Silicon Valley start-up incubator Y Combinator, which played a central role in the development of success stories Dropbox and Airbnb, has hired former Baidu and Microsoft executive Lu Qi to help break into China’s dynamic tech industry, the Financial Times reports.
Lu, former COO of search company Baidu, will run Y Combinator’s China unit as the Californian firm strives to grab the “missing piece” of its puzzle in the Chinese market, according to co-founder Sam Altman.
“We think that a significant percentage of the largest technology companies that are founded in the next decade – companies at the scale of Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and Facebook – will be based in the US and China,” said Altman.
Lu will also head YC’s non-profit research lab YC Research. He left his post at Baidu in May after two years at the company.
“I have been trying to recruit Qi for years!” wrote Altman on his blog.
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