Hong Kong Startup News Roundup - 17 November 2019

Green Common Announces Mainland China Launch, Debuts Omnipork On T-Mall

Plant-based grocery, café chain & distribution outfit Green Common, a concept developed by Hong Kong-born vegetarian movement Green Monday, has just debuted in mainland China with a Tmall Global e-commerce store featuring their range of plant-based meat alternatives, including flagship product Omnipork, the minced pork analog. 

After a series of launches around Asia, including Taiwan, Singapore and Thailand, the social enterprise is now spreading the plant-based movement to the mainland thanks to partnerships with Beijing and Shanghai restaurants to offer new green dishes. Green Common hopes that the launch will inspire more sustainable and healthy food choices in the world’s most populated country, amidst a growing generation of impact-minded consumers. 

This marks the first time Chinese consumers are able to purchase Green Common products and get them delivered to their door on the mainland. Initially stocking around 40 food items, including popular plant-based food-tech brands such as Alpha Foods, Gardein, Daiya Foods and Califia Farms, the brand will be increasing their offering later down the line. The official inauguration of the launch will take place on the 29th November this year. 

Beyond Ventures leads $3m investment in HK-based indoor mapping platform Mapxus

Hong Kong-based venture capital firm Beyond Ventures on Tuesday announced that it has led a $3 million investment in Mapxus, an indoor mapping service provider. 

Mapxus solutions produce digital and panoramic indoor maps to facilitate a cross-platform indoor-positioning capability. The startup will invest the fresh capital in research and development (R&D), sales, marketing and operational functions as well as for expanding to Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines. 

“We have a clear vision of how to create a smart city by working closely with government bodies, shopping malls, transport utilities, hospitals, and other entities. The idea is to facilitate the creation of a barrier-free smart city and catalyze a variety of stakeholders to develop meaningful mobile applications that will solve problems for people with, and without, disabilities,” Mapxus founder and CEO John Chan.

Hong Kong based Symphony leads $12m round in Singapore-based Smarten Spaces

Singapore-based Smarten Spaces, a software-as-a-service startup providing solutions for workspace management in commercial and industrial properties, has raised US$12 million in a series A round led by Hong Kong’s Symphony International Holdings.

Launched in 2017, Smarten Spaces offers an end-to-end AI platform that aims to digitize spaces and increase space utilization for commercial properties, enterprises, co-working, co-living, and warehousing.

With its platform, workspaces are able to manage building access control, food and beverage services, conference room and workstation reservation, and community bulletin boards, among others. It aims to tackle the growing market for smart spaces and businesses, which has a projected value of US$19.9 billion globally by 2024, according to a report by ResearchAndMarkets.

World’s Most Valuable AI Startup Scrambles to Survive Trump’s Blacklist

SenseTime Group Ltd. has been blacklisted by The Trump administration. The Commerce Dept. has put the company and seven others on its “Entity List,” prohibiting American companies from providing crucial supplies like semiconductors.SenseTime is emblematic of the clash between the world’s two biggest economies.The company’s founders are a bit stunned at getting caught in the crossfire.

SenseTime, whose $7.5 billion valuation is the highest for an AI startup in the world, is trying to reassure investors, employees and customers. The company said in a statement that it is “deeply disappointed” at the blacklisting decision and will seek relief. It emphasized it complies with all laws in local jurisdictions.

Alibaba unveils Hong Kong secondary listing plan, in a vote of confidence that pushes city back to top of global IPO ranking

Alibaba Group Holding, the record holder of the largest global initial public offering, has unveiled a secondary listing plan in Hong Kong, in a vote of confidence for the local financial market as the worst political crisis in the city’s history threatens its status as a global financial centre.

The e-commerce giant aims to sell 500 million new shares, with 487.5 million set aside for international offering and the rest for Hong Kong public, according to a filing in New York. The plan includes an option to sell an extra 75 million shares subject to demand. Alibaba may raise between US$10 billion and US$15 billion from the sale, after the Hong Kong stock exchange approved its secondary listing, people familiar with the matter said.

The plan will give a major boost for the city gripped by more than five months of anti-government protests and a simmering US-China trade war, pushing the local stock exchange on a home run for global IPO crown this year in competition with the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq.

Alibaba has been working on a plan to list its shares in Hong Kong – what the company calls its “natural first choice” – since it abandoned the local market for New York in 2014, according to people familiar with the matter. Part of the motivation is to give its army of online shopping customers in mainland China and elsewhere in Asia the opportunity to own its shares.