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The StartmeupHK Festival concluded a successful week-long series of events, networking activities and pitching competitions on November 17, with more than 12,000 participants and 16,000 online viewers from 85 countries and territories joining events across Hong Kong.

The annual event, organised by Invest Hong Kong (InvestHK), showcases the city’s flourishing innovation and technology sector, and was attended by start-ups, investors, global business leaders and entrepreneurs from around the world, who explored developments in areas including Web3, healthtech, proptech, greentech and Gamefi.

Under the theme “A Future Unlimited”, the festival featured panellist discussions, with more than 600 speakers representing the business and start-up sectors exchanging insights on developments in the information and technology (I&T) landscape and how they might drive change in the future. More than 800 one-to-one business-matching meetings were also held between start-ups, investors and potential partners to explore business opportunities.

The event included eight main events in addition to community activities around Hong Kong. A satellite event was also held in Bangkok, where executives and innovators discussed corporate strategies for nurturing innovation and growth.

The choice of venues this year, including Ocean Park and the Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade, allowed the festival to tap into the diverse atmospheres of these locations and create an immersive experience for participants as the event marked a return to an in-person format.

Hong Kong’s dynamic start-up ecosystem continues to exhibit resilience, attracting innovative entrepreneurs and global capital. The city has not only fostered the growth of unicorns, but it is also home to a diverse range of start-ups specialising in fintech, retail tech, healthtech, the Internet of Things (IoT) and proptech.

At the opening ceremony, “Game On! 2023”, Michael Wong, Acting Financial Secretary of the Hong Kong government, said the city’s fast-growing start-up community now had a record number of 4,000 companies. “These figures are very encouraging and demonstrate that Hong Kong has all the necessary elements to nurture and support start-ups,” he added.

Similar sentiments were echoed by other key speakers, including Professor Sun Dong, Hong Kong’s Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry. Speaking at the Startup World Cup Asia Finale 2023, he said Hong Kong is recognised as a world-class financial centre and “is striving to become an international innovation and technology hub, making our city an ideal destination for start-ups to thrive”.

Similar views were expressed by Alpha Lau, Director-General, Investment Promotion, InvestHK. “Despite the ongoing challenges posed by macroeconomic uncertainties, Hong Kong’s start-up ecosystem has shown remarkable resilience and growth,” she said, adding the government will continue to implement strategies to attract large companies, start-ups, talent and capital.

The festival examined the challenges faced in various facets of our daily lives, and explored how potential I&T applications could provide solutions.

Sustainability emerged as a key theme across all sectors. During a keynote speech at the “St Gallen Symposium Hong Kong – GBA Forum 2023” about the Greater Bay Area, Bernard Chan, chairman of Our Hong Kong Foundation, emphasised the role of collaboration within the region to incorporate sustainable business practices into business models. Christine Loh, chief development strategist at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, stressed the role that family offices can play in driving capital towards sustainable businesses.

A similar message emerged at the “1.5°C Summit – The Defining Decade for Impact with Tech”, which focused on climate change and sustainability. Alexander Bent, co-founder and managing partner of Undivided Ventures, which invests in early-stage companies in the built environment, led the call for organisations to invest in socially responsive companies and address issues around sustainability to maintain their competitiveness.

The “Real Estate Beyond 2023” conference explored potential I&T solutions for housing and sustainability issues. This one-day event featured keynote speeches, panel discussions and small group dialogues with business and technology leaders, one being Andrew Young, associate director (innovation), Sino Group. The conference addressed various aspects of the housing sector, and the potential of collaboration between property developers and proptech start-ups to find solutions to help the sector meet decarbonisation goals.

The roles of artificial intelligence (AI) and Web3 were highlighted at the “Asia Health Innovation Summit 2023”, hosted by venture capital and accelerator firm Brinc. The summit provided a platform for regional start-ups, professionals and investors from the health sector to exchange ideas.

Discussions centred on the impact of AI – particularly generative AI – on healthcare, workforce transformation and emerging innovations, with Dr Frank Pun, head of Insilico Medicine in Hong Kong, highlighting its potential in generating experimental data to help patients, particularly when healthcare professionals are confronted with new or relatively unknown diseases.

Several community events provided opportunities for exploring new ideas and networking with new individuals. One such event was “Louder Connect”, organised by communications company Louder Global, which highlighted the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs. Jayne Chan, head of StartmeupHK at InvestHK, highlighted the number of female start-up leaders in Hong Kong, but emphasised the need for investors in the city to support female talent to boost their role in the tech economy.

The spirit of the festival was further elevated by competitions. A Shark Tank-style pitch competition was a hotbed of innovative ideas from start-ups and students, while the Startup World Cup (SWC) Asia Finale 2023, held at the Hong Kong Science and Technology Park, saw teams competing for the top prize in front of CEOs from leading global companies and venture capital firms. The winning team, i2cool, an energy-efficient service provider that uses passive radiative cooling technology, secured a chance to compete for the global championship at December’s SWC Grand Finale in San Francisco.

The Jumpstarter 2023 Tech by the Harbour event showcased a global pitching competition organised by the Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund (AEF), where finalist start-ups demonstrated their innovative ideas and solutions. AEF is a non-profit initiative of Alibaba Group Holding, owner of the South China Morning Post.

The winner of this year’s Jumpstarter competition was Allegrow Biotech, a Hong Kong-based biotechnology company that develops cost-effective cell therapeutic products and treatments.