Hong Kong Startup News Roundup - 29 November 2020

Garuda Capital acquires minority stake in Hong Kong fintech startup FinLink

FinLink, a data-driven and AI-enabled tech startup focusing on cross-border financial services, announced that investment firm Garuda Capital Asia has acquired a minority interest in the company via an affiliated investment fund.

This acquisition comes after FinLink raised US$2.5 million in a seed round led by PF Ventures and Garuda Capital in 2019.

Founded in 2017, with offices in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, FinLink has built a cross-border payment and clearing engine that serves small businesses in Asia. It offers accounts payable management, receivable financing, and collection services.

The company claims that it has achieved US$800 million in transaction volume in 2019, serving customers across 55 countries from sectors such as ecommerce, trading, tourism, and logistics, among others.

RaSpect wins the ICT Startup (Software and Devices) Gold Award 2020!

The Hong Kong ICT (HKICT) Awards aims at recognising and promoting outstanding information and communications technology (ICT) inventions and applications, thereby encouraging innovation and excellence among Hong Kong’s ICT talents and enterprises in their constant pursuit of creative and better solutions to meet business and social needs.

Hong Kong embraces greater development opportunities with new policy address unveiled

The support measures unveiled in the new policy address will help Hong Kong better participate in the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, consolidate its status as an international financial center and tackle difficulties of its residents.

 As a series of support measures were unveiled in the new policy address on Wednesday, Hong Kong, still reeling from social unrest and the COVID-19 epidemic, is expected to gain momentum to revive its ailing economy, integrate into steady development of the country, and realize greater achievements in the future.

In 3 areas: TAPPING INTO GREATER BAY AREA, REINFORCING FINANCIAL HUB, ADDRESSING PEOPLE'S CONCERNS

China opens the door for biotech investors in Hong Kong to buy Shanghai stocks, and vice versa

When Shanghai’s STAR board began opening its doors to biotech, it was considered not just a rival to Nasdaq but also the stock exchange in Hong Kong. Those perceptions may take an amicable turn as China expands a mutual access program with the city.

The changes mean investors in mainland China will be able to own Hong Kong biotech chapter stocks, while those in Hong Kong — a much more internationally connected group — would have access to those listed on STAR. In effect, it turns the Shanghai market into a globally accessible exchange overnight while also broadening a key source of revenue for HKEX.

For independent investor Brad Loncar, that’s a “pretty big deal.”

“So if you are a company, it opens you to a market of 100’s of millions of potential new shareholders,” he wrote to Endpoints News.

SoftBank-led round values Uber-like truck startup at US$12b

Full Truck Alliance has raised US$1.7 billion from investors including SoftBank Group and Tencent Holdings, a major cash infusion for the Uber-like trucking startup ahead of a potential initial public offering.

SoftBank's Vision Fund, Sequoia, Fidelity International and Permira led the round of funding, the startup said in a statement. It valued the Chinese company at about US$12 billion after investment, a person familiar with the deal said, asking not to identify disclosing private information. Other investors included Jack Ma's Yunfeng Capital, Hillhouse, GGV, Lightspeed, All-Stars Investment and Baillie Gifford.

The startup aims to use the cash to expand into same-city deliveries, deepening a network now focused on ferrying goods between urban centres.