Can Hong Kong try to copy Silicon Valley’s ways to create more technopreneurs?
- Tech start-up veterans underline missing elements for Hong Kong off the back of finance chief Paul Chan’s visit to US
The group of Hong Kong visitors to Novoloop, a start-up in Silicon Valley’s Menlo Park, cannot miss the sneaker placed on a laboratory bench alongside test tubes and machinery.
Describing the company’s progress, chief executive and climate tech entrepreneur Miranda Wang said it took years of research to turn hard-to-recycle plastic waste into a sturdy new material, thermoplastic polyurethane.
That was used for the multipurpose sneaker’s outsole, the part that hits the ground, and the new material has been adopted by Swiss sports brand On for its range of shoes.
Wang, 30, told her Hong Kong visitors – a group of officials led by finance chief Paul Chan Mo-po – how the company had expanded, opening a pilot chemical recycling plant in India.
Chan, who visited California in May, was quick to suggest that Hong Kong would be a good location for the growing start-up, as the city offered access to mainland China and other parts of Asia.
Wang told the Post afterwards the city was worth considering as a research lab base in Asia, for its proximity to the mainland’s thriving tech scene.
Neighbouring Shenzhen, sometimes called the “Silicon Valley of China”, is home to tech giants Tencent and BYD and drone company DJI, and the mainland’s leader in patent production.
