******************************************************
Invest Hong Kong (InvestHK) today (September 11) announced the 40 semi-finalists of its 2014 StartmeupHK Venture Programme.
The 40 semi-finalists are grouped into two categories: the early to growth stage (30 ventures) and the concept and prototype stage (10 ventures). These ventures were assessed and chosen from a record high of 550 entries submitted to the Department's second global startup business plan contest.
By place of origin, Hong Kong companies took up the largest portion with 12 ventures, followed by the UK (6), Israel (4) and the US (4), plus others including companies from Australia, Bulgaria, Finland, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Singapore and Sweden.
In terms of business variety, the semi-finalists come from a wide spectrum of industries including retail, marketing, creative design, social media, smart mobile applications, health care, financial data analysis and more (see table attached).
Each semi-finalist was chosen by the assessors for the scale of the problem/opportunity being addressed, the effectiveness of the solution and its impact, the venture's viability, sustainability and scalability, and the economic benefit to Hong Kong in terms of knowledge and skills, job creation, social and environmental value and more.
They will be further interviewed in the next round of judging in September to determine the 12 finalists who will take part in StartmeupHK Week from November 10 to 15 in Hong Kong. At the centrepiece of this year's programme - the StartmeupHK Venture Forum on November 11 - three Grand Award Winners will be chosen by the judges and voting audience. Three Special Awards will also be given to the best ventures in FinTech, Smart City and Data Analytics. The three Special Awards are sponsored by Accenture (FinTech Award), Schneider Electric (Smart City Award) and KPMG (Data Analytics Award) respectively. The StartmeupHK Venture Programme could not be held without their support and the support of the following sponsor organisations: Baker Tilly, CoCoon, CWL Partners, DLA Piper, Dorsett Hospitality, EastFunding.co, Fintrade-Mercer Advisor Ltd, Fintrade-Mercer Corporate Law Ltd, Hong Kong Commons, Loft, NEST, Orangefield, PaperclipHK, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Soft Layer-IBM, Tanner De Witt and WYND Co-Working Space.
InvestHK's Director-General of Investment Promotion, Mr Simon Galpin, said he was delighted by the quality of the successful entrants and their diverse geographic and sector origins.
"I am happy to see that the proposals are of such high quality and that they come from so many different countries and cities. I am particularly impressed with the creativity shown by many of these ventures. This is exactly the kind of business creativity we would like to further develop in Hong Kong to help encourage our homegrown startup culture.
"I also hope that by staging the global competition in Hong Kong, we can help high net-worth individuals realise the multiple opportunities that start from our fast-growing ecosystem in Hong Kong," Mr Galpin said.
Details of the StartmeupHK Venture Programme 2014 are available on the dedicated website www.startmeup.hk. The site offers a one-stop portal to the cityˇ¦s startup community, and is the first such Hong Kong Government portal on startups. It also lists the latest startup events and signposts users to various government incentive and incubation schemes.
About InvestHK
Invest Hong Kong (InvestHK) is the department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government established in July 2000 to take responsibility for foreign direct investment and support overseas and Mainland businesses to set up or expand in Hong Kong. It provides free advice and customised services to help businesses succeed in Hong Kong's vibrant economy. As of June 2014, InvestHK had completed over 3 300 investment projects creating more than 36 400 new jobs in the first year of operation or expansion and over HK$88 billion of investment. For more information, please visit www.investhk.gov.hk.
Ends/Thursday, September 11, 2014
Issued at HKT 17:30
NNNN