Hong Kong leads Asia in high-growth start-up potential and ranks fifth globally, showing the city’s growing strength in nurturing scalable ventures and unicorns, according to joint research published by technology market intelligence firm CB Insights and the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation.
The white paper, released on Monday, said Asia operated on a distributed network where distinct markets specialised in different stages of the technology life cycle, unlike Silicon Valley’s single-hub model.
Hong Kong served as the primary financial bridgeconnecting mainland Chinese and Asian tech innovations to global capital, international governance and cross-border buyers, the study added.
Foreign investors took part in 81 per cent of Hong Kong’s equity deals and channelled 84 per cent of their regional capital through the city, the report said. Furthermore, 55 per cent of unique equity investors in Hong Kong originated from outside Asia.
"As Asian companies target global markets from day one, Hong Kong functions as an essential gateway rather than an optional exit route" - CB Insights said.
Hong Kong companies showed the strongest growth momentum among Asian markets, according to CB Insights’ predictive measure of private company success across momentum, financing, market opportunity and leadership.
“Looking ahead, our ... vision is built on four dimensions: broad and deep, far yet near,” said Cordelia Chung, the chair of Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP).
“Broad means building a diverse talent ecosystem where human minds leverage technology, deep involves advancing tech-industry convergence, far entails expanding our global footprint and near focuses on drawing the future nearer with immediate action,” she added.
Established in 2001 by the Hong Kong government, the HKSTP is a statutory body established to drive the city’s innovation and technology ecosystem. It has built a community of over 17,000 research professionals and 2,600 technology companies from 26 countries and regions across four strategic technology clusters.
Mainland China led the region in frontier technology development, hardware manufacturing and large-scale deployment.
It accounted for 52 per cent of all regional tech equity funding despite making up 38 per cent of total deals, with average deal sizes significantly larger than regional peers.
India ranked second in deal volume through broad commercial partnerships, while Japan dominated regional liquidity, driving 50 per cent of all mergers and acquisitions.
In physical artificial intelligence and advanced hardware, China operated virtually without regional competition. Neighbouring markets captured almost zero venture funding in foundational robotics models, humanoid robotics or autonomous vehicle AI stacks.
The report showed that physical AI, robotics and AI infrastructure dominated funding across Asia.
From January 2025 through June 2026, robotics and generative AI raised US$26.1 billion and US$20.7 billion across the region, respectively, outpacing agentic AI and fintech.
Source: SCMP
