SHANGHAI Pudong Software Park yesterday opened I-Cube, a 5,000-square-meter incubation space that offers favorable rents and free IT resources to local IT entrepreneurs.

The software park also signed cooperation agreements with China Telecom and the Shanghai Pudong Development Bank to offer telecommunications services and financial support for startups in I-Cube.

Firms in I-Cube can have “specifically favorable” rents in the first six months and free devices and IT resources including cloud servers and laser cutting machines for hardware products.

So far the software park in Zhangjiang has established 40,000 square meters of incubation spaces including I-Cube, as well as an incubation fund of 250 million yuan (US$39 million).

The incubation fund will help companies in I-Cube to attract investments. The fund will also help firms list on a new high-tech board, run by the Shanghai Equity Exchange, operator of the city’s over-the-counter equity market. The new board opened on Monday.

The I-Cube, representing incubation, IT and intelligence, is the park’s latest attempt to help Shanghai develop itself into a global technology and innovation center.