InvestHK has announced the 40 semi-finalists from the 550 startups that applied for its 2014 StartmeupHK Venture Programme.

The semi-finalists represent a range of countries from Bulgaria and India to Kyrgyzstan and Australia. Hong Kong, as expected made up the majority of semi-finalists followed by a good showing from the UK with 6. 15 countries were represented overall.

The 40 startups are grouped into two categories: early to growth stage (30) and concept and prototype stage ventures (10). The 40 were chosen from a record 550 applicants!

Th next stage is for the startups to be interviewed by judges before 12 are chosen for the finals in Hong Kong.

Each semi-finalist was chosen by the assessors for the scale of the problem/opportunity being addressed, the effectiveness of the solution and its impact, their venture’s viability, sustainability and scalability, and the economic benefit to Hong Kong in terms of knowledge and skills, job creation, social and environmental value, etc.

The chosen finalists will fly to Hong Kong for StartmeupHK Week between 10-15 November. At the centrepeice of this year’s programme, the StartmeupHK Venture Forum on 11 November, three Grand Award Winners will be chosen by the judges and voting audience.

Three Special Awards will also be given for the best ventures in FinTech, Smart City and Data Analytics. The three Special Awards are sponsored by Accenture (FinTech Award), Schneider Electric (Smart City Award) and KPMG (Data Analytics Award) respectively.

InvestHK’s Director-General of Investment Promotion, Simon Galpin, said he was delighted by the quality of the successful entrants and their diverse geographic and sector origins.

“I am happy to see that the proposals are of such high quality and that they come from so many different countries and cities. I am particularly impressed with the creativity shown by many of these ventures. This is exactly the kind of business creativity we would like to further develop in Hong Kong, to help encourage our homegrown startup culture,” Mr Galpin said.

“I also hope that by staging the global competition in Hong Kong, we can help high net-worth individuals realise the multiple opportunities that start from our fast-growing ecosystem in Hong Kong,” he added.

With winners receiving over $500,000 n total, this competition can have a huge impact on the winning businesses. InvestHK have opened up a great opportunity for the 12 finalists.

Below are the 40 StartmeupHK Venture Programme Semifinalists:

Invest Hong Kong 2014 StartmeupHK Venture Programme Semifinalists

* Category 1: Early to growth stage ventures with revenue and/or significant users/customers

 Category 2: Startups at the concept and prototype stage with no revenue

Learn more about the StartmeupHK Venture Programme 2014 here: www.startmeup.hk.