Hong Kong image recognition start-up founder wins award for innovation in Japan

A Hongkonger was among six Japan-based entrepreneurs given awards at a ceremony at the Swedish embassy in Japan.

The fifth annual Entrepreneur Awards Japan ceremony, co-organised by the Swedish embassy and the US embassy, recognised the innovative achievements of six entrepreneurs in the country - four Japanese and one each from Hong Kong and the United States.

Chu Tsz-tat, founder and chief executive of Brand Pit, an image recognition start-up that analyses social media photos for market research, received the Embassy of Sweden Award.

Chu told the Post that winning that award was "honestly a surprise" given the strength of the field. He said that as part of his prize, he will visit Sweden later this year "to exchange knowledge and business and innovative ideas".

Brand Pit is based in Tokyo and Hong Kong, where it operates out of Blueprint, the business-to-business start-up accelerator funded by property giant Swire. The company's technology won a gold award for business marketing at the Hong Kong ICT Awards this month.

Chu said previously that one of the biggest problems for start-ups in Hong Kong and Japan was convincing talent and investors of the legitimacy of the business.

"Hong Kong's mentality is not really very receptive to small companies or being an entrepreneur as a career path," he said.