There is no question that Hong Kong is one of the leading cities in Asia and the world in terms of business and finance, but let’s take a look at why and how it became a center for business and what is the situation of Hong Kong for startups who are trying to scale and grow their businesses.

Firstly, Hong Kong’s location in Asia is one of the key factors of it being a business hub. Due to its location, Hong Kong is close to all key markets in Asia and provides access to half of the world’s population in a short amount of time by plane. Currently, Hong Kong has become a home for more than 8,000 businesses with most of these companies having strategic functions located in the city itself. Hong Kong has become a platform to reach and access all Asian markets and an important strategic business center, so this also causes the city to be one of the best options to start and scale a new business.

Hong Kong is in the position of having the exceptional infrastructure and pro-business policies apart from its strategical position in Asia. Also, it has been ranked the freest economy in the world for twenty-three years in a row which once again shows and highlights why Hong Kong has become a center of opportunities for new and growing businesses.

With its huge network of incubators, accelerators, angel investors and venture capitalists the Hong Kong startup ecosystem has been growing rapidly and creating a land of opportunities for entrepreneurs and their businesses. At the end of 2018, the number of startups has reached a total of 2,625 with an increase of 146% in the last 5 years. Also, the number of employees has reached 9,548 (301% increase in 5 years) and the number of workstations has reached a total of 13,756 with a 387% increase in 5 years.

Almost 35% of all the startups in Hong Kong were founded by non-locals with the top five nationalities being UK, US, Mainland China, Australia, and France. This shows that Hong Kong is not only an environment for locals but rather is an international hub for all entrepreneurs who are seeking to scale their businesses.

In this rapidly growing startup ecosystem of Hong Kong, the top five industries of startups have been Fintech, E-commerce, professional or consultancy services, information/computer & technologies, and design. Also, in the last few years, multiple unicorns like BitMex, Gogovan, Klook, and Lalamove were able to emerge in Hong Kong as well.

As mentioned before Hong Kong is currently home to a huge network of incubators, accelerators, angel investors and venture capitalists. So, this once again highlights that Hong Kong is an environment for new startups to fundraise and grow in multiple different aspects. Recently, Betatron which is a startup accelerator founded by the leading VC firms of Hong Kong and has been voted the first in Greater China and second in All-Asia in terms of contribution to the startup ecosystem has been accepting applications for their fifth cohort. Applications will be open until the 18th of July and selected startups will receive an initial investment up to 150,000 USD and hundreds of hours of hands-on mentorship.

For more info: https://www.betatron.co/

To apply: https://www.betatron.co/apply.html