Hong Kong Startup News Round Up - Jan 5

Chinese Unicorn Ucommune Moves to Hong Kong and Taiwan

China's largest co-working space provider Ucommune, formally known as UrWork, will move into Hong Kong and Taiwan's prime commercial districts by April to challenge U.S.-based WeWork's dominance in the global market.

The Beijing-based company pledged to step up its international expansion after successfully raising $45 million at the latest C-round of funding at the end of December, pushing up its market value to $1.3 billion.

To differentiate itself from its bigger rival in more developed markets, the company plans to target elite and corporate clients.

UK’s $2Bn Food Delivery Startup Deliveroo to Set Up India Ops

Deliveroo, the UK startup valued at $2 billion which is preparing to hire a country head along with setting up a full-fledged team in India. Founded in 2013 by former investment banker Will Shu, the London-headquartered Deliveroo operates in 140 cities across 13 countries in Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Middle East. 

Deliveroo will find it difficult to compete with the well-heeled domestic players, all of which have scooped up capital from investors and are familiar with the local market. Now with UberEats and Ola's recent purchase of Foodpanda, there are four strong incumbents Deliveroo will be facing locally.

Four Seasons Retro Mechanical Keyboard Launches with an Updated Layout

The Four Seasons Mechanical Keyboard, a project by Hong Kong-based startup Lofree, is simply a wireless keyboard with the popular Mac keyboard layout. 

The Retro Mechanical Keyboard was designed mainly for Mac users but it is also compatible with Android and Windows machines. Lofree has launched an Indiegogo campaign, looking to raise US$10,000. It has raised over US$115K from over 1200 backers as of today. Check out their campaign with the link below:

Singapore-based Fintech firm InstaReM Aims for 600 Percent Growth

An Indian fintech start-up headquartered in Singapore, InstaReM aims to grow 600 per cent in the financial year 2018-19. The company offers a platform for international money transfers to individuals and businesses.

InstaReM is one of the largest cross-border payment providers globally, with licenses in eight markets and covering 60 countries, reaching 3.2 billion people in the developed as well as developing countries.

Prajit Nanu, co-founder of InstaReM said, “Our company is able to transfer funds within 24 hours in Asia, compared to the average two to four days transfer by banks. We want to drive the adoption rate of technological innovations across both business as well as individual consumers. We have the EU and US markets in sight this year, and will be growing 600 percent in financial year 2018-19.”

DBS Accelerator Opens for Application

Powered by Nest, the DBS Accelerator is now accepting applications for its second round of intake, with new themes including Compliance Monitoring, and refreshed areas of focus in the prevailing themes, such as Digital Channel Experience and Customer Engagement (Deadline: January 22)

Targeting FinTech startups from seed through Series B stages, DBS accelerator accepts application all year-round. The programme is looking for startups with innovative solutions in: Credit Digitization, Customer Engagement, Cybersecurity, Compliance Monitoring, and Digital Channel Experience. 

Other accelerator programmes in Hong Kong are available HERE.