Situated at the crossroads of Asia and possessing one of the busiest and most efficient international ports in the world, Hong Kong has long been recognised as a major hub for tech companies.

With its reliable power, strong infrastructure, and tech-positive government policies, many innovative companies have chosen to call this city home. Low crime rates and a rich talent base of tech professionals have created a number of additional incentives.

Of course, things haven’t always been easy for Hong Kong. Political unrest has created several challenges for industry growth. The Covid-19 pandemic dealt another blow to the city and created new challenges.

However, don’t count the city out yet. Hong Kong has a long history of bouncing back from difficulties. The large number of growing startups and innovative tech organisations that have established themselves here reflects professionals’ faith in its reliability and longevity. This is the reason why, in 2020, Hong Kong claimed the world’s number two spot for IPO proceeds. 

Initial public offering proceeds are the money that’s raised by an IPO, which is the process that a startup or established company uses to get access to additional capital. High IPO proceeds mean that a large number of companies are getting access to cash they can use to grow and innovate.

In this article, we’ve highlighted some of the key players to watch in the Hong Kong tech scene. For clarity, we’ve roughly grouped them under Fintech and Software, though in some cases, they might overlap.

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Fintech companies in Hong Kong

Blockpass

As the global economy becomes increasingly connected across large geographical regions, the need for ways to remotely verify the identities of customers and employees is becoming more apparent. Regulations like “know your customer” (KYC) as well as anti-money laundering laws require organisations to be able to ensure that their customers are law-abiding citizens.

However, this can be difficult to achieve when a company is a thousand miles away from its customers. Traditionally, verifying trust is achieved through identity document authentication. A customer such as an individual or an organisation would need to verify their identity by scanning or sending pictures of some form of legal documentation. This is a slow and inefficient process and can be expensive to manage.

A Blockpass demo explaining how an unhosted wallet KYC works

That’s where Blockpass comes in. Blockpass is a software platform that provides a simple alternative to identity verification. With Blockpass, users can create their own verified portable identity and then use that for proof of identity purposes across a wide range of use cases. Instead of needing to continually prove their legal identity through documentation, you only need to prove it once. You can then re-use your digital identity as and when you need to.

The key to Blockpass’s success is its advanced cryptography, which ensures that the identities of humans and organisations can be securely verified across the globe.

Velotrade

Fintech is also a rapidly growing sector in Hong Kong. Organisations of all sizes occasionally need financing solutions to support growth or manage growth and production during the peaks and troughs in their typical year. Ideally, this financing would be provided quickly to meet their current needs. On the other side of the coin, many investors are looking for valuable alternative financial assets to protect themselves against volatile market conditions. These investors are looking for stable returns with respectable yields that can grow separately from the markets.

Vittorio De Angelis, Co-Founder of Velotrade previously worked at JP Morgan and Bank of America.
Vittorio De Angelis, Co-Founder of Velotrade previously worked at JP Morgan and Bank of America.

Velotrade is headquartered in Hong Kong and believes it has the solution. Its platform connects investors with businesses that need financing. Furthermore, it does it quickly and entirely digitally.

Supporting a wide variety of industries, from e-commerce to manufacturers, Velotrade makes it easier for businesses to get the financing they need so that they can continue to grow. For investors, Velotrade offers a unique financial asset that can be an excellent way to diversify their portfolio.

For example, consider a consulting firm that provides services to technology companies. It invoices its services at the end of each month, but its clients don’t pay them until the month after. This delay creates a gap where the consultants must wait for payment after each project, slowing their business down. Velotrade can solve this problem by financing the invoices for the clients. This enables the clients to pay instantly. In exchange, the consulting firm offers an invoice discount but ultimately gets access to the capital it needs in a far shorter time. Meanwhile, Velotrade then offers investors the ability to use its capital to finance these invoices as an investment.

Allinfra

These days, we see celebrities, politicians, and powerful business owners in the media announcing goals related to climate change every day.

Allinfra is a software company in Hong Kong dedicated to backing up those goals with hard facts and data. By analysing existing processes, it provides companies with dashboards and reports that can be used to demonstrate sustainability to stakeholders.

The Allinfra platform can also be used for the creation of “green” financial assets. In the climate space, organisations receive so much public support for commitments that it is often tempting to make claims that are not true. This is called “greenwashing.” Allinfra Climate helps combat greenwashing by tying the underlying data to financial products so that investors can get a more accurate picture of the true worth of assets.

Related reading: Is Logitech a green and sustainable company?

In addition to its Allinfra Climate product, Allfinfra offers a decentralised application built on cryptocurrency. It’s called the Allinfra Climate Dapp and is capable of facilitating the transfer of environmental financial products across international borders without intermediaries (using blockchain networks).

Top Tech Companies in Hong Kong - Allinfra Portfolio View
Allinfra’s Portfolio view interface

Combining Allfinfra’s decentralised asset trading app with its data collection solution means that investors can get instant access to a variety of climate assets without having to sacrifice security and reliability.

Kikitrade

Two of the most popular sectors in tech are social media and crypto. Kikitrade is a growing startup that combines these two sectors into a single platform: it’s both a cryptocurrency trading solution and an online community of crypto enthusiasts. In short, Kikitrade provides users with access to real-time market data and news, which can be used to make informed investment decisions.

To get started with Kikitrade, users simply need to sign up for an account and make a deposit. Once their account is funded, they can start trading immediately. Kikitrade offers a range of tools and resources to help users manage their investments, including advanced charting tools, technical analysis indicators, and risk management tools.

One of Kikitrade’s unique features is its social trading platform, which allows users to follow and copy the trades of successful traders. This feature is particularly useful for novice traders who are still learning the ropes and want to benefit from the knowledge and experience of more experienced traders.

Reap

Reap designed its financial system to meet the growing market of digital businesses. It aims to simplify financial admin and automate processes such as reimbursement, invoices and receipts — but its big difference is that it works globally

Reap’s app allows users to pay any account with their company card in either crypto or normal currency, all within a business day, offering a one-stop solution towards the integration of crypto wallets into banking. Transactions can also be converted directly into the relevant currency with no hidden fees.

Similar to other online banking solutions, Reap offers customers the ability to pay with your account before its card arrives at your door via Google Pay. As a free, online process, it offers a neat solution to any companies that want to break free from the constraints of traditional banks.

Software companies in Hong Kong

Oddup

Founded in 2015, Oddup is a service offering crucial analytical details on startup organisations. Oddup has two primary products it offers customers: Oddup for Sales and Oddup for Investors, both of which have distinctive user features and benefits.

Investors can use Oddup to assess the overall “health” of startups

Oddup for Sales allows users to find their target audience in an expansive customer database that spans 35 regions and includes over 300,000 funded startups. This system allows users to create target lists to understand better and reach their prospects, filtering companies based on specific factors that make one company better suited for sales purposes than another.

Oddup for Investors helps users make investing decisions based on data gathered from thorough startup assessments. The solution provides a comprehensive system for investors to garner sector insights, helping them invest in companies based on their overall health. As thousands of new startups appear each year, Oddup is providing the data that investors need to find the right opportunities across a variety of sectors around the world.

Mapxus

Have you ever gotten lost in a large mall or office building? It can be frustrating to show up to a destination last minute and then end up being late because you didn’t know the most efficient route through the building.

Mapxus is a tech company in Hong Kong that is looking to solve this problem. It provides an all-in-one indoor mapping solution that businesses and cities can use to create a more navigable urban environment.

How Mapxus works

The Mapxus digital map is powered by the same GPS system as outdoor maps and is supported on desktop and mobile devices. Furthermore, because Mapxus is dedicated to increasing accessibility, its digital map platform supports dynamic, multi-floor wayfinding for both pedestrians and wheelchair users.

The software is designed to identify a user’s position within three to five metres using data from sensors prebuilt into mobile devices. This includes the accelerometer, gyroscope, compass and barometer.

Plus, if you’d prefer to see the indoor route through panoramic visuals, you can. Using 360° recording technology, a space can be mapped and reconstructed in 3D space, providing an engaging way for users to achieve virtual navigation of indoor spaces.

Dayta

It’s been said that data is the new “oil” because it’s a vital commodity driving rapid industrial growth. If this is true, big data may be even more of a game changer. With big data, you take thousands of data points from hundreds of inputs and then analyse the data using powerful technological solutions.

These tools then give you a dashboard and alerts so that you can draw conclusions and make data-driven decisions. The main idea is to help executives and leadership get a more detailed picture of what is happening across their organisation.

One industry where big data is increasing efficiency and driving revenue growth is retail. Retailers can use get insights into customer behaviour and preferences. By analysing purchasing patterns, they can better understand what products are popular and what factors influence buying decisions. This information can be used to optimise pricing, product placement, and marketing strategies.

Top Tech Companies in Hong Kong - Dayta
Dayta connects with video cameras and analyzes in-store data

Dayta is a tech startup dedicated to meeting the big data needs of retailers. Its flagship software product Cyclops utilises all the systems a retailer already has to collect mission-critical data. It then analyses this data and provides a dashboard, executive reports and automatic alerts.

Cyclops connects to security cameras and can track a number of key data points such as the number of people entering specific zones of a store and the number of engaged customers in a zone.

The software then allows retailers to generate heatmaps, showing where customers are spending most of their time in the store. It also connects to a store’s point-of-sale and CRM systems, which enables instant data tracking and analysis.

Spaceship

Digitisation has provided innovative solutions for practically every application. Spaceship proves that by bringing it into traditional shipping. Founded in 2019, Spaceship is a logistic solutions platform that allows for affordable international shipping.

Top Tech Companies in Hong Kong
Spaceship integrates with most logistics service providers, including FedEx, DHL and UPS.

Spaceship provides a tailored, one-stop solution for personal and business-level shipping needs. Its e-commerce shipping solutions have made logistics simpler for many store owners.

Spaceship’s primary offering is the Spaceship Pro Online Store Logistics software, which allows users to book logistics services like FedEx, DHL, UPS and more, based on different quotes to suit varying budgets. Users can then schedule door-to-door, one-stop delivery for all their e-commerce shipping needs. A handy resource in a world where adaptable and efficient shipping solutions are increasingly necessary.

Other major tech hubs

There are so many places where the technology industry is booming. Innovation is occurring all over the globe. Here are some other tech-driven cities to explore:

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Ricardo Oliveira

Ricardo Oliveira is a Senior Director at TechFinitive, where he frequently collaborates with TechFinitive's editorial team to write and produce content. He's based in Sydney, Australia.

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