A smart manufacturing start-up founded in 2019 by a Chinese University of Hong Kong Professor has been hand-picked by the government as a poster child representing the city’s ambitions to become a hi-tech hub. Government-run Hong Kong Investment Corporation (HKIC) and home-grown unicorn SmartMore celebrated their “strategic cooperation” at a ceremony in a rare official endorsement of a start-up. Financial Secretary Paul Chan hailed SmartMore as a typical Hong Kong story: raised in the city, expanding in the Greater Bay Area, and aspiring to global success.
While privately-held SmartMore has not disclosed its financial data, the company is known as one of the fastest-growing start-ups in China. At the ceremony, the firm displayed products ranging from sensor bar-code readers to an automated machine designed to quickly spot defects in products, such as mobile-phone frames and earphones, in a production line. According to a SmartMore brochure, the company’s products are used by major clients worldwide, including advanced lens maker Carl Zeiss, European aircraft manufacturer Airbus, and Japanese camera and office equipment maker Canon. On the mainland, its clients include leading television producer TCL, smartphone brand Oppo and Apple’s largest contractor Foxconn Technology Group.
SmartMore’s business focus of applying artificial intelligence, automation and optics engineering to factory machinery, a result of research expertise accumulated by its founder Jia Jiaya over two decades, fits into China’s broader strategy of upgrading its vast web of manufacturing facilities with cutting-edge technologies. Jia, who delivered speeches in Cantonese, Mandarin and English at the ceremony, said the city will be SmartMore’s first choice for an initial public offering (IPO) down the road. The company is valued at an estimated HKD10 billion after at least three funding rounds backed by investors such as IDG Capital and HongShan. It is a “must” for the company to float its shares to finance its expansion and generate returns for shareholders, said Jia, who came to the city in 2000 to study at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and joined the Chinese University in 2005.
HKIC CEO Clara Chan said Smartmore has been given a mandate to boost the city’s technology ecosystem. She declined to disclose how much money the government will invest in the company. In a videotaped speech, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee heaped praise on SmartMore, saying its deal with HKIC has a significant meaning partly because it includes a plan to establish “the first artificial intelligence academy of Hong Kong”. Hong Kong is placing high hopes on tech start-ups to reinvent its economy, as the city’s traditional advantages in finance, shipping and trade come under threat amid growing U.S.-China tensions, the South China Morning Post reports.
