July 20th 2016, Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Alibaba Group, hosted the Hong Kong session of Create@Alibaba Cloud Startup Contest (CACSC) at Hong Kong Science Park, in cooperation with HKSTP (Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation), CoCoon and Paperclip HK. Ten local startups were selected to compete as finalists in the Hong Kong leg of the competition, with other events held in cities around the world including Paris and London. PowerMew Technology Limited was the standout competitor of the event and took home the top prize. They will now go on to represent Hong Kong at a world finalist in Hangzhou, China in October 2016 to compete with contestants from other markets including Southeast Asia, Korea, Middle East and Europe.

“Alibaba Cloud believes in championing medium and small businesses and we encourage startups to embrace the spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation. CACSC aims to identify the most promising and innovative startups in the world, and to give them a platform to grow and succeed. We are happy to see PowerMew Technology winning the championship in Hong Kong with its forward-thinking and creative ideas leveraging the cloud technology inspired by Alibaba Cloud. We look forward PowerMew Technology participating in the world final and competing with champions from other regions,” said Leo Liu, Business Development Director at Greater China of Alibaba Cloud International.

PowerMew Technology is an online property searching platform in the real estate industry and has been leveraging advanced VR technology to connect proprietors, buyers, tenants and estate agents. By virtue of the cloud computing technology, they allow customers to access social networking service seamlessly for the real estate brokerage anywhere from any smart device.

By winning the Hong Kong Final, PowerMew Technology will receive Alibaba Cloud’s funding for investments into IT infrastructure for the first year, technology training for professionals, tailor-made IT solutions designed by Alibaba Cloud’s architects and one-on-one post-sales support. In addition, as a winner, they will receive free office space from CoCoon, and free membership at Paperclip HK.

“We are excited and honored to be crowned champion of the Hong Kong leg of CACSC. It is a significant stepping stone for us, and will help us take our ideas to a global market with the support of Alibaba Cloud. With the cloud capabilities provided by Alibaba Cloud, we are confident that we can strengthen our business and bring our innovations to other markets,” said Sophie Lo and Eddie Chan, Co-founders of PowerMew Technology.

The Hong Kong event judging panel included Leo Liu, Business Development Director at Greater China of Alibaba Cloud International, Cindy Chow, Executive Director of HK Entrepreneurs Fund, Peter Mok, Head of Incubation Programme of HKSTP, and Roland Yau, Managing Partner of CoCoon Ignite Ventures. The competition, which consists of onsite presentations and Q&A with judges, evaluated the contestants based on the qualification of the founder team, the level of innovation they demonstrated, the market competitiveness and the potential to scale of their business models, and their presentation skills.

Mr. Allen MA Kam-sing, Chief Executive Officer of HKSTP said, “We are delighted to partner with Alibaba Cloud on this meaningful initiative, which provides Hong Kong’s inspiring entrepreneurs with leading technology support and access to abundant resources through Alibaba Cloud’s global network. We look forward to seeing more Hong Kong start-ups thrive and grow their global footprints through this program.”

"CoCoon Ignite Ventures is happy to have been invited as a judge and supporter of this great event. This is a continuation of our ongoing collaboration with Science Park and Alibaba and we hope events like this show the growing support for Hong Kong entrepreneurs. In particular, we recognize that Alibaba has offered quite a few initiatives to entrepreneurs in Hong Kong, including establishing the Alibaba's Entrepreneur Fund and offering support for Alibaba's cloud services, and we look forward to continue working with Alibaba on these important initiatives," said Mr. Roland Yau, Managing Partner of CoCoon Ignite Ventures.

“We are honored to co-work with Alibaba Cloud to host the Create@Alibaba Cloud Startup Contest—Hong Kong. As a startup campus, we are excited to see this program help build up the startup ecosystem in Hong Kong and also grow the startups successfully at a regional and global level,” said Deepak Madnani, Founder and CEO of Paperclip HK.

The CACSC is part of the Alibaba Cloud’s global startup program, Create@Alibaba Cloud, which was first launched in April this year. It aims to champion startups and maximize their potential through Alibaba’s comprehensive support network and innovative suite of cloud infrastructure services.

Alibaba Cloud established its first data center in Hong Kong in May 2014. With the second Hong Kong data center established in November last year, Alibaba Cloud has further underscored its commitment to address increasing demand for cloud computing resources in the region and its commitment to globalization. In addition, Alibaba Cloud launched traditional Chinese and English websites last year and has accepted Hong Kong bank cards for purchase. At present, its cloud server nodes support Elastic Compute Service (ECS), Relational Database Service (RDS), Object Storage Service (OSS), Server Load Balancer, CloudMonitor, Cloud Shield and other services. Proprietary virtual private cloud (VPC) network services are being planned to meet more sophisticated user requirements.

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Hong Kong Final Hosted By