“The very main reason [for developing our business in Hong Kong] is the connection to the mainland, and then the accessibility to venture funding, grant funding or government funding,” said Harry Chen Hong-yuan, partner and chief financial Officer of E3A Healthcare.

The company, which produces medical devices for women and newborns, was founded in Singapore in 2019 and set up a holding company that year in Hong Kong.

The firm established a research and development centre in the city last year after learning about funding provided by Hong Kong’s Innovation and Technology Fund, as well as a receiving a grant from the Science Park.

“So we thought that was helpful for us to lower our costs,” Chen said. “And the other thing is that Hong Kong has a lot of universities … because we are a medical device company, we have to work with a lot of hospitals and usually through the institution is the best way to connect with local clinical resources.

“And also these universities provide talent for us.”

Chen said a future goal was to move his research team in Singapore to Hong Kong, so he could establish the city as the firm’s main R&D base because of lower costs made possible by different grants and funds locally.

The firm also plans to launch its products in Hong Kong this year and is working with local distributors.

Another start-up that is interested in developing its business in Hong Kong is Smartos, a Vietnamese firm that provides a property management platform.

Founder and CEO Tran Hanh Trang also pointed to funding as one of the reasons she hoped to expand her business to Hong Kong, in addition to the city’s supportive innovation ecosystem and the large potential market.

“The source of funding available here for [start-ups] is big,” she said. “For start-ups, the initial funding is really important for us to be able to invest in developing the solution.”

Tran said Hong Kong was a “megacity” filled with commercial and residential buildings, which the firm hoped would mean a similar demand for its services as in Vietnam.

Hong Kong has experienced an exodus of talent and companies in recent years, with the government taking an all-out approach to attract people and firms to the city through various initiatives and schemes.

The efforts followed an earlier migration wave amid previously stringent Covid-19 controls and Hongkongers accessing new pathways to settle overseas after political changes in the city.

Both Tran and Chen dismissed these concerns. They said practical issues surrounding their work were what concerned them.

Chen said the cost of living in Hong Kong was an issue for some employees. He said some had opted to commute from Shenzhen to their office in the Science Park rather than rent a flat nearby because of high housing prices in Sha Tin.

Tran, meanwhile, was concerned about the availability of generative artificial intelligence models from Microsoft-backed OpenAI, which they used in their products.

Despite OpenAI rolling out its AI services in more than 160 countries, the products remain officially unavailable on the mainland and in Hong Kong. Users have turned to virtual private networks or third-party apps to access ChatGPT, while developers need to use proxies and outbound servers to bypass restrictions.

Tran said the firm would find a way to integrate systems that were supported in Hong Kong into its products to resolve the issue.