Hong Kong start-up SmartMore is the city’s new hi-tech poster child
- Established by a Chinese University of Hong Kong professor in 2019, SmartMore has been tasked with boosting the city’s technology ecosystem
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.
Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po 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.
