Six technology companies showcased solutions for financial research, wealth management, consumer insight and security to investors and institutions.
Updated
November 14, 2026 11:54 PM
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Arnold Lau and King Leung (back row, fourth and fifth from left), Associate Directors-General of Investment Promotion at InvestHK, join the Ventureport team and representatives from the six technology companies. PHOTO: VENTUREPORT
Ventureport hosted the soft launch of InvestHK’s Fast-Track Connect at its AI+ Tech+ Finance+ gathering on 30 October, bringing more than 100 guests to Pier 1929 in Wan Chai.
Sponsored by InvestHK, the event brought investors, institutional representatives and technology companies together to explore investment and business partnerships. Six companies took the stage to showcase software solutions for financial professionals, consumer research, local AI computing and digital asset security.
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The Acting Head of Startups, at InvestHK, Chin-yung (CY), and the Senior Vice President (Fintech), Pauline Fan, introduced Fast-Track Connect. They explained how the agency’s international network connects it with technology companies seeking investment, customers and business opportunities in Hong Kong.
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Their remarks also highlight the need for a more structured approach to build these connections. Investors need easier ways to identify companies that match their interests, while institutions seeking new technology need access to businesses whose products could support their operations or benefit their customers.
To address this need, Fast-Track Connect provides an online platform where technology companies can publish profiles outlining their products and funding needs. Investors and corporate participants can identify relevant businesses and contact them to explore potential investments or collaborations. Service providers and community partners are also part of the platform. Alongside investors and corporate participants, these groups are designated as Champions on the platform.
Curated by InvestHK and supported by the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau, Fast-Track Connect builds on the Global Fast Track Programme. It aims to help local enterprises expand into Chinese Mainland, Southeast Asia and other markets.
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AlphaPai, an AI-powered investment research platform developed by financial technology company RabyteTech, presented tools for financial research, including gathering data, monitoring financial instruments and comparing information from corporate earnings calls.
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At the event, the team explained how users can give research instructions in everyday language, while the software retrieves and processes information to prepare reports and presentation materials. Examples included tracking market developments and comparing company statements over time. The team also emphasised the importance of traceable sources, allowing analysts to verify the information behind their research.
A2B2.AI, a fintech startup, presented AI- powered tools designed to support investors and wealth advisers. Its specialist AI agents—software designed to carry out particular tasks—help prepare client meeting briefings, monitor financial products approaching maturity and identify market developments relevant to individual clients, according to the team.
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For investors, the tool can help make sense of lengthy documents provided by advisers and bring information from different accounts together to assess risk exposure. For wealth professionals, the tools support preparation and follow-up around client meetings.
The team described its approach as combining AI with human expertise to support financial decision- making. It also clarified that the platform does not execute investment transactions on behalf of clients, leaving those decisions and actions in their hands.
Preferences AI, an AI startup specialising in synthetic consumer research, presented simulated consumer profiles that businesses can use to explore how different audiences might respond to products, pricing and marketing messages. These profiles generate modelled responses rather than feedback from people directly interviewed or surveyed.
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The company described that its profiles are grounded in population data and account for differences between local audiences Businesses can use them to explore pricing or packaging options, as well as ask follow-up questions to understand the reasons behind a particular response. The team also discussed testing its models and working with academics to help validate the approach. It said the technology could help businesses explore consumer preferences more quickly.
ByteFuture, an AI infrastructure startup, focused on running AI on users’ own hardware. It introduced Olares, its operating system, and Olares One, a device designed to run AI models and applications locally.
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Its applications included personal assistance, financial research and content creation. The team argued that users handling private documents or proprietary trading strategies may prefer to retain that material on equipment they control.
A demonstration of AI-generated video illustrated creative work the team said could run locally. It also described applications and agents available through its software marketplace.
PureGlobal, a fintech company, addressed digital asset custody: the systems used to safeguard access to digital assets. Its team described technology for protecting access credentials and supporting offline transactions without a conventional internet connection.
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The presentation focused on infrastructure for institutions holding and transferring digital assets, including security under different operating conditions.
SlowMist, a blockchain security firm, examined the risks of giving AI agents permission to read information and perform tasks. Its examples included malicious instructions concealed in material an agent might encounter and attacks exploiting access granted to software.
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The team discussed security auditing, monitoring and investigations alongside risks arising from third-party tools and an agent’s stored information. One scenario involved exposing a wallet’s recovery phrase, which can give someone control over its assets.
Keep Reading
How Korea is trying to take control of its AI future.
Updated
January 13, 2026 10:56 AM
SK Telecom Headquarters in Seoul, South Korea. PHOTO: ADOBE STOCK
SK Telecom, South Korea’s largest mobile operator, has unveiled A.X K1, a hyperscale artificial intelligence model with 519 billion parameters. The model sits at the center of a government-backed effort to build advanced AI systems and domestic AI infrastructure within Korea. This comes at a time when companies in the United States and China largely dominate the development of the most powerful large language models.
Rather than framing A.X K1 as just another large language model, SK Telecom is positioning it as part of a broader push to build sovereign AI capacity from the ground up. The model is being developed as part of the Korean government’s Sovereign AI Foundation Model project, which aims to ensure that core AI systems are built, trained and operated within the country. In simple terms, the initiative focuses on reducing reliance on foreign AI platforms and cloud-based AI infrastructure, while giving Korea more control over how artificial intelligence is developed and deployed at scale.
One of the gaps this approach is trying to address is how AI knowledge flows across a national ecosystem. Today, the most powerful AI foundation models are often closed, expensive and concentrated within a small number of global technology companies. A.X K1 is designed to function as a “teacher model,” meaning it can transfer its capabilities to smaller, more specialized AI systems. This allows developers, enterprises and public institutions to build tailored AI tools without starting from scratch or depending entirely on overseas AI providers.
That distinction matters because most real-world applications of artificial intelligence do not require massive models operating independently. They require focused, reliable AI systems designed for specific use cases such as customer service, enterprise search, manufacturing automation or mobility. By anchoring those systems to a large, domestically developed foundation model, SK Telecom and its partners are aiming to create a more resilient and self-sustaining AI ecosystem.
The effort also reflects a shift in how AI is being positioned for everyday use. SK Telecom plans to connect A.X K1 to services that already reach millions of users, including its AI assistant platform A., which operates across phone calls, messaging, web services and mobile applications. The broader goal is to make advanced AI feel less like a distant research asset and more like an embedded digital infrastructure that supports daily interactions.
This approach extends beyond consumer-facing services. Members of the SKT consortium are testing how the hyperscale AI model can support industrial and enterprise applications, including manufacturing systems, game development, robotics and autonomous technologies. The underlying logic is that national competitiveness in artificial intelligence now depends not only on model performance, but on whether those models can be deployed, adapted and validated in real-world environments.
There is also a hardware dimension to the project. Operating an AI model at the 500-billion-parameter scale places heavy demands on computing infrastructure, particularly memory performance and communication between processors. A.X K1 is being used to test and validate Korea’s semiconductor and AI chip capabilities under real workloads, linking large-scale AI software development directly to domestic semiconductor innovation.
The initiative brings together technology companies, universities and research institutions, including Krafton, KAIST and Seoul National University. Each contributes specialized expertise ranging from data validation and multimodal AI research to system scalability. More than 20 institutions have already expressed interest in testing and deploying the model, reinforcing the idea that A.X K1 is being treated as shared national AI infrastructure rather than a closed commercial product.
Looking ahead, SK Telecom plans to release A.X K1 as open-source AI software, alongside APIs and portions of the training data. If fully implemented, the move could lower barriers for developers, startups and researchers across Korea’s AI ecosystem, enabling them to build on top of a large-scale foundation model without incurring the cost and complexity of developing one independently.