Unit of Hong Kong’s MTR launches start-up incubator with aim of reaching carbon neutrality by 2050
- MTR Lab hopes to create an ecosystem for experimentation, not only in Hong Kong, but all around the globe within MTR’s business scope, executive says
- The Co+Lab Initiative platform will seek out early-stage companies with technology that can help the railway operator develop a ‘carbon-neutral smart community’
Co+Lab Initiative, the investment platform, will seek out early-stage companies with technology that can help the railway operator develop a “carbon-neutral smart community”, Michael Chan Ting-bond, MTR Lab’s managing director, said in an interview.
“With this initiative, MTR Lab hopes to create an ecosystem for experimentation – not only in Hong Kong, but all around the globe within MTR Corporation’s business scope,” he said. Co+Lab will focus on six key sectors relevant to MTR’s operations, including mobility, retail, property, financial and data services, smart city technology and sustainability.
The intention is for start-ups’ technologies to be trialled and tested across the railway operator’s ecosystem, which includes its businesses in Stockholm in Sweden, Melbourne and Sydney in Australia, as well as London in the United Kingdom, Chan said.
“What we have is a huge ecosystem that we can trial [technology in]. And by doing this trial, and by attracting a lot of like-minded partners, it would definitely help us in reaching our [carbon-neutral] goal much faster.”