Hong Kong’s startup ecosystem is very diverse in all aspects: Startups come from all industry sectors with the largest (by number of startups) being e-commerce (22%), followed by FinTech (15% and fastest growing), IoT (12%). Our 9 unicorns include AI, FinTech, Logistics, TravelTech, IoT and Crypto. It also covers verticals such as PropTech, TextileTech, EduTech and InsurTech. Nationality wise, 35% of founders come from abroad, over 45% of founders are female and the age spread is huge with most likely groups to found a startup in the range of 25-34 and 35-44.

Hong Kong has grown exponentially in the past three years and now holds several world records: Breeding ground for potential unicorns, Hong Kong has the highest density of unicorns per capita (9 unicorns for a 7.3 Million population). The homegrown stars include SenseTime, WeLab, Lalamove, GoGoVan, Tink Labs, BitMEX, Klook, TNG Group and Airwallex. Highest FinTech Series-A with TNG Group’s 115M USD raise. Highest valued AI company worldwide with Sensetime. World’s first Robo Advisory with 8 Securities. World’s first accelerators in Hashgraph (Helix), AI (zeroth) and cross-border IoT (brinc).

Newcomers to Hong Kong will find that language is rarely an issue with most locals being either bilingual or trilingual. Many business professionals can speak English and Cantonese and a lot of people may also speak Mandarin (Mainland China’s official language). Contracts, declarations and written exchange with business partners and government can be fully and exclusively done in English. You can easily contract cheap translation services, if required.

Ranked most competitive financial & business hub in 2017, Hong Kong is referred to as “One Country, Two systems” with regards to its association with China. It is based on “rule of law” inherited from its british times and has its own currency (HKDollar). It is characterised by its low taxation and almost free port trade. It is also reportedly one of the best cities with limited corruption and high-level strength in investor and IP protection. Over 320,000 SMEs show that setting up and managing our business is easy and straightforward.

Hong Kong ranks as the most connected city globally and the highest smartphone usage in Asia (96%), with a smartphone penetration of 230%, a Facebook penetration rate of 79% and WhatsApp of 74%, in addition to chinese social media apps such as WeChat. Hong Kong people have a staggering 768 Facebook friends on average, which is nearly eight times the worldwide standard. Our “degree of separation” is less than 2 people and meeting people in person is the usual way of doing business.

Hong Kong’s universities are best in class: 4 out of the 5 main universities here are in the top 100 universities in the QS World University Rankings 2019. It is home to 20 local degree-awarding post-secondary education institutions. Many multinational companies have Asian headquarters here. As an example, 75% of the world’s banks have a presence in Hong Kong, and hence access to Financial Services Talent is huge.

Hong Kong has the highest density of High Net Worth Individuals (HNWI) and Ultra-HNWI. The city has more than 70 venture capital firm and now it’s own equity crowdfunding platform AngelHub. Investments into the startup scene have seen a high triple digit growth in the past years and the Hong Kong stock exchange reclaimed its crown as the No 1 IPO market in the world in 2018, beating New York.

HK has the second highest internet speed connection in peak seasons. With over 50,000 hot spots, a mobile penetration rate of over 230%, 96% of the population using the internet daily, the infrastructure is not only in place, but also used and leveraged.

Hong Kong is in a 5 hours flight radius of half of the world’s population, including China and India. Over 40 million tourists from China alone visit HK annually. And it is at the heart of the Greater Bay Area, which includes the manufacturing paradise Shenzhen, only a 15-minutes train ride away. Startups can go from prototyping to production in less than a month.