Hong Kong Startup News Round Up - 28 Oct 2018

LATTICE80, The World’s Largest Fintech Hub Opens in Hong Kong 

LATTICE80, the World’s Largest Fintech Hub headquartered in London opens a new Fintech Hub in Hong Kong. The new location is in Sha Tin where a number of universities and Science Park are located nearby, It is also close to the border of Shenzhen, China.

Joe Seunghyun Cho, Co-founder and Founding CEO of LATTICE80 commented, “We believe Hong Kong is the right place to be a connection point for Belt and Road Initiative. Hong Kong, being a traditional financial and trading hub to connect Asia and Europe, has the world’s best exit market and access to global investors that budding fintech and blockchain startups would look for.”

InsurTech Platform Galileo raises US$2M in Series A to revolutionize Insurance

Galileo Platforms Limited (Galileo Platforms), an insurtech startup which uses blockchain to revolutionise the insurance sector, has recently raised US$2Million in Series A, let by Greenlight Re Innovations, part of Greenlight Capital Re, Ltd, with co-investors, Scale Investors in Australia and private investors in Hong Kong.

Galileo Platforms and its investors believe blockchain has the potential to dramatically restructure the way insurance is designed, distributed and managed. The secure platform will reduce IT costs and eliminate high-cost, low-value components in the insurance distribution chain. It enables more client centred, agile design of insurance products, including real-time transactions for purchasing and claims, on-demand insurance and micro-duration insurance innovations for the new global economy.

HK based bank alternative NEAT receives USD$3M in VC Funding

Hong Kong based Fintech Neat has received USD $3 million in funding led by China-based VC firm Linear Capital. Neat is a bank alternative and claims to already have customers in more than 100 countries, delivering a fully digital alternative to a traditional bank account. Neat has now raised a total of USD $5 million during 2018. Existing investors including Dymon Asia Ventures, Portag3 Ventures and Hong Kong-based Sagamore investments.

“We are excited to make our Neat Business product available to Chinese customers who are looking for a Hong Kong based solution to help realize their global ambition”, stated David Rosa, CEO and co-founder of Neat. Neat says it takes just 10 minutes to sign up online. Users may make payments and make international transfers to more than 60 countries.

Hong Kong Stock Exchange Proposes Framework for Regulating Cryptocurrency 

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) believes that legal frameworks around finance and cryptos should be the same. They believe in the need for regulators to keep up with the pace of financial technologies. And if they lag behind, the existing laws of finance should be applicable to the companies in the FinTech space, based on their resemblance with the traditional services. Blockchain, for instance, could be brought inside the space of investment, trading, clearing, and settlement. Similarly, issuing digital assets on blockchain could be governed by an existing securities regulatory framework.

“Despite the difference in Fintech regulations among countries,” HKEX added, “the principle of consistency generally applies, i.e. financial services with the same nature are subject to the same regulations under the existing legal framework, so as to maintain fair competition, ensure regulatory effectiveness and prevent regulatory arbitrage.”

HK’s TNG FinTech acquires Indonesian payment startup WalletKu

Hong Kong-based TNG FinTech Group has acquired Indonesian payment startup WalletKu for an undisclosed sum, according to its statement. After the acquisition, WalletKu will be integrated into Global E-Wallet Alliance, an initiative by TNG in 2016, which includes TNG Wallet and 12 member e-wallets in China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan. Users of any e-wallet within the alliance can conduct real-time money transfer to users of another e-wallet, TNG said in a statement last weekend. In addition, the platform enables simultaneous social networking and financial transactions by helping users send instant message and conduct P2P calls.