This week, Cyberport released the list of five winning local startup companies for HKD $100,000 grants. This is the second trial round for this program which hopes to support early stage development, something currently lacking in the government funding schemes available in Hong Kong.
The winning companies:
Taxizu, a taxi sharing application to match up riders based on location and destination.
Timable, a site that helps you to find events that are happening during time you have available.
Openballs, a sports management system for local schools which creates and promotes online leagues.
Flipter, a site for getting feedback about your ideas, videos, or anything.
Gr8, an augmented reality application for leisure, currently in “stealth mode”.
(Edit: Original Gr8 link is not the same company.)
It is notable that four of the companies are active members of the StartupsHK community. Three were part of the recent Demo Night in February. Taxizu was created as a project during the first BootUP! startup weekend event organized by BootHK and StartupsHK November 2010.
If the Hong Kong government continues to expand programs such as this as well as opens up a Startup Visa program to make it possible to bring in the needed expertise, it is likely that the low taxes, great food, and accessible location could make it a hot spot for startups in Asia.
Flipter is a very cool app.
Congratulations!!!!!