HKSTP’s First-Ever Virtual Elevator Pitch Competition 2020 Opens New Investment and Partnership Opportunities for Global Startups
6.11.2020 15:49:00 EET | Business Wire | Press release
Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) held its annual Elevator Pitch Competition 2020 (EPiC) virtually for the first time to unveil new and exciting pitching, investment and partnership opportunities as global startups face a challenging business landscape. US-based biotechnology startup, Mi Terro, topped other finalists to be crowned champion and claimed the top prize at the competition today.
HKSTP’s annual flagship event this year expanded to a week-long virtual programme. It garnered a great response with over 77,000 live views at today’s pitching competition. This year, EPiC attracted 476 entries from 37 countries and cities across five continents. A total of 170 contestants from 31 different markets entered the semi-final round, with nearly 70% of them coming from overseas.
Mi Terro, champion and winner of the Smart City category, is a company that upcycles and re-engineers protein food waste into plastic and cotton alternative fibres for the fashion, medical and packaging industries. The three Tech Category Winners, including UK-based AI & Robotics startup Arctoris, Philippines-based fintech startup PearlPay, and Portugal-based health technology startup RUBYnanomed, showcased their full potential as innovators in the competition.
Albert Wong, CEO of HKSTP, said: “This year’s successful staging of the 5th EPiC is a clear sign of our determination to provide a platform of unmatched opportunities to startups around the world to showcase their innovations and demonstrate their entrepreneurial spirit. The week-long programme is also a show of strength and resilience for Hong Kong’s rapidly-growing innovation and technology ecosystem which propels startups and their ideas to success in Hong Kong, Asia and beyond.”
Since inception in 2016, EPiC has drawn a huge number of international startups to make a live one-minute elevator pitch to leading investors and judges at the International Commerce Centre (ICC), the tallest skyscraper in Hong Kong. This year, our contestants switched modes to present their innovative business ideas, with a one-minute video pitch submitted to simulate the signature 60-second elevator ride.
The top ten finalists were given another opportunity to face the judges in a three-minute live pitch and two-minute Q&A, before announcing the overall champion, who took away a cash prize of US$100,000 while each of the category winners received a cash prize of US$10,000 and all ten finalists won US$6,000 each.
The competition marks a major progression for startups who gained valuable exposure among investors and industry leaders in their ongoing entrepreneurship journey. To further bolster the growth and development of local and overseas startups, this year’s EPiC provides a wider array of business opportunities to explore and acquire better understanding of the investment landscape in the region with the upcoming “Global Matching” programme from 9 to 12 November and the “Investment x Corporate Innovation Conference” on 13 November.
List of Winners
|
Award |
Company Name |
Market |
||
|
Champion and Tech Category Winner – Smart City |
United States |
|||
|
Tech Category Winner – Artificial Intelligence & Robotics |
United Kingdom |
|||
|
Tech Category Winner – FinTech |
Philippines |
|||
|
Tech Category Winner – Health Technology |
Portugal |
|||
|
Other Top 10 Finalists |
Australia |
|||
|
|
Hong Kong |
|||
|
|
United States |
|||
|
|
Hong Kong |
|||
|
|
Denmark |
|||
|
|
Hong Kong |
About Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation
Comprising Science Park, InnoCentre and Industrial Estates, Hong Kong Science & Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) is a statutory body dedicated to building a vibrant innovation and technology ecosystem to connect stakeholders, nurture technology talents, facilitate collaboration, and catalyse innovations to deliver social and economic benefits to Hong Kong and the region.
Established in May 2001, HKSTP has been driving the development of Hong Kong into a regional hub for innovation and growth in several focused clusters including Electronics, Information & Communications Technology, Green Technology, Biomedical Technology, Materials and Precision Engineering. We enable science and technology companies to nurture ideas, innovate and grow, supported by our R&D facilities, infrastructure, and market-led laboratories and technical centres with professional support services. We also offer value added services and comprehensive incubation programmes for technology start-ups to accelerate their growth.
Technology businesses benefit from our specialised services and infrastructure at Science Park for applied research and product development; enterprises can find creative design support at InnoCentre; while skill-intensive businesses are served by our three industrial estates at Tai Po, Tseung Kwan O and Yuen Long. More information about HKSTP is available at www.hkstp.org.
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/20201106005290/en/
Contact information
Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation
Sarah Poon
Tel: +852 2629 7015
Email: sarah.poon@hkstp.org
Edelman
Janice Wong
Tel: +852 2837 4775
Email: Janice.Wong@edelman.com / Edelmanhkstppr@edelman.com
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
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
Arc'teryx Introduces System 0™, a New Framework for the Future of Product Design and Circularity26.8.2026 16:00:00 EEST | Press release
Arc'teryx Equipment, the global design company specializing in technical high-performance apparel and equipment, today introduced System 0™, a new framework that reimagines how products can be designed, manufactured, used, repaired, and ultimately regenerated. System 0 represents the next evolution for sustainability in the outdoor industry, as it embeds circular thinking across an entire product lifecycle while maintaining the uncompromising performance standards that define the Arc’teryx brand. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260826686539/en/ Arc’teryx athlete, Craig Murray, wearing the Sperro SV, a multisport mountain-grade hardshell built with circular design principles, available September 4, 2026. The first product being introduced as part of the System 0 platform is the Sperro SV jacket, a multisport mountain-grade hardshell engineered for durability, repairability, and disassembly at end of life – the
Xsolla Announces Five-Year Partnership With the Global Esports Federation26.8.2026 16:00:00 EEST | Press release
Xsolla, a global commerce company, today announced a landmark five-year strategic partnership with the Global Esports Federation (GEF), the world-convening body for esports. As GEF's exclusive partner for commerce, payments, wallet, loyalty, and distribution, Xsolla will power the entire GEF ecosystem, including the flagship Global Esports Games, pro-series Global Esports Tour, global GEFcon, and 180+ Member Federations across five continents. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260826948844/en/ Graphic: Xsolla The announcement comes as GEF marks 100 days to go to the Los Angeles 2026 Global Esports Games (GEGLA26), adding further momentum to the road to Los Angeles and GEF’s flagship global esports celebration this December. The partnership launches at the GEGLA26, where Xsolla will begin serving as the unified commerce and payments layer for the GEF ecosystem. Across GEF properties, in more than 200 markets, Xso
FlightSafety International Reaches Agreement to Acquire Acron Technologies’ Commercial Training Solutions26.8.2026 16:00:00 EEST | Press release
FlightSafety International Inc. (FSI), a leading global provider of aviation training and simulation technology, today announced it has signed a definitive agreement with Acron Technologies, a portfolio company of TJC LP, to acquire its Commercial Training Solutions (CTS) business, including its Training Systems, Training Services, Aviation Academy, and Driver Training portfolio. The agreement marks a significant expansion of FSI’s capabilities in the commercial aviation market, broadening and complementing its simulator manufacturing capabilities and global training footprint. CTS brings over eight decades of experience in commercial aviation training and simulation. With a long-standing heritage in commercial airline simulator manufacturing, CTS has delivered more than 850 training devices throughout its history, with over 300 full-flight simulators currently in operation worldwide today. Its training and manufacturing locations across the U.S., U.K., and Thailand support pilot and d
NABEP Appoints Sara Chouraqui as General Counsel26.8.2026 16:00:00 EEST | Press release
North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP) has appointed Sara Chouraqui as General Counsel, with Elizabeth Collery and Victoria Jacobson each joining as Deputy General Counsel. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260826168543/en/ Sara Chouraqui joins NABEP as its General Counsel, bringing decades of legal expertise. These additions significantly strengthen NABEP’s senior leadership team and legal expertise as the company improves its operations, increases production and develops new strategic and commercial partnerships. As General Counsel, Chouraqui will lead NABEP’s global legal function and advise the company’s leadership on its legal, regulatory and corporate priorities, including major transactions and partnerships, governance, compliance and the management of legal and regulatory risk across the company’s operations. Her experience navigating complex cross-border legal and regulatory matters will be particu
Grafana Labs Crosses 10,000-Customer Milestone as AI Adoption Accelerates Growth Across the Platform26.8.2026 16:00:00 EEST | Press release
Grafana Labs, the company behind the open observability cloud, today announced it has crossed 10,000 customers worldwide and surpassed $600 million in annual recurring revenue, as organizations standardize on open observability for the AI era. Teams need AI to help them understand their own systems faster, especially as complexity and overhead remain the top observability concern cited in Grafana Labs' 2026 Observability Survey – a need reflected by the adoption of Grafana Assistant, Grafana Cloud's context-aware AI agent for exploring and troubleshooting observability data, now used by more than 18,000 organizations. Teams also need observability purpose-built for AI systems themselves: When teams move AI into production, models drift, agents take unexpected actions, token costs spike without warning, and the latency and error signals that caught problems for the last decade don't explain what went wrong. The same survey found 57% of organizations are now implementing LLM observabilit
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