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1 DEBORAH WEINSWIG, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR–HEAD OF GLOBAL RETAIL & TECHNOLOGY [email protected] US: 917.655.6790 HK: 852.6119.1779 CN: 86.186.1420.3016 Copyright © 2016 The Fung Group. All rights reserved.
StartmeupHK Festival 2016 –Highlights from The LAUNCH Consumer IoT Summit by Brinc, part of the StartmeupHK Festival 2016, was a two-‐day event that brought together leading entrepreneurs, investors and experts in the world of the Internet of Things (IoT).
• The event’s lineup included Group CEO of Li & Fung Spencer Fung and the Fung Group’s Richard Kelly.
• The summit was a big part of the festival, which celebrated Hong Kong’s rising profile as a startup hub.
The StartmeupHK Festival 2016 continued on Wednesday and Thursday, January 27–28, with the LAUNCH Consumer IoT Summit by Brinc. The summit was a two-‐day event focused on empowering the next generation of entrepreneurs working in the consumer IoT field and on showcasing Hong Kong as the leading startup hub for IoT.
Organized by Brinc, Hong Kong’s first consumer IoT accelerator, the summit featured renowned speakers and investors in the IoT field, including Group CEO of Li & Fung Spencer Fung and the Fung Group’s Richard Kelly. The summit also included two IoT workshops, a startup exhibition and a pitching competition that showcased more than 26 startups over the course of the two days.
Brinc Founder and CEO Manav Gupta opened the summit with a keynote address. Gregory So, Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development of Hong Kong, spoke next. The day continued with a presentation by Alan Lau of McKinsey Digital and a panel discussion titled “To Eat or Be Eaten: Hardware Is Eating the World in 2016,” which
featured the Fung Group’s Richard Kelly. He made the case that, in the IoT world, “it’s really about hardware and software and not hardware or software.” That is, consumers expect smart devices and “enchanted” things that deliver a comprehensive experience, one that merges the physical and digital worlds seamlessly.
The first day’s program continued with presentations by Christina Bechhold from Samsung’s Global Innovation Center (GIC) and Tytus Michalski from Fresco Capital. GIC is Samsung’s corporate venture capital unit, which is running accelerator programs for startups in Silicon Valley and New York, looking to absorb some of the startups’ agility and improve Samsung’s software offering in the future. Bechhold presented an overview of the GIC and her view on the investment opportunities in the IoT space, and detailed the GIC’s investment criteria. Bechhold noted that the world is moving toward a point where the consumer will interact with a network of connected devices through a single user interface, which means hardware and software are equally important. She said that IoT solutions companies that can create a platform and community around their products are some of the most exciting investment opportunities.
Following Bechhold’s presentation, Michalski provided a practical overview of how IoT companies are changing the world. He presented case studies on Fresco Capital
2 DEBORAH WEINSWIG, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR–HEAD OF GLOBAL RETAIL & TECHNOLOGY [email protected] US: 917.655.6790 HK: 852.6119.1779 CN: 86.186.1420.3016 Copyright © 2016 The Fung Group. All rights reserved.
portfolio companies that are creating value by leveraging connectivity in fields as diverse as satellite weather tracking and forest fire prevention.
The afternoon session started with Spencer Fung’s keynote address, “The Impact of IoT on Retail Transformation.” Fung talked about today’s fast-‐changing retail environment. He noted that the entire value chain is being disrupted, from shifting consumer preferences to market entrants with new business models. As a result, more and more retailers are looking for new ideas and ways to innovate, he said, which is why we are seeing retail CEOs attending events like CES 2016, which was not typical only a few years ago. Fung said that IoT companies have a big role to play in this new environment, but he also noted that to build successful product businesses, IoT startups need to develop capabilities across the entire value chain, from product design and development to manufacturing and distribution. This creates an opportunity for partnerships and collaborations between IoT startups and companies such as Li & Fung, which has expertise in orchestrating complex supply chains and taking products all the way to the consumer.
Following his keynote, Fung took part in a panel discussion on how corporates pivot to learn from startups in the IoT age. He described the different initiatives currently under way at the Fung Group that promote innovation within the organization. He also highlighted FBIC’s Disruptors Series of events, which bring startups into Li & Fung offices, as well as Li & Fung’s open platform for idea sharing and Fung Capital’s investments in startups.
The second day of the summit included two engaging panel discussions. The first featured popular names from the Hong Kong startup scene—Casey Lau, Roland Yau and Nest’s Simon Squibb—who discussed why Hong Kong matters to the IoT industry. The second panel of the day brought together Torsten Duwenhorst, Paul Tomes and James Giancotti, who discussed how Big Data plays into the IoT space. However, the panelists naturally gravitated toward discussing Hong Kong’s position as an IoT hub and its advantages when it comes to housing IoT businesses that have a heavy data component. Giancotti, from Oddup, elaborated that Hong Kong is actually the third-‐best location for hardware-‐only startups (behind Shenzhen and Taipei), due to its legal system, Internet infrastructure and proximity to the top two cities for hardware development. He said it ranks number one, though, for IoT businesses that are looking to offer a complete solution to consumers.
Other notable speakers were Ben Bateman, Director of Hardware, Design and Technology at Indiegogo, and Microsoft’s Director of Architecture, Josh Holmes, who discussed how machine learning works in his talk, “The Rise of the Machines.” Both speakers’ talks were informative and entertaining, and provided a more global perspective to the audience.
Later in the day, the summit organizers revealed the winners of the startup pitching contests: the winner of the audience vote was Thinqbot, while Mosaikx won the Brinc vote and Lumos the judge panel vote.
3 DEBORAH WEINSWIG, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR–HEAD OF GLOBAL RETAIL & TECHNOLOGY [email protected] US: 917.655.6790 HK: 852.6119.1779 CN: 86.186.1420.3016 Copyright © 2016 The Fung Group. All rights reserved.
Thinqbot is a stealth-‐mode startup based in India that is developing the next generation of smart home solutions. Mosaikx is consumer technology company that designs and develops application-‐specific software and wearable hardware. The company has developed Hipo, a small wearable device that listens to what you say and organizes the content in notes, leveraging artificial intelligence technology. Lumos has developed the world’s first bicycle helmet with integrated lights for brake and turn signals.
Brinc’s Gupta wrapped up the event with closing remarks on the exciting two days of talks, workshops and startup pitches. The summit was a great addition to the StartmeupHK Festival, which was a huge success, attracting renowned global speakers, entrepreneurs and investors, and marking Hong Kong’s rise in prominence as major startup hub.
4 DEBORAH WEINSWIG, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR–HEAD OF GLOBAL RETAIL & TECHNOLOGY [email protected] US: 917.655.6790 HK: 852.6119.1779 CN: 86.186.1420.3016 Copyright © 2016 The Fung Group. All rights reserved.
Deborah Weinswig, CPA Executive Director—Head of Global Retail & Technology Fung Business Intelligence Centre New York: 917.655.6790 Hong Kong: 852.6119.1779 [email protected] Filippo Battaini [email protected]
Marie Driscoll, CFA [email protected]
John Harmon, CFA [email protected]
Aragorn Ho [email protected]
John Mercer [email protected]
Shoshana Pollack [email protected]
Kiril Popov [email protected]
Jing Wang [email protected]
Steven Winnick [email protected]
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