Hong Kong Startup News Roundup - 12 January 2020

HK Tycoon Li Ka-Shing Leads Funding for MioTech

CK Hutchison Holdings former chairman Li Ka-Shing recently launched a funding round for Hong Kong’s MioTech, reported Nikkei Asian Review. This is the second time Li led the round for MioTech through his investment company Horizons Ventures, which is one of the earliest investors of social networking site Facebook and music streaming service Spotify. The company is also involved in other large firms including plant-based-meat producer Impossible Foods and Elon Musk’s infrastructure company The Boring Company.

MioTech is a startup fintech firm that utilizes artificial intelligence in order to gather data for investors. The Associated Press also offers NLP services and knowledge graph technology using environmental, social and governance (ESG) data. Last year, its clientele served 50 companies, which is twice more than its original number of clients. This spike is credited to Hong Kong’s regulatory changes, which increased the demand for such services.

Global Startup Competition launched virtually after overwhelming response

After receiving an overwhelming number of responses for the Global Startup Competition, WHub & AngelHub have decided to launch the virtual roadshow of the competition! With the same benefits and rules, the only different aspect of this roadshow is that it will take place completely online. To apply to the virtual roadshow, get on the website and click "Apply to Pitch" and continue onwards by specifying "Digital Application". 

The Global Startup Competition has completed 4 roadshows, in Paris, Berlin, Tel Aviv and Seoul and is looking forward to 5 this week in Shenzhen, Jakarta, London, Hong Kong, and Bangkok. 

Congratulations to the winners and good luck to the ones competing in the roadshows to come.

The Global Startup Competition is launched across 12 countries, leveraging its global network of over 500 partners worldwide. Each country winner will be flown to Hong Kong to pitch at the competition final, held during the annual tech conference: Startup Impact Summer on February 14, 2020, part of StartmeupHK Festival. The winners stand a chance to win up to USD1,000,000 in equity funding and USD10,000 prize money.

Want to watch the finals? Join us at Startup Impact Summit on 14th of February! 

Here's a recap of our journey till now: Your Eyes into the Global Startup Competition

Indiegogo and Easyship Partner to Deliver Products for Entrepreneurs

Delivering in a timely fashion is always one of the biggest challenges of any hardware crowdfunding campaign. Recently, Indiegogo has partnered with Easyship to be their exclusive shipping and fulfillment provider to connect their entrepreneurs and backers around the world. This new alliance streamlines the process of getting products to market as quickly as possible - a refreshing change in the crowdfunding world. 

Some highlights of the partnership available on Indiegogo include:

• Complimentary custom consultations with logistics experts

• Entrepreneurs can now benefit from a plug-and-play solution to compare courier rates, generate labels, communicate tracking, and automate returns

• Award-winning global customer support

• Campaign finances stay in control with transparent information on fully landed shipping costs, including tariffs, taxes, and duties

• Access to global fulfillment, with over 25 partner warehouses worldwide, available across Asia, Europe, and the US

Omate announces the World’s first wearable powered by a Virtual SIM

Omate announced the World’s first wearable powered by a Virtual SIM on 6 January 2020. The Omate x Nash O6L kids smartwatch comes with unlimited video calls and location-based services over 4G. Omate teams up with tech distributor Nash to offer its new kids smartwatch. The smartwatch integrates a prepaid unlimited video calls and location-based services through a breakthrough secure Virtual SIM 4G data plan powered by Skyroam.

The user interface of the smartwatch is easy-to-use for kids aged 5 to 10. The device comes with the Skyroam vSIM, so it instantly connects to the internet for full 4G coverage in the USA and Mexico.

Betatron Investment increased to US$500K per startup, applications open now

The main focus of the Betatron program is to help each startup raise their next round of funding and accelerate business growth. Betatron is now investing up to US$500,000 in each startup and investing up to US$250,000 during the program with follow-on funding of US$250,000 available for each startup. The main focus of the program is to help each startup raise its next funding round and accelerate business growth. In addition, they will be providing their startups with an investor roadshow across Asia and North America, including Demo Days in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Silicon Valley. 

The applications of the Betatron program will close on 18th March 2020 with the four-month program starting in Q2, 2020. As they review application right after the submission, the later you apply the lower your chances of being accepted. They accept startups from all industries and focus on companies that can add value to.