Hong Kong Startup News Round Up - 8 Apr 2018

8 Securities to receive USD $25 million from Nomura  

Nomura, Japan’s biggest investment bank, will invest USD $25 million into 8 Securities, a Hong Kong-based robo advisor for exchange-traded funds, in total for two stakes – one majority in the startup’s Japan division and a minority in 8 Securities’ main businesses. 8 Securities is a long established pioneer in the HK FinTech space and their incredible success challenges banks and brokerages as well as older sites like E-Trade.

According to Mikaal Abdulla, founder of 8 Securities, they have “decided to raise a larger round now in order to invest much more in marketing and to expand our software development team.” This comes right after Nomura partnered with Line to allow users of the messaging app to buy and sell stocks. This is their biggest round of funding yet, following their previous round in the summer of 2014, which they used to develop “Chloe” and “Tradeflix”.

Naked Hub’s global expansion

The two-year-old Shanghainese co-working space, Naked Hub, now owns a network of around 50 existing or soon-to-be-ready co-working spaces across the Asia Pacific (most in China and Hong Kong), but newly in London as well. They already have influences in Australia, and are looking to make the East Coast of the US their next target.

They have recently hired Paul Mills, a real estate veteran, as Head of Expansion, who according to Naked Hub CEO Jonathan Seliger, is going to be a key player to their plans for their expansion, especially on a global scale. They have also hired Jennifer Zhang as Head of Investments, who is focusing on setting up a new investment platform targeting commercial buildings and resort properties, and also their expansion through mergers and acquisitions.

HK ICT Awards 2018 - Results

The presentation ceremony for the Hong Kong ICT Awards (HKICTA) 2018, which aim to promote innovation in the information and communications technology (ICT) industry, was held on 4^th April. Defeating seven other Grand Award category winners with its winning entry BelunTM Ring, Belun Technology Company Limited received the Award of the Year from the Chief Executive, Mrs Carrie Lam.

Deliveroo, Foodpanda and Honestbee apps to promote waste reduction

Upon receiving letters from Green Earth - a local environmental group, Deliveroo, Foodpanda and Honestbee are now offering the option of skipping disposable cutlery on their app. This was after the latest government report on wastage, with around 25 million pieces of plastic utensils being disposed daily, or about 9.25 billion pieces of cutlery annually.

According to Foodpanda, a fifth of its users now opt for the “no cutlery” option. Deliveroo users now have to manually check the option of including disposable cutlery, this initiative targets to save more than nine tons of plastic a year. Honestbee expresses to have added a “reminder” on their app to encourage the reduction of disposable cutlery use.

Grab’s acquisition of Uber’s SE Asian operations

Grab, a Singaporean-based Southeast Asian Taxi app, has acquired Uber’s operations in Southeast Asia, marking the largest-ever deal of its kind in the area. As part of the acquisition, Uber will take a 27.5% stake in Grab and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi will join Grab’s board.

Grab will integrate Uber’s ride-sharing and food delivery dealings in the region into their own existing multi-modal transportation and fintech platform. With the combined business, Grab will drive towards becoming the largest online-to-offline (O2O) mobile platform in Southeast Asia and a major player in food delivery. Uber Eats will run until the end of May, after which Uber delivery and restaurant partners will move to the GrabFood platform.