Hong Kong aims to scale its tech ecosystem and nurture more unicorns: HKSTP CEO
Hong Kong is intensifying efforts to attract technology start-ups and nurture unicorns through expanded financial support via a key government-backed platform, leveraging the city’s booming fundraising activities and world-class financial infrastructure. Investors are displaying an increased appetite for the local tech scene compared with a decade ago – a trend that Terry Wong Ping-sau, CEO of…
The Hong Kong government-backed platform, Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP), is striving to bolster the city's technology ecosystem and attract more unicorns. Terry Wong Ping-sau, CEO of HKSTP, highlights the growing enthusiasm from traditional enterprises and family offices, driven by the need for transformation among next-generation Hong Kong family businesses.
Despite Hong Kong's impressive fundraising prowess, raising about HK$285.8 billion through new listings last year, there is still room for improvement in early-stage financing.
Established in 2001, HKSTP aims to connect stakeholders, nurture talent, and provide facilities for research and development. It has fostered more than a dozen unicorns and 17 initial public offering cases, including AI-focused companies like SenseTime, logistics firm Lalamove, and AI drug discovery company Insilico Medicine. To strengthen Hong Kong's competitiveness, Wong believes that the next eight to 10 years will be a golden era for the city to produce high-quality, large-scale tech enterprises.
HKSTP has established various funding channels, including a corporate venture fund that has raised more than HK$170 billion, attracting HK$13 from the private market for every HK$1 invested. The platform also launched Hong Kong's first public-private partnership fund for I&T in April 2025, attracting nine corporate limited partners. This initiative aims to proactively bring overseas I&T companies with potential to Hong Kong to continue their research and development at the Hong Kong Science Park.
According to a joint study by HKSTP and CB Insights, Hong Kong companies demonstrate the strongest growth momentum among Asian markets, followed by Taiwan and Singapore. However, capital is increasingly concentrating on fewer, larger deals, with overall tech funding in Asia jumping 157% year-on-year in the first half of 2026, while the deal count dropped by 22%.
CB Insights managing director John Kelly suggests that the shift towards larger deals indicates a maturing capital market, and start-ups should leverage data and AI evaluation tools to attract global investors' attention.
Written by urgent.news from South China Morning Post's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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