Italian Startups are Breaking into Asia
StartIT.Asia Program is bringing the best Italian Startups to Hong Kong
Italy, for some the fashion and food capital of the world, is now rising as an innovation hub. And heating up the international startup scene, as many Italian startups are looking to come and take over Asia.
There are already quite a few Italian startups in Hong Kong, include Hexagro Urban Farm, FreightHub, Bottle-up, Fluentup, Velotrade, DOIT. How do we know? Because these were the startups that exhibited at the Italian Pavilion at WHub’s Startup Impact Summit 2019 on 25 January, a core event of InvestHK’s StartmeupHK Festival 2019.
These startups were brought by Hawksford and the Italian Chamber of Commerce, both hosts of StartIT.Asia, a government-supported program to bring the best Italian startups into the Asian market.
We had the pleasure of interviewing Stefano Passarello, NEA of Hawksford and Program Director of StartIT.Asia, to learn more about how Hong Kong is the perfect launchpad for Italian startups scaling into Asia.
Could you please explain more about StartIT.Asia?
StartIT.Asia is an annual government-led competition and program. We are actually just preparing for our new edition to start rolling in March. It’s all about giving exposure to Italian Startups to the Asian market here, and helping them learn about the benefits of setting up in Hong Kong.
Companies need to send their pitches and our judges pick the top 5 business plans — We will then fly these 5 companies to Hong Kong for a week, where we will provide education and training about growth hacking and business development in Asia. In the end, we have another competition to see which startup is the final winner.
There are many parties that make this competition possible, these include the Italian Chamber of Commerce Hong Kong & Macau, the Consulate General of Italy in Hong Kong, Intesa Sanpaolo, Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center, Incubatore del Politecnico di Torino, Hawksford and Hong Kong Science & Technology Park (HKSTP).
What’s the training process for these 5 startups like?
In order to help these startups land in Hong Kong properly, we’ve partnered with HKSTP to provide some training and venue sponsorship.
Within that week, we arrange trips and networking sessions for our selected startups to understand the market here in Hong Kong and Asia, for example, through meetings with investors and media and visiting Shenzhen Investment Holdings, co-organized with the China-Italy Chamber of Commerce. The final pitch is at the end of the week, and one winner is chosen. The winner will have another 6 months at HKSTP to further develop their project.
Last year’s winner, Wenda, is a platform that helps you with food integrity tracking, so you can eat your meals with a clean conscious. With increasing global awareness about zero waste living and circular economy, we really see its potential with a global audience, and it has actually been doing really well. It has won several other competitions already.
Why did you choose Hong Kong to launch this program?
While the startup space is relatively young in Italy, there are many creative and innovative startups which are quickly pushing Italy to become a European hotbed for startups.
Hong Kong, like Italy, is interesting as it is a relatively young ecosystem that has quickly made a big name for itself. There are many qualities that make Hong Kong the perfect launchpad. To name a few, location-wise, it’s 5 hours away from half the population in the Asia scene — the potential market is huge. It’s also close to China, which is a manufacturing paradise with its efficiency and quality.
Policy-wise, Hong Kong has a very comprehensive regulatory framework, which means it complies with regulations of most Asian countries. Moreover, Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China, which makes it a great starting point to break into the Chinese market.
These fundamental benefits are enough to attract startups from all over the world use Hong Kong as a springboard for Asian domination.
When does the program actually start and what startups are eligible for the program?
As I have previously mentioned, we are opening applications for the program and accepting business plans in March. The program itself will be starting in May.
We are looking for Italian Startups. Most of our applications come from Italy, but we do also accept Italian startups from Asia. They can find the application details here: https://www.startit.asia/. We require all applying startups to submit their business plans as well, which should be sent to info@startit.asia.
Our judging panel mainly looks for potential: the strength of the idea, the success of the business model and its ability to scale. However, as these startups are mostly from Italy, one of the most important factors our judges look at is its suitability for an Asian market, and its potential reception by the Asia audience.
What did you think about Startup Impact Summit 2019?
It was a great event. The conference had speakers and exhibitors from over 20 countries, it really was a very international crowd. I also had the opportunity to participate on a panel on the main stage showcasing the international startup ecosystem — “Around the world in 30 mins: Connecting Global Ecosystems” with representatives from India, Africa, China, Hong Kong and of course, Italy.
The feedback we got from our startups about Startup Impact Summit was great as well. It was a valuable platform for them to connect with the local and international startup stakeholders, and they really enjoyed many of the speeches from the main stage, as well as the inspiration stage.
It was also great for them to understand the local market through chatting with investors and local business people. To properly localize a business, it’s important to know the needs and trends of the market.
The Hong Kong Startup Ecosystem Builder
In love with the startup space? We thank you for your trust in us and hope you will continue to support WHub’s activities, to the benefit of the growth of our amazing ecosystem here. #StartupPassion
Stay connected with WHub, let us lead you to Startup Stardom!
Sign up to WHub’s Newsletter: https://whub.io/s/newsletter/
Follow WHub on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whubhk/
Follow WHub on Twitter: https://twitter.com/whub_io
Follow WHub on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/w-hub/
