Five start-ups from San Francisco Bay Area Semi Pitch win chance to pitch for up to USD 5,000,000 investment from Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund as part of JUMPSTARTER 2020
Winners of yesterday’s Berkeley semi-pitch event to travel to Grand Finale in Hong Kong in February 2020

San Francisco, California, October 14, 2019 – Five of 30 shortlisted start-ups will travel to Hong Kong next February for the chance to pitch for an investment of up to $5,000,000, as well as $100,000 cash, after successfully being shortlisted at yesterday’s Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund / HSBC JUMPSTARTER 2020 (“JUMPSTARTER 2020”) semi pitch event in Berkeley, California.

JUMPSTARTER 2020 is a global pitch competition held in eight cities across the globe. It is aimed at providing a platform for start-ups, entrepreneurs, corporates and investors to build, empower and boost connections among different ecosystems and international tech hubs, and to connect global entrepreneurial talent with Hong Kong to bolster its reputation as a start-up hub. The San Francisco Bay Area round was hosted in partnership with Berkeley Skydeck, UC Berkeley’s premier start-up accelerator and incubator program, and sponsored by Cisco Systems. The competition has attracted more than 200 entries from the US and the rest of the world, and is designed to find the best start-ups from the retail, fintech, smart-city and advanced technology sectors who have a desire to make Hong Kong part of their future plans. In addition to the investment, the winning start-up companies will also gain access to the Alibaba ecosystem to capitalise on its valuable insights, experience and resources.

The five businesses shortlisted at the Berkeley event for February’s Grand Finale in Hong Kong are:

Cindy Chow, Executive Director, Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund, said: “We are especially excited to be hosting one of our semi pitching events in the San Francisco Bay Area, home to many of the world’s leading technology companies and cutting-edge technology innovations. We’ve received an overwhelming number of applications and we’ve witnessed exceptional pitches from our shortlisted start-ups that covered Retail, Fintech, Smart city, and Deep tech. We hope that JUMPSTARTER will serve as a springboard and a global platform from which start-ups gain talent, opportunities, and funds to capture huge market opportunity and to achieve their ambition to change people’s lives. I look forward to seeing the shortlisted businesses showcase their ideas in front of our global judges in February’s Grand Finale.”

Chon Tang, Founding Partner of UC Berkeley SkyDeck Fund, said “UC Berkeley SkyDeck has established itself as the global hub for entrepreneurship, investing in and supporting in over 80+ startups from Europe/Asia/Latin America over the past two years. We are pleased to be a key partner to host the JUMPSTARTER 2020 semi pitch event in the Bay Area with Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund and together we connect the world-changing startups to a broader ecosystem that provides more possibilities and resources to fulfil their ambitions”
 
Chris Stori, Vice President and Chief Operations Officer of Cisco Meraki, who also sat in the judging panel of the event, said: “Cisco Meraki is thrilled to be a sponsor of the JUMPSTARTER 2020 Semi-Pitch event,” said Chris Stori, Vice President and Chief Operations Officer, Cisco Meraki, and one of the event judges, “It was inspiring to see and hear so many exceptional ideas and business plans from young start-ups here in the San Francisco Bay Area, and I have high hopes for the five finalists. I believe JUMPSTARTER is a great global platform, and a unique ecosystem to connect talented, young entrepreneurs, and I look forward to seeing their goals realized through this JUMPSTARTER event.” 
 
The JUMPSTARTER 2020 series is the first of the JUMPSTARTER series to host global pitching events in cities including Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Beijing, London, San Francisco Bay Area and Toronto. The Grand Finale will take place in Hong Kong on 11-12 February 2020.  

For more information about JUMPSTARTER, please visit www.jumpstarter.hk.