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HKU launches study of Hong Kong’s Startup Ecosystem

20 Mar 2015

 

A research team from the University of Hong Kong (HKU) is launching a study into the Hong Kong Startup Ecosystem in partnership with Compass (formerly Startup Genome) and Innofoco.

Prof Richard Wong, leader of the HKU research team, said: “Startups seek to provide innovative solutions to real problems of our economy and society through a repeatable and scalable business model. It is now widely recognized that high growth startups are an important component of the growth engine of the digital economy. From the established hubs in Silicon Valley and Israel to the emerging hotbeds of Berlin, London, New York and Santiago, more and more cities are seeing an explosive growth of startups. In Asia, the startup scenes in Bangalore, Beijing, Singapore and Shenzhen are also burgeoning.    Hong Kong’s startup community is growing rapidly in the last few years, albeit from a very low base. A systematic study of this development in Hong Kong is very timely.”

This HKU study of startups will be done in conjunction with Compass, a Silicon Valley-based company that is carrying out the same study on a global basis, covering more than 30 countries. Three years ago, the Startup Ecosystem Report 2012—researched, analyzed and published by Compass—was the first comparative study of the world’s startup ecosystems. “By partnering with Compass, we will not only be able to compare Hong Kong’s findings with those from other economies on a like-with-like basis, but also to analyse the study results in a developmental perspective, drawing on experiences from more mature ecosystems elsewhere,” says Prof Richard Wong, who is also an Advisor to the Our Hong Kong Foundation set up by Mr CH Tung.

Innofoco, a Hong Kong based company that specializes in looking into startup as the driving force of city competitiveness, will also participate in this study. Miss Rachel Chan, Founder and Chief Catalyst of Innofoco, says that she is very excited about this study as it is the first time, looking from the outside in a systematic way, the DNA and positioning of the Hong Kong startup ecosystem will be analysed. The study will help identify the opportunities and challenges, as well as the complementarities Hong Kong could explore and exploit, particularly in an Asian context.

Beginning today (March 20), startups in Hong Kong may access the 2015 Startup Ecosystem Survey to provide their data to help measure the health and growth of the local ecosystem relative to more than 50 ecosystems (cities) around the world. They will also be able to benchmark their individual results with their relevant peers, providing a highly useful perspective that enhances decision-making.

“As the Industrial Economy falls away with increasing speed and half the world’s current jobs will be replaced by software, it becomes critical to build thoughtful programs to nurture the entrepreneurial renaissance that will take its place. Entrepreneurs need to benchmark their performance against their relevant peers around the world as competition will be increasingly global. And governments need to benchmark their ecosystems.” said Bjoern Lasse Herrmann, CEO of Compass.

Press enquiries:
Mr KC Kwok, The University of Hong Kong
Email: kwokkwokchuen@hku.hk
Tel : +852 2859 8998

Miss Rachel Chan, Innofoco
Email: rchan@innofoco.com
Tel: +852 2560 5226

Participate in the 2015 Hong Kong Startup Ecosystem Survey:
http://startup-ecosystem.compass.co/survey/?utm_source=Compass&utm_medium=blogCB&utm_campaign=SER15_Feb03