Toronto, Canada, October 17th, 2019 – Five start-ups will travel to Hong Kong next February for the chance to pitch for an investment of up to $5,000,000 USD 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 Toronto, Canada, hosted in partnership with Deloitte.

JUMPSTARTER 2020 is a global pitch competition held in eight cities across the globe, including Shenzhen, Kuala Lumpur, London, San Francisco Bay Area, Toronto, Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai. It offers dynamic start-ups a chance to land vital investment and cash prizes. More importantly, it is aimed at providing a large-scale platform to connect start-ups to expand their network for more education, better exchanges of ideas and innovation.

The Toronto Semi-Pitch has attracted more than 200 entries from all around 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 Toronto event for February’s Grand Finale in Hong Kong are:

• PhosphoPOWER Group: creating a completely green and renewable saltwater hybrid-redox flow battery for grid-level energy storage.
• Stay22: building an interactive map for businesses to create easy and seamless experience for travellers.
• Agora Energy Technologies: developing a profitable solution to the climate mitigation challenges of renewable energy storage and CO2 utilization.
• PurPicks: the largest reviews platform for organic skincare products.
• Generation Connect: developing rehabilitative games based on research for dementia rehabilitation.

Cindy Chow, Executive Director, Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund, said: “The Toronto events wrapped up our global semi pitch tour outside Asia. We have seen so many exceptional pitches by far from our shortlisted start-ups across Canada and the US, as well as from Europe, Africa and other parts of the world. We are putting JUMPSTARTER on the global stage, and we hope to empower start-ups, regardless of their home base, by connecting them to talent, opportunities, and funds. By leveraging our unique Hong Kong advantage as powerhouse for start-ups in Asia, we hope to help start-ups to capture the huge market opportunities in the fast-growing Asia market.”

“I was inspired by the many exceptional pitches from young start-ups at today’s event and have high hopes for the five finalists,” said Norm Malloch, Leader of Deloitte Canada’s Innovation Labs and one of this year’s judges. “Events like JUMPSTARTER 2020 allow promising entrepreneurs to showcase their abilities and play a significant role in helping make their dreams a reality.”
The JUMPSTARTER 2020 series is the first of the JUMPSTARTER series to host global pitching events. The Grand Finale will take place in Hong Kong on 11-12 February 2020. 

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

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