (wireless local area network), digital broadcasting, VoIP (voice over Internet protocol) to home entertainment, the president said.

SMAC has received more than 600 business plans, most of which are from the Chinese mainland, since it opened offices in Beijing and Shanghai in early 2002.

SMAC is keen on identifying opportunities in which it can inject venture funds, Ulmer said.

SMAC is seeking closer links with leading Chinese universities to spur entrepreneurship, he added.

China now has more than 300 million cellular subscribers.

The figure is expected to hit the 435 million mark by 2008, which has made the country a major attraction for Siemens' venture funds.

SMAC seeks neither to gain a controlling stake in the start-ups, nor to control the intellectual property rights.

SMAC will not intervene if the start-ups seek cooperation with a rival of Siemens.

SMAC is willing to work with other venture capitalists like Nokia and Acer's VC arms to co-invest in Chinese start-ups to spur innovations in the wireless applications sector, according to Helmut Struss, general manager of SMAC Asia-Pacific.

Nokia last October launched a New Business Development Center in Shanghai to introduce venture funds to start-up companies.

(China Business Weekly July 12, 2004)