Hong Kong Startup News Round Up - 24 Feb 2019

AngelHub and Zeroth AI partner to nurture home-grown deep-tech startups

AngelHub.io, has signed a strategic partnership with Hong Kong’s leading AI and robotics accelerator Zeroth.AI. The partnership will further develop Hong Kong’s startup ecosystem, by matching investors with the most promising home-grown deep-tech ventures.

AngelHub is Hong Kong’s first regulated equity crowdfunding platform, allowing Professional Investors to directly invest in vetted startups that are expanding in Asia. AngelHub democratizes startup investment by providing Professional Investors direct access to a new asset class, while streamlining the investment and fundraising process.

Zeroth is Asia’s first accelerator program backing founders of frontier technologies such as AI, blockchain and robotics. Zeroth.AI invests in visionary founders, and supports startups through a team of experienced entrepreneurs, network of partners and investors, and a community of other founders.

Kerry Logistics Announces Joint venture with E-Services Group to Strength Global E-Commerce Fulfillment Capabilities

Kerry Logistics Network Limited announces a new joint venture with E-Services Group (‘ESG’), an international e-commerce company in Asia, to strengthen global e-commerce fulfilment capabilities, especially in the Greater China region. The joint venture, Kerry ESG (HK) Company Limited (‘Kerry ESG’), will combine Kerry Logistics’ global supply chain capabilities with ESG’s technology platform, global marketplace networks, and e-commerce expertise to offer retailers cost-efficient solutions internationally.

William Ma, Group Managing Director of Kerry Logistics, said, “We are thrilled about the growth opportunities in global e-commerce. With Kerry ESG, we are creating a unique platform with total solutions from upstream marketing to downstream logistics that will capitalise on the booming international marketplace model to facilitate the exports for our international brand customers.”

EF raises $115M new fund, aiming to create another 300-plus startups in the next 3 years

Entrepreneur First (EF), the “talent investor” that recruits and backs individuals pre-team and pre-idea to enable them to found startups, has raised a new fund of its own to continue scaling globally. The $115 million first close was led by a number of leading (mostly unnamed) institutional investors across the U.S., Europe and Asia.

This new fund — which EF says is one the largest pre-seed funds ever raised — will enable the talent investor to back more than 2,200 individuals who join its various programs over the next three years. EF currently operates in Bangalore, Berlin, Hong Kong, London, Singapore and Paris.

This will translate to the creation of around 300-plus venture-backed companies, three times the number of startups it has helped create since EF was founded.

Lalamove, HK based on demand logistics startups close new round

Hong Kong-based on-demand logistics startup Lalamove has closed a $300 million Series D round as it seeks expansion across Asia, enlisting backers such as Sequoia China and Hillhouse Capital.

Serving more than 28 million users across Mainland China (130 cities covered), Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore the Philippines and Thailand, Lalamove claims to have registred 3 million drivers to date and employs some 4,000 people across its business.

“[Lalamove CEO and founder] Shing is a role model for Hong Kong’s new generation of innovative entrepreneurs,” said Sequoia China founder and managing partner Neil Shen. “Raised in Hong Kong and educated at Stanford University, Shing returned and plunged himself in the entrepreneurial wave of ‘Internet Plus,’ becoming a figure of entrepreneurial success.”

HKEX to Acquire Shenzhen-based Technology Business

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) has announced that it has signed a letter of intent to acquire a majority stake in a Shenzhen-based specialist financial markets technology firm.  The proposed acquisition will support HKEX’s strategy to further build its financial markets technological capabilities, at a time of rapid change in the global exchange landscape.

HKEX intends to acquire a 51% equity interest in Shenzhen Ronghui Tongjin Technology Co Ltd (Ronghui Tongjin), a technology services provider that specialises in financial exchanges, regulation technologies and data applications.  The acquisition will be completed through an increase in registered capital of Ronghui Tongjin.