Hong Kong Startup News Round Up - 1 July 2018

Bangkok Techsauce Summit: Converging Leading Speakers in SE Asia and HK's Startup Miro wins special grand prize

TechSauce Global Summit 2018, held from June 22-23, was again a huge gathering of international tech know-how in Southeast Asia. It was showing off over 10,000 attendees, over 250 speakers from all over the world, investors, associations, international media and a global pitching competition. Speakers included CEO of Techstars David Brown, Joseph Lubin Founder of Etherium, David Galipeau Chief Impact Officer of UNDP, and WHub’s co-founder Karena Belin.

In addition to the MainStage, smaller stages invited huge crowds around HealthTech, FinTech, Blockchain, DeepTech, FAB (Food Agriculture BioTech), AI & Big Data and Venture Capital amongst others.

The winner of the pitching competition was SzeleSTIM from Austria, receiving up to $80,000 investment with a spot worth $45,000 in the MOX accelerator program or $130,000 investment with a spot worth $40,000 in Chinaccelerator Program. Miro, Hong Kong’s roadshow winner, co-organised by Techsauce and WHub, won the special grand prize of $100,000 for this category, sponsored by SOSV. The competition had sourced the finest startups over the last 5 months through local roadshows around the world. CONGRATULATIONS!

Stay tuned for WHub co-founder Karena Belin’s article next week on key takeaways to find out more.

How China's Alibaba Is Winning Over HK & Taiwan - Startup By Startup

Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund, with a size of $461 million, has been growing businesses in Hong Kong and Taiwan since 2015. HK startups in this fund include GoGoVan, which values at $1 billion after merging with Chinese logistic firm 58 Suyun, and Origami Labs, which has raised a total of $2.5 millioin.

"Politics are always local, so boosting the tech and startup communities in Hong Kong and Taiwan is a win for everyone," speculates Danny Levinson, past chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce Shanghai's IT committee. Alibaba joins other mainland China stakeholders in following Chinese President Xi Jinping’s “lead to jumpstart sectors in Taiwan and Hong Kong,” Levinson says.

 Alibaba’s investments also reveal an aspect of mainland China that Taiwanese and HK entrepreneurs invariably like–its money and market potential. Alibaba, with market capitalization of $499 billion, invites funded startups every year to meet at the company’s Hangzhou headquarters to network amongst themselves as well as with Alibaba about collaboration potential.

Dublin’s KYC to raise US $ 5.8m in deal with HK Neat

Irish startup Know Your Customer (KYC), a member of HK’s FinTech Supercharger Accelerator Program, plans to raise up to $5.85 million in the coming weeks to fund expansion after signing a breakthrough Asian deal with HK current account provider, Neat.

"Signing the Neat deal is a huge step for us because it means we have established a foothold in Hong Kong," said KYC chief executive Claus Christensen. Christensen said the Neat contract was worth USD $ 117K a year but that the bank was growing rapidly and that the value of the deal would grow accordingly.

To date, KYC has been self-funded as it won customers in Ireland and the UK but it has just received a USD $292K investment from Enterprise Ireland.

Xiaomi raises $4.7B after pricing HK IPO at bottom of range

China's XiaoMi Corp priced its Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO) at the bottom of an indicative range, raising $4.72 billion in the world's biggest tech float in four years, people close to the transaction said.

That values the firm at about $54 billion, almost half the valuation industry insiders touted at the beginning of the year. Xiaomi's IPO adds to the $6 billion of new listings so far in 2018 in Hong Kong and is set to be the first under the city's new exchange rules permitting dual-class shares common in the tech industry in an attempt to attract tech floats.

The pricing comes at a delicate time for HK's stock market, with the benchmark Hang Seng index falling 6.5 percent this month and 4.8 percent this year as investors fret over escalating trade tension between the US and China.

FinTech Association of Hong Kong First year anniversary

The FinTech Association is an independent, not for profit, membership based association. In one year, FTAHK has grown to represent over 1,000 members + 160 organisations.

WHub is a proud partner of FTAHK and have shared commun initiatives, such as the Hong Kong Monetary sharing session on bank accounts opening and maintenance.

FTAHK is based on 3 pillars:

• Advocacy - create the unified voice of the Hong Kong FinTech ecosystem
• Collaboration - bring together the diverse parts of the community
• Education - learn from existing leaders and nurture the next generation of talent