By Youri van Elsland
November 9, 2019
The Asia Technology Entrepreneurship Conference (ATEC) is a tech conference with a mission to foster tech entrepreneurship and to encourage the Asian innovators to start impactful ventures to benefit the region and the world. This year’s ATEC was held at K11 Arthouse.
The event opened with an interesting keynote speech by HKEX Chief Executive Charles Li about the shift from public to private funding, the state of the highly digitized payment systems in China, how AI will revolutionize the healthcare industry, and how Europe needs to change its perspective toward privacy and data collection.
The rest of the morning was taken up by a pitch competition consisting of ten of Asia’s most innovative and promising startups in AI, big data, blockchain, energy, fintech, logistics, pharmaceuticals, and robotics.
In the afternoon, attendees moved to the 21st floor of K11, which had a fantastic view of the harbor. The afternoon started with five ATECx style presentations by industry insiders, who spoke about crucial tech trends in their respective areas. This session was followed by the announcement of the winner of the pitch competition, Pakpobox–a company working to revolutionize package deliveries.
Bluefield Technology, a company that measures methane levels from out of space, was the first runner-up, and the hard- and software learning company EXLskills was the second runner-up. The winners received a combined cash prize of HK$50,000.
ATEC 2019 closed with some drinks, appetizers, and networking. All in all, it was a fruitful event filled with passionate entrepreneurs who were keen to make new connections and collective work toward their vision of a better future.
