Hong Kong turns into new launchpad for tech startups, hit a document excessive in 2024 – Firstpost

Hong Kong has develop into a launching pad for software program companies aimed on the huge mainland market and past.

That is primarily because of the metropolis’s quick integration with the Higher Bay Space in southern China, in addition to its still-internationally aggressive company local weather and comparatively open info flows.

In accordance with the latest authorities information, the variety of tech startups in Hong Kong reached a document excessive of 4,694 in 2024, together with greater than 600 in monetary know-how. That is about 10% progress from the 4,257 startups in 2023.

In accordance with an annual examine issued in February by authorities company InvestHK, they make use of 17,651 individuals, a 7% enhance from the earlier yr.

Hong Kong’s rising tech prominence comes at a time when the startup setting in Shenzhen, the mainland’s major innovation hub, is shedding a few of its shine. On one essential indicator, the variety of unicorns, or startups valued at greater than $1 billion, Hong Kong has surpassed Shenzhen.

In accordance with CB Insights, an business tracker, Hong Kong presently has 9 unicorns, in comparison with solely six in Shenzen.

The Hong Kong authorities, which counts greater than ten unicorns as a result of varied definitions, has acknowledged that it plans to extend the variety of unicorns to 30 by 2032. In 2014, it had zero.

King Leung, InvestHK’s world head of monetary providers, fintech, and sustainability, acknowledged that entrepreneurs typically have a transparent imaginative and prescient of the challenges they search to deal with.

Native entrepreneurs now account for 72% of all enterprise founders, up from 68% the earlier yr.

Hong Kong’s IT unicorns embrace monetary firms HashKey Group, ZA Financial institution, WeLab, and Airwallex.

Leung named Animoca Manufacturers, WeLab, GoGoX, LaLaMove, and SmartMore as outstanding alumni of Cyberport and the Hong Kong Science & Expertise Park’s incubation initiatives.

He attributed Hong Kong’s rising tech startup sector to quite a lot of causes. These embrace closeness and preferential entry to the Chinese language mainland market, a global imaginative and prescient, a robust widespread regulation system with sturdy mental property safety, and complete capital move freedom.

“Hong Kong performs an important position in bridging mainland China and the world, significantly inside the booming tech and startup panorama of the Higher Bay Space,” he added.

The federal government’s efforts to draw expertise from throughout the border have additionally aided the creation of tech startups