Hong Kong Startup News Round Up - 10 June 2018

FinHACK 2018 is Open For Applications

WHub and Societe Generale are jointly hosting FinHACK 2018 on 6-8 July 2018, a FinTech hackathon to promote innovation and accelerate the digital transformation of the banking and financial industry in Hong Kong.

FinHACK 2018 is open to all university students, entrepreneurs, coders and developers. Participants will have 36 hours to design and develop innovative solutions to address business challenges spanning RegTech, WealthTech and Digital Banking with the application of Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain and Cybersecurity technologies. Winners will receive a cash prize and a potential working opportunity at Societe Generale, with the possibility to further develop and implement their ideas.

Grab your ticket: Here
Visit the FinHACK website: www.finhack.io
Follow FinHACK on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/finhackhk/
Follow FinHACK on Twitter: https://twitter.com/finhackhk 

HK-based Blockchain start-up to raise record-breaking $4 billion

Block.one, an HK-based open source software publisher that is incorporated in the Cayman Islands, has been reported to have raised more than $4 billion, one of the largest fundraisings of its kinds.

The startup’s main product is the EOS software platform that allows developers to use it to build their own blockchain applications. EOS, says Block.one, can support hundreds of thousands of transactions a second without charging users any fees and does so to provide “accounts, authentication, databases and the scheduling of applications across multiple CPU cores and/or clusters.” Block.one, according to Wall Street Journal, has pledged to invest more than $1 billion in startups building on EOS.

6 HK teams makes it to the Global semi-finals of Technovation 2018

Six Hong Kong teams have made it to the global semi-finals of Technovation 2018 from over 2000 submitted app solutions worldwide. This represents more than 15% of all Hong Kong completed applications, which shows the overall quality of Hong Kong girls' app and pitch submissions. Originally from the US, Technovation invites teams of girls from all over the world to learn and apply the skills needed to solve real-world problems through technology. It has been introduced to HK by the Young Makers & ChangeMakers (YMCM) in 2017. The Challenge is about identifying problems of one’s own community and offer solutions in the form of a mobile application. In addition, participants are also required to write a business plan for their mobile application.

Of the six teams, 2/3 participated in HK’s Young Makers & ChangeMakers workshop and bootcamp at WeWork and The University of Hong Kong respectively, and all but one team pitched at the Celebration Pitch Finals for Hong Kong and Greater Bay Area.

Find our more about the competition:
http://stem.edb.hkedcity.net/en/technovation-2018-and-girlsmaketech/

Millennials’ evasion high rents drive co-living boom in HK & China

High rents, greater connectivity and lack of space are driving the co-living trend in HK and China, where residents pay for room space and then share a variety of communal facilities and amenities such as Wi-Fi.

In Hong Kong, spaces such as Bibliothèque in Yau Ma Tei; SynBOX in Hung Hom; M3 International Youth Community in Central, Prince Edward, Tsim Sha Tsui and Sham Shui Po; and Campus Hong Kong in Tsuen Wan have all proliferated.

Campfire Collaborative Spaces, a notable HK co-working space, is expanding into co-living with the creation of Campfire Home in Tsueng Kwan O for mainly young professionals, entrepreneurs, interns and university students, estimating that 68,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students either live at home or need to meet their housing needs in the private rental market.

Zeroth Demo Day Z03: 3rd cohort graduates from Asia’s first AI-focused accelerator

On 1st June, Zeroth SPC (“Zeroth”), the first artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) focused accelerator in Asia, announced Demo Day Z03 and the graduation of its third cohort of startups from its accelerator program.

Startups accepted into the Zeroth acceleration program receive USD 120,000 in funding in return for a 6% equity stake. Zeroth provides training, guidance, office space, development support, and access to investors over an acceleration period of three months. Zeroth cohort companies are co-located at the offices of its strategic investor Animoca Brands and they enjoy direct access to the resources and expertise of the publicly listed developer, as well as access to various other partners including veteran technology pioneer Outblaze.

The 10 companies in the third Zeroth cohort that have graduated:
- Mathcognify: (Hong Kong) develops algorithmic technologies to optimize cryptocurrency mining
- Metrix: (Russia) An AI powered SaaS engine that scales a digital platform’s efficiency
- Planto: (Hong Kong) a financial management app that helps millennials develop personalized saving plans
- Scribe Intelligence: (Hong Kong) enables businesses to unlock value from audio content
- Seoul Robotics: (South Korea) develops software to help self-driving car companies fully utilize their LIDAR sensors
- Tru Luv: (Canada) develops interactive experiences that leverage new research around relaxation techniques and neuroscience to create calm, connected engagement for the 2.8bn mobile users that don’t play games
- Utu: (Kenya) a machine-learning powered trust engine to improve marketplace businesses
- Volareo: (Holland) makes crypto commerce common with voice hardware product
- Lily: (Vietnam) a platform for predicting women’s health by tracking their daily activities and health status
- Fasal: (India) an AI-powered software platform that makes on-farm predictions to increase yield and quality