Hong Kong’s Next Tech Edge: Where Data, Discipline, and Global Ambition Meet
Why Hong Kong is attracting the AI-driven, resilient, globally ambitious tech companies shaping Asia’s next growth wave
Hong Kong is once again becoming a launchpad—not for the frothy, consumer-internet wave of a decade ago, but for a more durable shift: the rise of enterprise technology, data resilience, and AI-driven industry solutions.
At Tech Week 2025, Asia Tech Lens sat down with InvestHK’s Wendy Chow and three enterprise founders from FanRuan, Deepexi, and Information2 Software—companies that are quietly shaping the next layer of Asia’s digital infrastructure. Their message was surprisingly consistent. Hong Kong’s value today isn’t a high-gloss pitch or a geopolitically convenient slogan. It’s a system: transparent processes, predictable regulation, and a business environment that rewards long-term builders.
These founders have already succeeded in Chinese Mainland. But as they look to Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, Hong Kong has become the place where global ambitions can be tested, refined, and scaled.
Why Hong Kong? A Platform Built on Process, Not Promises
For InvestHK’s Wendy Chow, the mandate is clear: help companies from Chinese Mainland and around the world establish themselves in Hong Kong, then support their regional expansion. But the way Hong Kong enables that journey stands out.
“We support overseas companies, including those from Chinese Mainland, to settle in Hong Kong,” she said. “Hong Kong is small, but it’s a very good platform to learn how to do business outside the Mainland. And next stop is always ASEAN—usually Singapore.”
What differentiates Hong Kong, in her view, is not zero-sum competition. It’s positive competition—with clear rules, transparent tenders, and the discipline of the ICAC (Hong Kong’s anti-corruption watchdog) shaping how business is conducted. “Relationships do matter,” she noted, “but everything still has to go through proper procedures. Nobody can influence the tender outcome.”
This matters for enterprise companies whose customers—banks, hospitals, regulators—require trust, continuity, and compliance. In the past 30 months, InvestHK supported more than 600 Mainland companies setting up in the city, followed by firms from the US, UK, and Singapore. The top three sectors were finance and fintech, innovation and technology, and regional trading or corporate offices.
Hong Kong’s unique positioning connects these pieces: capital and technology. Between January and September 2025, the city raised US$23 billion across more than 60 IPOs—outpacing New York and several global markets. Over 200 companies are already in the listing pipeline.
For Mainland firms, winning Hong Kong reference clients—such as the Hospital Authority or Hong Kong International Airport—becomes a passport to credibility overseas. “People will say that of course large Mainland enterprises use your products,” Wendy explained. “But if Hong Kong institutions use them, it makes going overseas much easier.”
FanRuan: From BI to Natural-Language Analytics
FanRuan (帆软软件), China’s largest BI and analytics provider, came to Tech Week as part of the InvestHK delegation. Deputy General Manager Howard Chu describes the company as a “leading business intelligence company,” helping enterprises turn scattered data across spreadsheets, databases, and internal systems into decision-ready insights.
Traditional BI platforms were fundamentally designed around drag-and-drop operations for compiling reports and creating data visualizations. But enterprise users, Howard noted, increasingly expect something closer to conversation. “Some users think drag-and-drop is still difficult,” he said. “They want natural language—to ask the data directly, like asking an assistant: ‘How is my business doing?’”
FanRuan is now integrating with major LLM platforms—OpenAI, Google Gemini and others—while maintaining its own proprietary models and retrieval systems. This transformation defines the future of BI: a transition from static visualization to conversational dialogue, enabling truly frictionless data access.
FanRuan’s presence in the InvestHK cohort reflects a wider trend of Chinese enterprise software companies using Hong Kong as an initial landing point for international expansion. Hong Kong’s enterprise landscape—and its demand for data-driven decision-making—creates a logical base for FanRuan’s regional ambitions.
Information2 Software: Data Resilience as Global Competitive Edge
If FanRuan helps you understand your data, Information2 Software ensures that data survives, synchronizes, and recovers—everywhere your business operates. Chairman and CEO Justin Hu leads one of China’s pioneers in data backup, replication, and digital resilience.
In the Mainland market, the company competes directly with major U.S. vendors and claims the number-one spot in its category. “Everyone wants to do AI,” Justin said, “but first you must make your data digital. And once digital, the second most important issue is data security.”
He rejects the idea that customers need to “trust” him with their data. “We give them the software. The data stays with them,” he said. “All devices belong to the customer. We don’t store anything.”
Hong Kong’s regulatory environment plays directly into this strength. GDPR in Europe, MAS rules in Singapore, HKMA guidelines in Hong Kong: these frameworks turn resilience into a must-have, not a “nice-to-have.”
“Overseas customers start from compliance,” Justin said. “For them, resilience is a regulatory requirement, not an option upgrade. In markets like Hong Kong and Singapore, procurement is directly tied to legal and supervisory frameworks. In Chinese Mainland, digital resilience is also strengthening rapidly, but enterprises sometimes adopt it based on business priority rather than mandatory timelines.”
Information2 Software set up its wholly owned Hong Kong subsidiary after listing on the STAR Market. From there, the company now pushes into Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, supported by Hong Kong’s Trade Development Council and InvestHK.
Deepexi: AI-Ready Platforms and Industry Agents, Starting With Healthcare
Deepexi (滴普科技) brings a different flavor of enterprise innovation: AI-ready data platforms and AI agents embedded into industry workflows. Founded in 2018, the company helps enterprises process internal data into model-ready knowledge—and then deploy AI “digital employees” to augment real humans.
For Vice President of International Business, Benjamin Bai, the shift from Chinese Mainland to Hong Kong has been a lesson in product focus and localization. “We had so many solutions,” he said. “It felt like everything could be sold. But after six months we learned we had to choose one. Hong Kong is very international—you join a tender and there are many global competitors.”
Their chosen wedge is healthcare. Working with the Hong Kong Hospital Authority and private hospitals, the company deploys AI agents that assist doctors with clinical conversations, pathology analysis, and documentation—all without requiring constant manual input.
The solution combines AI models with Shenzhen-built hardware: recording badges, AI-assisted glasses, wearable devices, and long-standby sensors that sit unobtrusively in examination rooms. By removing the need to unlock apps or toggle devices, the doctor can focus on the patient instead of the paperwork.
Culturally, the transition was not trivial. “We think Shenzhen and Hong Kong are so close,” Benjamin reflected. “But the cultural gap is real. Hiring locally was difficult. PMF was difficult. But once Hong Kong institutions trust you, the rollout moves fast.”
Validated in Hong Kong’s hospital system, this human-centered workflow is now the product Deepexi intends to take into Singapore, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.
The Shape of Hong Kong’s Emerging Tech Model
Across these three companies—BI, data resilience, and AI-agent workflows—a pattern emerges:
Governed innovation: transparent tenders, rule-of-law systems, and structured procurement processes.
Enterprise-first technology: banking, healthcare, public sector, and large industrial clients.
Data resilience and compliance: treated flexibly in Chinese Mainland, enforced in Hong Kong and other regulated markets.
Cross-border operability: Hong Kong as a window to Southeast Asia, Middle East, and Europe.
Hardware + AI integration: enabled by Shenzhen proximity.
It’s not Silicon Valley-style experimentation. And it’s not Shenzhen’s rapid hyperscaling either. It is a slower, more rigorous process—one that rewards companies willing to meet global standards.
As Benjamin put it, “The front evaluation process is long. You can’t push it like in the Mainland. But once they trust you, the rollout is very fast.”
Where Hong Kong Goes Next
Talent mobility, bilingual capability, and deeper links with ASEAN remain ongoing needs. Founders also pointed to a perception gap: Chinese enterprise technology can match Western competitors on performance and value, yet remains under-recognized internationally—in part because Chinese companies invest far less in global storytelling and branding.
But the direction is unmistakable. Hong Kong is becoming one of Asia’s emerging enterprise infrastructure hub—a place where ambitious tech companies come to prove themselves under real-world conditions: legal compliance, international customers, transparent procurement, and global-ready credibility.
For these founders, Hong Kong is not the end goal. It is the proving ground.
Produced with support from InvestHK.