"Create@Alibaba Cloud" Expands to Four Continents Program Promotes Global Cloud-Based Innovation and Helps Start-ups Accelerate Growth

Nanjing, China, April [26], 2017 - Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Alibaba Group, announced today that it will expand its global start-up program "Create@Alibaba Cloud" to more countries, applying its growing global coverage and increasing support to local small enterprises. The program is aimed at empowering start-ups around the globe with Alibaba's comprehensive support network and innovative suite of cloud computing infrastructure services. Participants gain access to sophisticated computing resources to innovate and accelerate their business growth.

In its third year, Create@Alibaba Cloud will now be expanded to cover Mainland China and 12 overseas markets and regions – Australia, France, Germany, China(Hong Kong), India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, the U.A.E., the U.K., and the U.S. Local contests will be rolled out in all these markets beginning in June and regional winners will compete in Shanghai for the championship in October.

"As we continue to establish our cloud capabilities and international data centers, we are pleased to expand the program to include markets such as Japan and Australia this year, and make our sophisticated computing solutions and big-data intelligence available to more and more local start-ups around the world" Ethan Yu, Vice President of Alibaba Cloud, said. "Create@Alibaba Cloud celebrates the innovations of start-ups in these markets while providing these exciting drivers of change with access to Alibaba Cloud expertise, investment funding, work spaces and incubation, as well as Alibaba Group global market resources and ecosystem to help them grow."

As part of the program, participants will receive funding for investments into IT infrastructure for the first year, professional technology training, customized technology solutions designed by Alibaba Cloud architects and one-on-one post-sales support, to help start-ups scale their businesses rapidly and smoothly.

In addition, the River Hill Fund as well as Alibaba Group's Strategic Investment Department will support the start-ups throughout the course of their development. Create@Alibaba Cloud also empowers start-ups through Alibaba's ecosystem and with better access to overseas markets and an established network by inviting participants to join Alibaba Cloud's marketing campaigns, both online and offline.

The development of last year's Create@Alibaba Cloud champion XtalPi demonstrates the positive impact of the program. XtalPi is dedicated to expediting patient access to innovative, cost-effective medicines, leveraging Alibaba Cloud's highly scalable cloud services. After taking home USD216,000 in cloud resource credits, the U.S.-based pharma-tech company utilized Alibaba Cloud's computing capabilities to further optimize its innovative solutions for drug solid-form screening and designing that can significantly boost cost-efficiency of drug development for pharmaceutical companies, and revolutionize the industry standard for drug development, risk management, patent strategy, and lifecycle management. XtalPi has recently won a contract with a top pharmaceutical company and currently expects to soon close its Series B financing round.

"The Create@Alibaba Cloud program gave us positive exposure that helps us attract both investment and top talent. By deploying our innovations to the massively scalable cloud solutions of Alibaba Cloud, we have significantly increased our overall computing capabilities by 20,000 cores, fueling the rapid growth of our business." said Shuhang Wen, co-founder of Xtalpi.

For more information about this year's Create@Alibaba Cloud program, please visit Create@Alibaba Cloud.

About Alibaba Cloud

Established in September 2009, Alibaba Cloud, Alibaba Group's cloud computing arm, develops highly scalable platforms for cloud computing and data management. It provides a comprehensive suite of cloud computing services to support participants of Alibaba Group's online and mobile commerce ecosystem, including sellers, and other third-party customers and businesses. Alibaba Cloud is a business within Alibaba Group.