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Deloitte Names Hong Kong’s Fastest-Growing and Most Promising Tech Companies

Deloitte has announced its selection of this year’s winners of the Hong Kong Technology Fast and Rising Star Program, which recognizes the fastest-growing and most promising technology companies in Hong Kong, as well as the two winners of the Hong Kong Tech Fast Female. Among the 28 winning companies, eight of them are fintechs.

2019 Deloitte Hong Kong Tech Leadership award

Klook, a travel activities and services booking platform with a growth rate of 729%, was named as the 2019 Deloitte Hong Kong Tech Leadership. The Tech Leadership is an award that recognizes one tech company with revenue of more than HK$500 million in FY18 that has achieved outstanding growth and leadership status.

Founded in 2014, Klook is a tours and activities platform that offers more than 100,000 activities in over 350 destinations, with service in nine languages and 41 currencies.

2019 Deloitte Hong Kong Tech Fast awards

The Hong Kong Technology Fast awards recognize the 10 fastest-growing hi-tech companies in the city. Tech Fast companies must be headquartered in Hong Kong, be in operation for at least three years, have at least HK$1.2 million in operating revenue during the 1^st year of the 3-year evaluation period, and own proprietary intellectual property or propriety technology that generates substantial operating revenue.

This year’s winners tackle fields including advertising, e-commerce, and biotech.

Everyware (136%), a point of sales (POS) software developer, is the only fintech company to have made the list, ranking 10^th.

Everyware’s Caterlord POS system is its killer product. The cloud POS software is tailored for restaurants of any kind. In less than four years, Caterlord has been adopted by more than 2,000+ restaurants and retail stores.

Everyware, caterlordhk, Facebook

The top three Tech Fast winners of 2019 are HKTaxi (1,704%), the first local taxi-hailing app that has gathered 1.4 million downloads and 60,000 registered drivers; ePropulsion (1,259%), a developer of intelligent, sustainable marine propulsion systems; and IOE (904%), an Internet-of-Things (IoT) company.

Others that made the list include:

GoGoChart (594%), an award-winning mobile advertising tech company;
Pakpobox (376%), a tech-logistics company;
E-Buy (337%), the operator of Buyandship, a provider of cost-efficient delivery services;
Starling Labs (184%), the operator of Shopline, Asia’s biggest smart commerce platform;
Yoho (167%), an e-commerce company; and
Sanomics (148%), a biotech company providing liquid biopsy and tissue based genetic diagnostics for cancer patients.

2019 Deloitte Hong Kong Rising Star awards

Deloitte has also shared its selection of the top 15 most promising young tech companies that have demonstrated astounding business growth, recognizing them with the Rising Star awards.

Six fintechs made the list. These are:

AI Financial Technology, the operator of OneDegree, which aims to be the next-generation insurance industry leader in Asia;
CryptoBLK, which focuses on developing, deploying and operating blockchain systems, aiming to make a global impact in the financial services industry;
Kristal Advisors, the operator of Kristal.AI, an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered, licensed virtual wealth manager;
Nova Credit, a cross-border credit reporting startup;
OKLink Fintech, a wholly-owned subsidiary of LEAP (1499.HK) which focuses on blockchain technology research and development (R&D) and applications; and
Qupital, a leading trade financing platform for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Asia.

Other tech companies that have received this year’s Rising Star award include AutoX, a L4 self-driving solution provider; Belun, a manufacturer of wearable and portable medical devices; Cellomics, a biotech company providing liquid biopsy products and services for cancer early screening and disease management; Fano Labs, an AI company specializing in speech recognition and natural language processing technologies; and Redspots Creative, a multi-media production company.

2019 Deloitte Hong Kong Tech Fast Female awards

This year, Deloitte also granted two companies, DayDayCook and The Straits Network, awards for Tech Fast Female, recognizing their achievements.

DayDayCook is a lifestyle brand focused on providing a better experience for the female millennial, while fintech startup The Straits Network, the operator of Lynk, offers professionals with proven experience the opportunity to monetize their knowledge and provide actionable value for users.

Lynk, by lynkglobal, via Facebook

Hong Kong remains a leading fintech market

During the ceremony of the announcement of the winners of the 2019 Hong Kong Technology Fast and Rising Star Program, Deloitte also unveiled the results of a survey series.

According to the research, Hong Kong remains a leading fintech market with 71% of respondents stating that Hong Kong had an advantageous fintech ecosystem that embraces related startups.

Hong Kong is among the world’s top ten fintech hubs and with virtual banking licenses being handed out, the city is trying to change the landscape of the fintech ecosystem in Asia, the report says.

Behind fintech, respondents named e-commerce, smart city and big data as three other major sectors in Hong Kong.