HKSTP’s First-Ever Virtual Elevator Pitch Competition 2020 Opens New Investment and Partnership Opportunities for Global Startups
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
Hoffmann Green Announces a Historic Increase in Production Over the First Half of 2025, Already Outperforming the Annual Volumes Realized in 20242.7.2025 20:05:00 EEST | Press release
Hoffmann Green Cement Technologies (ISIN: FR0013451044, Ticker: ALHGR) (“Hoffmann Green Cement” or the “Company”), an industrial player committed to the decarbonation of the construction sector that designs and markets innovative clinker-free cements, today announces a strong acceleration of production over the first half of 2025, validating the relevance of its industrial and commercial business model. Production volumes reached 19,640 tonnes over the first half of 2025, compared with 7,833 tonnes in the first half of 2024, representing a 2.5-fold increase. This very strong level of activity enabled the Company to outperform its total 2024 volumes (16,269 tonnes) over the first half of 2025. This dynamic is illustrated by the supply of more than 130 construction sites across the country during the half-year, exceeding 60,000 m³ of concrete formulated with 0% clinker cement delivered by more than 10,000 truck mixers. Julien BLANCHARD and David HOFFMANN, Co-founders of Hoffmann Green Ce
Institutional Real Estate, Inc. Announces Acquisition of U.K.-based Lyndon Publishing 2 Limited2.7.2025 19:44:00 EEST | Press release
Institutional Real Estate, Inc. (“IREI”) has completed its acquisition of the assets of London-based Lyndon Publishing 2 Ltd (“Lyndon Publishing”), which include The Property ChronicleandThe Green Chronicle.The former Lyndon Publishing 2 will now operate as a division of IREI. The Property Chronicle reaches a global audience of real estate investment professionals, researchers, and academics. Its sister publication, The Green Chronicle, is edited to address the interests and concerns of emerging young talent in these real estate professions. Both publications are produced as weekly news briefings filled with original content and contributed feature articles from industry thought and opinion leaders. In addition, The Property Chronicle is also published as a quarterly, illustrated full-color magazine available in both digital and print formats, while The Green Chronicleis published exclusively in digital format. Together, the two publications reach approximately 50,000 professionals acr
Sinopec Wins Technological Innovation Award at 2 nd Sino-European Corporate ESG Best Practice Conference2.7.2025 19:21:00 EEST | Press release
China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation ("Sinopec", HKG: 0386) has won the "Best Scientific and Technological Innovation Practice" award at the 2nd Sino-European Corporate ESG Best Practice Conference (the "Conference") on June 26 in Stuttgart. Sinopec’s case submission of Breakthrough in Depth, Climb to New Heights — Empowering the Energy and Chemical Industry with Technological Innovation stood out among numerous entries. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250702387465/en/ Wang Tao, Sinopec representative, delivered a speech at the conference. The Conference reviews and awards the best ESG application cases in six areas of environmental protection, social responsibility, corporate management, scientific and technological innovation, education, and training to further enhance mutual understanding between Chinese and European businesses, facilitate bilateral economic and trade exchanges, and showcase China’s open,
Xsolla Releases Their Q2 2025 The State of Play Report: Mobile Gaming Is Projected to Hit $126B in 2025 Amid Global App Boom With In-Depth Analysis of Trends, Genres, and Monetization Strategies2.7.2025 19:00:00 EEST | Press release
Xsolla, a leading global video game commerce company, proudly announces the release of the Q2 2025 Edition of “The Xsolla Report: The State of Play.” This detailed report provides crucial insights, trends, and opportunities shaping the gaming landscape, empowering industry professionals to adapt and thrive in today’s rapidly changing market. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250702208715/en/ Graphic: Xsolla In 2024, global mobile app usage soared to an astonishing 4.2 trillion hours, an all-time high that powered a massive $150 billion consumer spending across mobile platforms. Mobile gaming is leading this charge, which accounted for more than half of that total. Despite a 6% dip in overall game downloads, falling to 49.6 billion, in-app purchase (IAP) revenue surged, indicating deeper user engagement and a more valuable player base. And the momentum is far from over: mobile gaming revenue is projected to grow
LambdaTest Announces Deeper Collaboration with Appium as Strategic Partnership2.7.2025 18:00:00 EEST | Press release
LambdaTest, a unified agentic AI and cloud engineering platform, has announced it has become a strategic sponsor of Appium, the world’s most widely used open-source framework for mobile automation. This collaboration aims to significantly simplify and accelerate mobile test automation by integrating Appium’s capabilities into LambdaTest’s cloud-based distributed testing platform. LambdaTest has an active open-source program that provides access to LambdaTest’s testing infrastructure to community projects, so maintainers can run comprehensive test suites without worrying about servers or setup. The organization had also launched LambdaTest Grants for Open Source to support innovation in software testing frameworks and toolsets. As part of the Grants, LambdaTest had announced a $250,000 grant for open source projects and contributors building solutions for the QA and Testing community. With this Appium Strategic Partnership, LambdaTest is doubling down on the commitment made to the open
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