<article>The finals of the StartmeupHK Venture Programme will be played out in Hong Kong on November 11, where nine global startups and three local players, will compete for cash prizes of upto $500,000.</article>

The finals of the StartmeupHK Venture Programme will be played out in Hong Kong on November 11, where nine global startups and three local players, will compete for cash prizes of upto $500,000.
Read about the 12 finalists <a href="http://www.startmeup.hk/en/awards-programme/finalists-2014/">here</a>
StartmeupHK Venture Programme has been organised by InvestHK, a government agency tasked with attracting foreign direct investment in HK. This is among the several such contests that have sprung up over the last couple of years. Meanwhile, larger ecosystem of venture capitalists, various tech zones and parks and co-working spaces are already takes root in the city.
Such contests are important for the city, which trails Singapore and India’s Bangalore by quite some margin in the entrepreneurial quotient.
The results appear encouraging. The 2014 StartmeupHK 2014 saw 550 entries from 47 economies, compared to 384 entries from 39 countries in the previous year.
While a significant number of entries -178- were from Hong Kong, the contest attracted a fair share of participation from across the globe. About 56 startups from the US, with substantial number from other countries like Israel (53), India (46) and the UK (30), submited their applications in the first round.
“The startup scene in Hong Kong has grown rapidly. It is home to roughly 600 to 800 startups, many of them led by overseas entrepreneurs. An increasing number of larger foreign companies have established their regional base and even put their global headquarters or global functions in Hong Kong. At the same time, many Mainland enterprises are using Hong Kong to ‘go global’. Now is the right time for founders and investors from all over the world to come to Hong Kong and experience our thriving startup community,” Gregory So, secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, said in a statement.
InvestHK’s director-general of Investment Promotion, Simon Galpin, is of the view that the event had attracted not only scalable startups, but had also caught the attention of local and overseas family offices and high-net-worth individuals, bringing to their notice, the investment potential of Hong Kong’s startup ecosystem.
“I believe that the StartmeupHK Venture Programme is a terrific way to focus attention on this fast-growing segment of our economy,” Galpin said.

12 firms vie for $500k prize in HK startup contest

Bring stories like this into your inbox every day.

Sign up for our newsletter - The Daily Brief

12 firms vie for $500k prize in HK startup contest

Start your deal-making journey now!

Bring stories like this into your inbox every day.

Sign up for our newsletter - The Daily Brief