Last Thursday was a pitch-filled day for Hong Kong as startups battled it out at ‘Cyberport Pitch Day for Tech Startups’ and ‘CoCoon Pitch Finals.’
Cyberport’s intensive event incorporated two pitching sessions. While Cyberport incubatees took the stage with speedy, one-minute elevator pitches, a batch of interns from the digital community’s ‘E+ Startup Internship Program’ represented their startups with five minute presentations.
The judging panel included Kyle Lam, co-founder and business angel of Big Bloom Investment, Carman Chan, managing partner of Click Ventures, Jennifer Carver, CIO of Nest and Raiyo Nariman, director of Serendipity Group.
‘Cyberport Pitch Day’ winners:
- Avrio with their project eSchoolPad, a service for primary and secondary schools to manage iPad eLearning
- Innohat with their project SnapViva, a photo app that helps turn customers into advertisers
- Air Button with their product Air Button, a wireless RFID button that lets users access their devices with one touch
The winner of the ‘E+ Startup Internship Programme’ was EventXtra (pictured above). Their project ‘PockNet’ is a location-based app that turns event contacts into real connections. They impressed judges after announcing a 75% per week growth in user base and their spot in TechCrunch China’s ‘Top 15.’
Later that day at CoCoon Pitch Finals, six startup teams battled it out for three spots with cash prizes. Third place gets you HK $5,000, second is $10,000 and first lands you a cool $20,000.
A neat thing about CoCoon pitches is that they’re inclusive of English, Cantonese and Mandarin presentations – two startups pitched in Cantonese, while the rest in English. The judging panel included Andy Ann, founder and CEO of NDN Group, Bernard Auyang, founder of Vida Nova Ventures and NiQ Lai, CFO of Hong Kong Broadband Network.
‘CoCoon Pitch Finals’ winners:
- Notey (pictured above), a search engine for the best blog posts on any topic under the sun
- Chuang Meng Xiao Dou, an online workplace targeting Mainland freelancers
- BeMei, booking platform for plastic surgery clinics in South Korea
To date, the Tin Hau co-working space has held 16 pitch nights with a total of HK $140,000 in cash prizes handed out. CoCoon’s network of investors has reportedly backed Hong Kong startups with over HK $18 million.
Congrats to all the winning startups!
