HKSTP
13.1.2023 13:25:39 CET | Business Wire | Press release
Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) has partnered with world-leading innovation platform, Plug and Play, to call on ambitious startups and entrepreneurs around the world to join the seventh Elevator Pitch Competition 2023 (EPiC 2023), one of the biggest pitch events in Hong Kong. The final entry deadline for the Competition has also been extended to 20 January 2023.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230113005179/en/
HKSTP CEO, Albert Wong, joins Plug and Play CEO, Saeed Amidi, to promote HKSTP’s EPiC 2023, calling all startups in the world to come to Hong Kong for a scale-up opportunity of a lifetime. (Photo: Business Wire)
This offers local and global startups the chance to join the combined HKSTP and Plug and Play eco-systems to launch their potential innovations onto the global stage. Interested parties on two technology tracks (FinTech and PropTech) only need to submit a 2-min video introduction to make a potentially life-changing decision. 50 shortlisted semi-finalists will have the golden opportunity to be considered by HKSTP Venture Fund for direct investment of up to US$5 million as well as market expansion support in Asia and beyond, plus the chance to win a cash prize of US$60,000 if crowned champion.
As the world’s leading accelerator, Plug and Play will leverage its global network to organise international competitions in Asia, Europe and Northern America throughout February to bring in overseas startups to the April final in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong provides the ideal platform to expand into the vast Asian market, being a gateway to both Mainland China and Asia. Startups joining EPiC 2023 can fully leverage the largest I&T ecosystem in Hong Kong and HKSTP’s direct connections to over 1,000 investors and more than 300 corporate partners.
Albert Wong, CEO of HKSTP, said: “This year, our flagship event EPiC is set to be the biggest and best-ever as we partner with world-renowned Plug and Play, elevating the investment platform to a truly global level. This collaboration cements HKSTP and Hong Kong as a unique global launchpad to rapidly scale up innovators on their growth journey, while achieving our mission to propel success and advance Hong Kong's I&T development.”
Saeed Amidi, CEO of Plug and Play, said: “Partnering with HKSTP on EPiC is a major step forward in our mission to harness the huge Asia opportunity to build the world’s leading innovation platform. We are partnering with changemakers like HKSTP to build a unique innovation ecosystem by connecting the brightest minds with world-leading corporations, VC firms, universities, and government agencies across multiple industries.’’
EPiC 2023 will take place at the iconic sky100 venue atop Hong Kong’s tallest building, International Commerce Centre, to create a genuine elevator pitch experience for startups.
Who can apply:
- Tech startups that are less than 10 years old
- Ideas should focus on one of the TWO technology tracks: FinTech and PropTech
Applications will close on 20 January 2023 at 23:59 (Hong Kong time).
Please visit the website (https://epic.hkstp.org/) for more information on EPiC 2023.
About Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation
Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) has for 20 years committed to building up Hong Kong as an international innovation and technology hub to propel success for local and global pioneers today and tomorrow. HKSTP has established a thriving I&T ecosystem that is home to three unicorns and Hong Kong’s leading R&D hub with over 12,000 research professionals and over 1,200 technology companies focused on healthtech, AI and robotics, fintech and smart city technologies.
Established in 2001, we attract and nurture talent, accelerate and commercialise innovation and technology for entrepreneurs on their journey of growth in Hong Kong, to the Greater Bay Area, Asia and beyond. Our growing innovation ecosystem is built around our key locations of Hong Kong Science Park in Shatin, InnoCentre in Kowloon Tong and three modern INNOPARKs in Tai Po, Tseung Kwan O and Yuen Long. The three INNOPARKs are realising a vision of re-industrialisation for Hong Kong. The goal is sectors like advanced manufacturing, electronics and biotechnology are being reimagined for a new generation of industry.
Through our infrastructure, services, expertise and network of partnerships, HKSTP will help establish innovation and technology as a pillar of growth for Hong Kong, while reinforcing Hong Kong’s international I&T hub status as a launchpad for global growth at the heart of the GBA innovation powerhouse.
More information about HKSTP is available at www.hkstp.org.
About Plug and Play
Plug and Play was established in Sunnyvale, California - a region within the renowned Silicon Valley. Although officially founded in 2006, the early stages of the business could be traced back to 1998. The company contains business functions, including tech investment, corporate innovation, and innovation space. Plug and Play now has 50 regional offices in over 30 countries and regions worldwide. With nearly 20 years of experience in early-stage tech investment, Plug and Play has successfully invested in and incubated numerous big tech companies, including PayPal, Google, Dropbox, LendingClub, Guardant Health, Rappi, N26, Honey, etc. It has invested in over 1,500 startups and accelerated over 17,000 programs globally. Each year, Plug and Play provides open innovation services for over 500 world-leading corporations through over 1,000 matchmaking activities with cutting-edge technology companies.
Formally established in 2016, Plug and Play China currently has 3 regional innovation hubs in Beijing (China HQ), Shanghai (Plug and Play Innovation Hub - Yangtze River Delta Area), and Shenzhen (Shenzhen Innovation Center). Plug and Play China also provides open innovation services in Nanjing, Wuhan, Wuxi etc.
There are 4 main business functions across Plug and Play China’s innovation platform including corporate innovation, city innovation, tech investment, and innovation space.
It has built China's leading international innovation ecosystem and created a multi-dimensional open innovation platform that includes corporations, startups, universities and research labs, government agencies, venture capitalist firms, and city innovation partners.
Since 2016, Plug and Play China has engaged with 100+ industry-leading corporations, accelerated over 1700 startups, and has invested in over 150 startups including ApplyBoard, AutoX, Flexiv, ZiFiSense, ROBOTICPLUS.AI, INGEEK, Hexaflake, Authing, Yours, etc.
Please visit www.pnpchina.com for more information.
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230113005179/en/
About Business Wire
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Workiva Advances Regulatory Work with AI Innovation15.9.2026 17:00:00 CEST | Press release
Agent Studio anchors AI capabilities unveiled at Amplify 2026 Workiva Inc. (NYSE: WK), a leading, audit-ready platform for trust, transparency, and accountability, unveiled dozens of new product and platform innovations at Amplify 2026, the company’s annual conference attended by thousands of finance, accounting, sustainability, risk, and compliance leaders. Workiva Debuts Agent Studio Workiva introduced Agent Studio, a landmark platform capability that empowers users to quickly build, customize, and deploy AI agents in Workiva's trusted platform. By combining AI reasoning with Workiva's native platform capabilities, enterprise knowledge, and governed workflows, Agent Studio enables users to automate sophisticated manual business processes without writing any code. Organizations can enrich agents with company-specific knowledge and context, tailor them to their own processes, and schedule automations to execute recurring work. “With Agent Studio, we're putting the power to build in the
Study: Heatwaves Increase Cough Urge, Which Salt Aerosols Reduce15.9.2026 15:15:00 CEST | Press release
New Study Indicates Non-Pharmacological Aerosol May Provide Therapeutic Relief for Respiratory Conditions Provoked by the Atmospheric Aridity Inherent to Heatwaves SC Therapeutics, with University North Carolina, Imperial College London, and Boston University, announced publication on Tuesday in Nature Scientific Reports of results from a multi-institutional study indicating that the aridity inherent in heatwaves increases cough hypersensitivity in human airways by collapsing mucus onto cilia in a manner common to chronic respiratory diseases, such as cystic fibrosis, and asthma. The researchers find that alkaline aerosols of magnesium salts reverse mucosal collapse for several hours, and reduce cough hypersensitivity as reflected in placebo-adjusted suppression of daily cough bout rate (59%, p=0.03) and persistence of suppression post treatment for 1 to 3 weeks in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of 10 refractory chronic cough patients. “Paris recorded 5,764 excess
ADM’s Fourth Annual Regenerative Agriculture Report Highlights Growing Resilience Across the Food System15.9.2026 15:00:00 CEST | Press release
2025 programs engaged more than 56,000 farmers across 4.6 million acres in 11 countries ADM (NYSE: ADM), a global leader in innovative solutions from nature, today released its fourth annual regenerative agriculture report, showing how its programs are supporting farmers, strengthening agricultural supply chains and delivering measurable environmental outcomes around the world. “Resilience starts on the farm. By improving and protecting soil health, farmers can be better equipped to adapt to changing conditions and maintain productive operations,” said Greg Morris, SVP and President, Ag Services and Oilseeds, ADM. “That resilience can extend across the value chain, helping strengthen the food system we all depend on.” In 2025, ADM’s regenerative agriculture programs engaged more than 56,000 farmers across approximately 4.6 million acres, 11 countries and 10 crops. Compared with regional benchmarks, the programs resulted in approximately 946,000 metric tons of CO₂e reductions. “ADM view
Diligent Unveils New Agentic Capabilities in Diligent One to Power the Future of Governance, Risk and Compliance15.9.2026 15:00:00 CEST | Press release
New capabilities help organizations move from fragmented information to confident action while keeping people in control Diligent, the AI leader in governance, risk and compliance (GRC) solutions, today announced a major enhancement to Diligent One, its native AI platform, at Gartner’s Enterprise Risk, Audit and Compliance Conference (ERAC). This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260915941016/en/ “For many organizations, GRC work is slowed by fragmented systems, manual coordination and time-consuming reporting processes,” said Brian Stafford, President and CEO of Diligent. “Our latest agentic capabilities help teams cut through that complexity by connecting context, surfacing what matters and driving faster execution — while keeping governance and professional judgement at the center." An orchestration agent that coordinates work and approvals The orchestration agent in Diligent One gives GRC professionals a natural-
Unifocus Launches AI-Powered Platform to Transform Workforce and Operations Management in Hospitality15.9.2026 15:00:00 CEST | Press release
Combining enterprise-grade labor and operations technology on an AI-native platform, Unifocus Claira redefines workforce management and enables hospitality teams to make faster, more informed decisions. The global hospitality technology provider, Unifocus, has announced the launch of its newest AI platform, Unifocus Claira. Unifocus Claira is an industry first end-to-end workforce management and operations platform, purpose-built to give hoteliers and above-property hospitality organizations complete visibility across the workforce lifecycle through one cohesive system. By replacing the patchwork of disconnected tools, multiple technology stacks and siloed data systems that have traditionally been used to manage labor and operations processes, Unifocus Claira delivers one connected AI-native platform, providing customers with a comprehensive and organized view of their workforce and operations data. This unified data foundation powers advanced AI capabilities designed to accelerate dec
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom