The Elon Musk of Singapore looks to engineer the next deep-tech unicorn

Peter Ho, the CEO of engineering firm Hope Technik, is like the Elon Musk or Tony Stark of Singapore.

But Ho demurs that comparison: “I am one of many people running the company. But the imagination, the solutioning, and the genius are in the teams that actually engineer, design, and assemble,” he tells Tech in Asia.

Hope Technik CEO Peter Ho / Photo credit: Hope Technik

Hope Technik, which does custom engineering work and then turns the technology it has developed for clients into commercially available products, is getting ready to launch its 11th and 12th business units next year. The company’s products are diverse, ranging from robots to sensors to vehicles.

Its CEO certainly knows his way around a workshop – Ho began as a race car engineer before starting Hope Technik in 2006. Since then, however, he has traded in his overalls for a business suit.

“Sadly, I’m the guy that spends more time on Excel and looks at financial numbers,” he says.

But Ho has much to be pleased about. Hope Technik, by his account, is thriving. It has 120 employees (about 70 of them are engineers), more than double from six years ago.

Deep tech takes a lot of money.

The company has also been keeping its head above water. Except for two or three years, its primary business units—special projects and vehicle building—have been profitable throughout the company’s history.

While the firm ended the years 2016 to 2018 with declining revenue and net losses, Ho explains that “negatives are often due to investment into internal projects or new units.”

The CEO adds that a new venture, such as the launch of Sesto Robotics in 2017, requires development work by the relevant unit within Hope Technik. This takes time away from chargeable commercial work.

“Deep tech takes a lot of money. A lot of our profits get invested into the next product or the next technology,” he says.

Ho clarifies, though, that Hope has been profitable in the last couple of years.

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