Arist-ed development: Controversial Kickstarter project endorsed by Hong Kong government slammed for empty promises, failed delivery
Backers are scrambling for refunds after Nbition Development’s smart coffee machine Arist misses shipment deadlines and media tests show it to be leaking water and performing poorly.
A Hong Kong start-up that has been hailed by the government as a shining example of innovation and raised nearly US$1 million on Kickstarter for its smart coffee machine is now embroiled in controversy amid repeated product delays and an accusation of copyright infringement.
Nbition Development, which won the Best ICT Start-up Grand Award, part of the government-backed Hong Kong ICT Awards in April, attracted HK$6.5 million (US$840,000) at the end of 2014 to produce its Arist coffee machine.
The product is operated by a dedicated app and promises high-quality, barista-grade coffee.
Yet several missed shipping deadlines and accusations by a Danish coffee machine company that the start-up copied its app design have tarred the project, leaving some backers demanding answers and refunds from founding brothers Nelson and Benson Chiu.
The Chius registered Nbition Development in July 2013 to develop mobile-based software including a coffee-ordering app called Garffee.
That app was later featured by Hong Kong’s financial secretary John Tsang Chun-wah in his 2015 budget speech as an example of the city’s growing start-up ecosystem. Garffee has not yet been commercially released.
Nbition is also one of a number of incubatees at the Hong Kong Science and Technology Park, which it originally entered as a software start-up. It later shifted over to join the park’s hardware incubation programme.