From start-up to scale-up: strategies for growth in Hong Kong and beyond
With its proactive initiatives, for many companies, German start-ups included, the city is ripe with opportunity
For a group of 12 young entrepreneurs from Germany, the Greater Bay Area (GBA) offers unique opportunities to dramatically accelerate their start-up journey.
With the support of Hong Kong’s Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Chris Sun, the entrepreneurs were part of a delegation that visited the GBA in September, organised in collaboration with Hong Kong Talent Engage (HKTE), an office under the government’s Labour and Welfare Bureau designed to attract international professionals and support industry growth in “eight centres”, including innovation and technology.
All 12 young talents were winners of a pitching competition – with nearly 600 entrants in fields ranging from artificial intelligence and deep tech to climate and sustainability, and health and biotechnology – co-organised by HKTE and Germany’s Young Founders Network (YFN), an association nurturing promising start-ups.
The field trip included meetings with local start-up founders, visits to the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, as well as Qianhai in Shenzhen, a fast-developing commerce and innovation hub with strong financial and technological ties to Hong Kong.
This year, Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou topped the World Intellectual Property Organisation’s Global Innovation Index, a ranking of the world’s most innovative hubs. The cluster’s achievement highlights its role in bringing together a diverse array of researchers, investors and entrepreneurs. Since their visit, several of the start-ups are exploring ways to expand their businesses in the GBA, drawn by the convergence of talent and resources, including Hong Kong’s established strengths in finance and logistics, coupled with strong government support for its technology infrastructure.
“The GBA region’s vibrant venture capital landscape offers valuable funding opportunities with investors who specialise in cybersecurity and have established networks throughout Asia,” says Simeon Rathel, one of the competition’s winners and co-founder of bot protection start-up Centinel Analytica. “These connections could prove invaluable as we prepare for our seed round, potentially attracting strategic investors who can facilitate market entry across multiple Asian countries.”
Drawing on Rathel’s experience as a law student at Humboldt University of Berlin, Centinel Analytica applies advanced technical protection mechanisms to anti-scraping software solutions, strengthened with robust legal frameworks to defend the digital assets of e-commerce companies, content platforms and data-driven businesses from malicious bot attacks.
Centinel’s Analytica’s mission to rid the web of bot-driven cyberattacks and fraud is well-timed. While Asia’s consumer and e-commerce economy is expected to reach more than US$330 billion by year-end, bot attacks are also becoming more aggressive and frequent.
Rathel, who qualifies for a two-year visa under Hong Kong’s Top Talent Pass scheme, says that in addition to the start-up’s ability to protect Asian businesses, Hong Kong’s supportive start-up ecosystem and unparalleled access to the GBA market make it the ideal place to scale up. Hong Kong’s logistics and supply chain sector, as well as its emerging fintech industry, could also help Centinel Analytica’s strategic and technological development.
“Hong Kong’s proximity to technology manufacturing centres creates opportunities to explore hardware-based anti-scraping solutions as a potential expansion of our product offering,” Rathel says, adding that by physically visiting the GBA, he is better equipped to execute the company’s next phase of growth.
Another YFN winner, David Podolskyi, is an information systems and maths graduate of the Technical University of Munich and co-founder of DeepSpect.ai. The company builds machine learning for industrial quality inspection using 3D computed tomography (CT), from the very first scan. DeepSpect’s software learns from computer-aided design models and initial CT data to detect defects, thereby transforming data labelling from a slow, manual process into a fast, automated pipeline. Combining 3D simulation, unsupervised anomaly detection and AI-assisted labelling, the software is designed to work across major CT scanner manufacturers and end users.
“Hong Kong interests us because it connects directly to the GBA’s advanced manufacturing base. Automotive suppliers, battery makers, aerospace, electronics and medical device manufacturers are scaling up CT-based non-destructive testing,” Podolskyi says, adding that companies like DeepSpect can leverage emerging technologies within these industries.
The field trip deepened Podolskyi’s understanding of regional corporate culture, particularly how large manufacturers run procurement, pilots and regulatory qualifications. Of equal importance, the visit created opportunities to meet with manufacturers of CT scanners, original equipment manufacturer partners, system integrators, industrial testing labs and potential customers, as well as investors with experience scaling business-to-business deep-tech in the region.
Ultimately, global business is about people. Companies that can navigate cultural complexities effectively will have a distinct advantage. “This insight is crucial for our future expansion,” Podolskyi says. “Hong Kong, as a bridge into the GBA, is close to the factories and partners that deploy in-line CT scanning. Engaging directly with them provides invaluable validation of our solution in the Asian market.
“As a regional hub for innovation, logistics and technology, Hong Kong is experiencing rapid growth in the CT market, especially in sectors where first-time-right production and traceability matter,” he says. “Reducing data needs at kick-off and shortening the time to stable automation are the exact pain points we address. Success in Hong Kong would be a strong signal for a broader Asia-Pacific roll-out.”