Invest HK Annual Startup Report 2021 — All you need to know
Hong Kong’s startup environment returned many excellent outcomes in the previous year, in spite of the ongoing financial difficulties due to the global pandemic. The growth in the number of new businesses, employees, co-working, incubator, and accelerator locations across the city demonstrates Hong Kong’s magnetism to startup businesses. Furthermore, they benefit from exhibiting Hong Kong’s unique role as an extension for inventive organizations to get to the Mainland and Asian business sectors through Hong Kong. An expansion in the number of new businesses from abroad and Mainland China is found. A diverse mix of nationalities can choose Hong Kong as their base. Invest HK is the department of the SAR government and has the vision to strengthen Hong Kong’s status as Asia’s leading international business location.
As indicated by the 2021 Startup Survey led by Invest Hong Kong (InvestHK), Hong Kong’s startup ecosystem system stays energetic. The current year’s outcomes uncovered that the overall number of new companies in the city arrived at a high record of 3 755, up 12 percent from the figure in 2020, exhibiting a positive effect on the market across various business areas with the quantity of staff employed by new companies bouncing back from that of last year by 29%. InvestHK’s 2021 Startup Survey reports an aggregate of 3,755 new businesses in Hong Kong, an increase of 12% from last year with 13,804 representatives across 124 locations of co-work spaces, incubators, and accelerators.
The above data depends on an internet-based survey directed by InvestHK, with results concluded in September 2021. A team produced the study with an aggregate of 69 operators of co-work spaces, accelerators, and incubators covering 124 locations as mentioned above. The information is based on respondents who gave data to the questions. Talking about the numbers is easy but one must know about the real reasons based on which startups are choosing Hong Kong as their business location.
Why are Startups choosing Hong Kong?
Hong Kong boasts a long list of advantages for startups. In particular, over 50% of respondents cited the following as primary reasons to establish their businesses in the city: access to global/regional market, easy tax system and low tax rate, business opportunities in Mainland China, and easily accessible funding.
Key variables driving new companies to set up in the city were accessibility to global or regional business sectors (73%), the straightforward tac framework and low tax rate (67%), business opportunities in Mainland China (61%), and access to financing (59%). Furthermore, the survey recorded new companies in Hong Kong had engaged 13 804 staff. They spanned different business areas, such as fintech, online business, supply chain management, logistic innovation, and expert consultancy services — this increase in recruiting features an inspirational perspective for the Hong Kong work market.
There are several other factors that increase Hong Kong’s attractiveness in living and doing business. Given below are some of the strategic factors that are contributing to the success of Hong Kong being one of the top choices of startups:
Expansion in digital adoption fuels improvements in advancement and innovation (I&T)
The rise of organizations and customers taking on digitalization has fuelled explicit startup development in specific areas, such as e-commerce business. Additionally, it helped the supply chain management and logistics industry, while the pandemic likewise sped up the adoption of remote/e-learning, driving invigorating improvements in ed-tech — up 27% from the 2020 figure. With China’s fourteenth Five-Year Plan promoting Hong Kong as a worldwide I&T center, it is expected that the local I&T environment will be elevated to supplement the I&T strength in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. All this will help in giving a new driving force to the development of new companies in the years to come.
Hong Kong draws in many new companies from overseas and in Mainland China
As one of the leading financial focuses globally and with its remarkable job as a bridge for imaginative organizations to get to the Mainland and Asian business sectors, Hong Kong keeps on alluring overseas new companies. While results showed that 66% of the startup founders were Hong Kong local people and 7% were Hong Kong returnees, 28% of the startup organizers were non-local. With regards to the source country/area of non-local originators, Mainland China positioned first (20.5 percent), trailed by the United States (14.4 percent), the United Kingdom (11.1 percent), France (7.1 percent), and India (6.8 percent).
StartmeupHK Festival 2022 to give a stage for new business opportunities
Organized by InvestHK under its StartmeupHK initiative, the StartmeupHK Festival, Asia’s leading yearly startup occasion, will return from 5–10 September 2022. The Festival will take on a hybrid format. It will offer new companies, investors, corporates, academia, and government worldwide the opportunity to investigate new open doors in Asia and Hong Kong. Over time, there will be featured discussions, panel discussions, exhibitions, investors and business matching, hackathons, and job fairs.
All these factors contribute to the major success that is achieved by Hong Kong so far. According to Invest HK's annual startup report 2021, Hong Kong continues to attract the world. In case you are also planning to start your business in Hong Kong, the above factors fetched by InvestHK are enough to guarantee the growth the area is experiencing. Therefore, be sure that the area is going to offer you nothing but extreme development.
