Y Combinator, a Silicon Valley incubator of start-ups, said on Thursday it would close YC China, a Chinese version of its US programme. The move comes as tensions rise between the United States and China over trade and intellectual property in the technology sector. Y Combinator said the decision was a change in strategy unrelated to problems between the two countries. YC China was created in 2018 under the leadership of Qi Lu, a computer scientist who was an executive in Microsoft Corp and Chinese search engine Baidu Inc.
Y Combinator said in a blog post that the incubator had changed its strategy to supporting local and international startups from its Silicon Valley headquarters.
"As a result, we decided that now is not the right time to run a new, country-specific version of Y Combinator," it said.
Incubators typically run programs for start-up founders to develop ideas and turn them into businesses. Notable Y Combinator programme graduates include Airbnb, DoorDash and Dropbox.
Qi will now fund companies under his own programme called MiraclePlus, according to the blog. He was not immediately available to comment.
Y Combinator said it will continue to support and fund Chinese companies interested in applying to its US programme.
© Thomson Reuters 2019
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