Hong Kong Startup News Roundup - 2 August 2020

Prive Technologies wins the Unicorn Battle in Hong Kong

Prive Technologies has achieved first place at the Unicorn Battle in Hong Kong, organized by the Startup Network. The Unicorn Battle in Hong Kong is part of a global pitch competition where famous VCs meet extraordinary startups from all over the world.

As the winner of the Unicorn Battle in Hong Kong, Privé Technologies will be representing the region in the Unicorn Cup Finals!

Startup.Network has already organized more than 210 Pitch Events in various cities of the world. Unicorn Battles ® - is The Largest Global Pitch Event in 2020. The Unicorn Battle in Hong Kong was held thanks to the support of the Network.VC California Seed Fund, ICU, and Silicon Valley Syndicate Club.

Qiming Venture leads Series A in staking service startup - Hashquark

Chinese venture capital firm Qiming Venture Partners led a Series A in Hashquark, a Hong Kong-based staking service startup.

Why it matters: The investment signals that cryptocurrencies are increasingly becoming a viable sector for Chinese investors after years of mistrust.

• The investment comes at the right time, as staking services are expected to boom with the launch of Ethereum 2.0 later this summer.
• The world’s second most-popular blockchain network will be switching to a Proof-of-stake (POS) model. This will substitute mining for staking, expanding the market for staking providers.

Details: Hashquark is one of a few staking startups to receive funding from a traditional tech fund, Qiming said in a statement sent to TechNode on Wednesday.

• Fenbushi Capital, Hashkey Capital, Hash Global, Imtokenventures, and SNZ also participated in the round. The total funding amount was not disclosed.
• Hashquark is one of the top four staking providers in the world, offering services for 30 of the most popular Proof-of-stake tokens, including Cosmos, Tezos, Dash, and IRIS.
• “The proceeds of the round will be used to strengthen our team and expand globally. This year is a critical time for the large-scale application of blockchain and digital finance,” said Leo Li, Hashquark’s founder and CEO.

Cancer-detecting startup wins business prize - PhoMedics

A startup whose technology creates computer images that allow surgeons to check whether patients' cancer cells are cleanly eradicated during surgeries won a HK$200,000 award from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

The HKUST-Sino One Million Dollar Entrepreneurship Competition 2020 attracted 151 startups, marking the highest number of participating teams for its 10th anniversary. The event included finalists from eight regions spanning Hong Kong, Macau, Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Foshan, Zhongshan and the Yangtze River Delta.

The competition was hosted online for the first time and received more than 2,000 votes in deciding the best product pitching.

PhoMedics, which is this year's gold award winner, won the competition with its new technology, CHAMP, which produces virtual staining computer images to see if complete excision is done during cancer surgeries.

#INVISIBLEBAG: Hong Kong Startup’s Plastic-Free Packaging That Disappears In Water

On a mission to fight plastic waste, Hong Kong-based startup Distinctive Action has created a bag that completely disappears in water. Designed to replace conventional plastic bags, the company’s solution is non-toxic, biodegradable, compostable and leaves no trace of microplastics on the planet. But what’s even more unique? The company’s packaging is vibrantly branded, firmly inserting itself into the story of the product it envelops.

Founded last year by husband and wife team Devana Ng and Flavien Chaussegros, Distinctive Action is a startup on a mission to fight plastic packaging in Hong Kong. The company has recently launched their plastic alternative solution, dubbed #INVISIBLEBAG, is a vessel that looks, feels and functions exactly like a conventional plastic bag, but is completely water-soluble. 

But what’s the “invisible bag” made of? Distinctive Action’s solution is made primarily out of Polyvinyl Alcohol, aka PVA, a non-toxic, odour-less skin-safe synthetic polymer. The bag also contains plant-based starch, glycerin and water. Thanks to the PVA, the bag behaves like the plastic film but dissolves in water at 70°C and above, making it an ideal packaging solution.

China-Backed Crypto Guru Wants to Unify World’s Blockchains

The blockchain world today is thousands of disparate platforms that can’t talk to each other. So a little-known startup hatched one of the most ambitious plans yet to bridge all the divides -- and it’s got the backing of the Chinese government.

Beijing-based Red Date Technology is at the heart of China’s first state-backed blockchain initiative, envisioned as a one-stop hub for developers to build decentralized applications (dapps) for everything from money transactions to drug-delivery tracing. Think of it as the crypto-world equivalent of a cloud service like Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure that hooks up and supports a multitude of software and platforms. Since its April roll-out, the Blockchain-based Service Network (or BSN) has attracted more than 6,000 enterprise, government and individual users primarily from China.

Red Date, through its Hong Kong offices, will choose at least seven partners without Chinese affiliations to co-manage a new foundation dubbed BSN International, he said, adding details have yet to be finalized.