(Hong Kong, 16 January 2023) – The Community Lab, established by Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (“HKSTP”) and Hysan Development Company Limited (“Hysan”) in May 2022, aims to nurture up-and-coming start-ups and integrate their solutions into the community, empowering the Hong Kong Smart City Blueprint. As the backbone of The Community Lab, the Last-mile Testing Programme (“LMTP”) welcomes the conclusion of its first cohort today with a successful Demo Day. Four shortlisted start-ups nominated by HKSTP, including SOCIF Limited (“SOCIF”), imBee Limited (“imBee”), XTRA Sensing Limited (“Xtra Sensing”) and Chain Technology Development Co. Ltd (“Chain”), showcased their trial experience and results to government officials and industry leaders.
Adhering to the core values of Smart Living, Smart Economy, Smart Mobility and Smart Sustainability, the partnership, between Hysan, a leading property group and HKSTP, the city’s largest Innovation & Technology (I&T) flagship, aims to build a solid foundation for the I&T ecosystem to manifest start-up potential and business opportunities and empower the Smart City Blueprint of Hong Kong. As a business incubator in one of Asia’s largest technology innovation ecosystems, HKSTP functions as an innovation powerhouse with its tremendous pool of start-ups; whilst Hysan, with its extensive real estate and retail assets in the Lee Gardens Area, provides an unparalleled testing ground and a wide-ranging audience for HKSTP’s tech ventures to test-drive their concepts authentically in the heart of Hong Kong.
LMTP offers a platform for the start-ups to test-drive their Proof-of-Concepts (“PoC”) in an authentic and complex community environment, along with the domain knowledge in real estate provided by Hysan’s mentors. After months of acceleration and mentoring, the 4 start-ups in the first cohort of LMTP have tested and finetuned their PoCs in a real-life testing ground. They took LMTP as a strong booster to prove their solutions are marketable and even explored new business opportunities for further development. Some PoCs may continue or extend the scope to be commercial projects with Hysan. Please refer to the Appendix for the details and results of the PoCs.
Ricky Lui, Executive Director & Chief Operating Officer, Hysan Development Company Limited, said, “We are glad to share a common vision with HKSTP which is to use innovation and technology to benefit Hong Kong and the region. Hysan and its founding family have been curating the Lee Gardens community for 100 years. This precinct is now a most vibrant one mixing the traditional with the cutting edge. The Community Lab and The Last-mile Testing Programme offer the perfect environment for start-ups to learn, to be exposed to real-life applications, to make improvements throughout the last mile and eventually to blossom under a shared vision of making our city a better, smarter and efficient place to live.”
Eugene Hsia, Chief Corporate Development Officer of HKSTP, said, “Solution testing is an essential step before any real-world adoption. Throughout this first cohort, Hysan worked very closely with us and our park companies. Their executive management and operational teams spent many hours collaborating with each of our park companies, ensuring that their solutions are optimized for real world usages. We are excited to see the positive outcomes from this partnership. It has further inspired many other leading enterprises to work with us in transforming the future of Hong Kong. We can’t wait to share more success stories in the near future.”
Recruitment of the second cohort of LMTP, focusing on solutions in Smart Sustainability and Smart Living, has been completed in mid-October. Eighty innovative solutions have been received and are under-going assessment by The Community Lab. The selection result is estimated to be announced in the 1st quarter of this year. The Community Lab will also host a diversified range of events, including workshops and TechTalks for the public, enabling the community’s stakeholders to embrace technology in daily lives.
