Forbes Asia yesterday announced the '2023 Forbes Asia 100 to Watch' list, identifying the 100 most promising small businesses and startups in the Asia Pacific region. Of the 100 selected companies, 15 were from Hong Kong - and impressively, at least 7 were from Cyberport's startup community. The strength and international potential of Cyberport's startups has clearly been recognized globally.
The 7 selected startups include Hong Kong's first virtual insurance company Bowtie, e-commerce platform Qupital, virtual corporate credit cards and expense management software Reap, rental platform promoting shared living spaces Dash Living, end-to-end logistics platform Jumppoint, AI financial analysis platform Ephod Technology, and AI sourcing and logistics platform Sourcy.
To select the 100-to-Watch, Forbes Asia solicited online submissions, and invited accelerators, incubators, SME advocacy organizations, universities, venture capitalists and others to nominate companies as well. The final 100 were selected from over 550 submissions. To qualify for consideration, companies had to be headquartered in the Asia-Pacific region, privately owned, for profit, have no more than US$50 million in its latest annual revenue and have no more than US$100 million in total funding. Evaluation criteria included a positive impact on the region or industry, a track record of strong revenue growth or ability to attract funding, promising business models or markets, and a persuasive story.
