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Invest Hong Kong (InvestHK) announced today (November 4) that its 2014 StartmeupHK Venture Forum will feature a wealth of speakers and judges with deep experience of founding and investing in successful start-up ventures.
The 14 winners and candidates for the Grand Prizes and Special Awards have been announced and will go head-to-head in the Grand Finale at the StartmeupHK Venture Forum in Hong Kong on November 11. At this Forum, a pitching competition will see the ultimate winners of the three Grand Prizes and three new sponsored Special Awards for the best FinTech, Smart City and Data Analytics ventures. Prizes totalling US$745,000 in terms of professional services, incubation and co-work space and mentorship will be provided by a host of supporting sponsors.
The Forum will also feature two panel discussions with local and overseas speakers and a keynote speech by the President and CEO of US-based Kauffman Fellows, Mr Phil Wickham. Kauffman Fellows is a global network of venture capital investors, angels and others who provide capital that fuels entrepreneurship worldwide. Mr Wickham has guided more than 30 new venture investments, including Ikanos, Web Methods, Com21 and Emergent, and serves on the boards of S2 Technologies, Trilibis and the Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs, and is an adviser to the Creandum fund in Stockholm.
Other speakers include Founder and Director of True Global Ventures Mr Dušan Stojanović from Sweden; Founder and Managing Director of Anthemis Group Mr Nadeem Shaikh from the UK; and Co-founder and President of Yolu Co Ltd Mr Richard Robinson, who is based in Mainland China. They will take part in a panel discussion facilitated by Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Outblaze Mr Yat Siu to offer insight about entrepreneurship from an international perspective.
Recognised as the Business Angel of the Year in Europe in 2013 by the European Business Angel Network, Mr Stojanović has worked for more than 20 years within business development primarily in e-payments/e-commerce and financial services - half of that time at GE Capital and Monabanq.com, and the rest with his own ventures and investments.
Mr Shaikh is a thought leader and practitioner of innovation within the financial services industry and has a global network within both the start-up world and established corporates. He is a dedicated mentor to start-ups at incubators and accelerators such as Barclays Techstars and Level39 in London. He also serves on the Boards of PayPerks, AFB and OneBento within the Anthemis portfolio, and is the Board Chairman of CARE, Pakistan's largest educational non-governmental organisation.
Mr Robinson is an active entrepreneur, advisor and angel investor with over 14 years' experience in the start-up field. He has been Co-founder and CEO of Dada Asia; Co-founder of Shouji Mobile; Vice President of International for Linktone; Founder and CEO of MIG, which was acquired by Glu Mobile; and a founding executive as Vice President of Marketing and Sales for renren.com.
Local speakers will include the Chief Investment Officer of Nest, Ms Jennifer Carver, who will also facilitate the discussion in a panel to feature CEO and co-founder of 9GAG, Mr Ray Chan; the CEO of Cherrypicks, Mr Jason Chiu; the CEO of Nixplay, Mr Mark Palfreeman; and Founding Partner of SXE Ventures Mr Danny Yeung. Each will share their experience and how they raised funds for their business.
Ms Carver has over 25 years of experience in asset management, investment advisory and technology in Hong Kong. Mr Chan started 9GAG, which is a leading social entertainment platform for humour content, in 2008. Mr Chiu is known for his successful implementation of mobile and new media innovation and technology entrepreneurship. Mr Palfreeman has seven years of intensive experience in CE manufacturing, CE SaaS and online consumer electronics retail. Mr Yeung is a serial entrepreneur and moved to Hong Kong from the US in 2010 to start uBuyiBuy, which was subsequently acquired by Groupon after six months of operations.
The speakers will together comprise this year's judging panel at the Forum alongside the President of Prospect Ventures, Ms Renu Bhatia; Board Member and Co-founder, International IP Commercialization Council, Mr Johnson Kong; the Head of Asia Pacific, China and Japan Strategy and Business Development at IMS Health, Mr Andy Liu; and Chief Representative, China, Silicon Valley Bank, Mr Mike Yahng.
Biographies of the speakers and judges and 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 city's start-up community, and is the first such Hong Kong Government portal on start-ups. It also lists the latest start-up events and signposts users to various government incentive and incubation schemes.
Sponsors of the 2014 StartmeupHK competition include Baker Tilly, CoCoon, CWL Partners, DLA Piper, Dorsett Hospitality, EastFunder.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. The three Special Awards are sponsored by Accenture (FinTech), Schneider Electric (Smart City) and KPMG (Data Analytics).
About InvestHK
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/Tuesday, November 4, 2014
Issued at HKT 14:44
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