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Hong Kong emerges as Asia’s top hub for start-up potential, ranks fifth worldwide: study
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Zoe SL ChanPublished: 6:36pm, 31 Aug 2026Hong Kong leads Asia in high-growth start-up potential and ranks fifth globally, showing the city’s growing strength in nurturing scalable ventures and unicorns, according to joint research published by market research firm CB Insights and the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation.
The white paper, released on Monday, said Asia operated on a distributed network where distinct markets specialised in different stages of the technology life cycle, unlike Silicon Valley’s single-hub model.
Hong Kong served as the primary financial bridge connecting mainland Chinese and Asian tech innovations to global capital, international governance and cross-border buyers, the study added.
As Asian companies target global markets from day one, Hong Kong functions as an essential gateway rather than an optional exit route
Foreign investors took part in 81 per cent of Hong Kong’s equity deals and channelled 84 per cent of their regional capital through the city, the report said. Furthermore, 55 per cent of unique equity investors in Hong Kong originated from outside Asia.
“As Asian companies target global markets from day one, Hong Kong functions as an essential gateway rather than an optional exit route,” CB Insights said.
Hong Kong companies showed the strongest growth momentum among Asian markets, according to CB Insights’ predictive measure of private company success across momentum, financing, market opportunity and leadership.
Mainland China led the region in frontier technology development, hardware manufacturing and large-scale deployment.AdvertisementSelect VoiceSelect Speed00:0000:001.00x