Hong Kong Startup News Roundup - 5 April 2021

Hex Trust Closes Series A Raising US$6 Million

Hex Trust, a Hong Kong based digital asset custodian established in 2018, recently announced that they successfully closed their Series A and raised USD 6 million. This round was led by QBN Capital, with investors Cell Rising, Radiant Tech Ventures, Kenetic Capital, HashKey, MD Labs, Fenbushi Capital, Borderless Capital, Genesis Block Ventures and Henri Arslanian also joining in. 

This round of investment allows Hex Trust to scale operations and hiring in Asia and also expand into the European market, where they have already closed a strategic partnership with SIA. 

Hex Trust will use these funds to enhance their proprietary bank-grade custody platform, Hex Safe™, and aims to ensure seamless access to digital assets within a compliance-focused framework whilst providing the highest levels of security available in the market.

Hong Kong Logistics Unicorn GogoX Weighs $400 Million IPO

GogoX, a Hong Kong based logistics unicorn founded in 2013, is considering an initial public offering that could raise $400 million to $500 million this year. Preliminary discussions with multiple investment banks regarding its proposed share sale values the on demand delivery services platform at about $ 2 billion. 

Competing with larger rivals like Lalamove and Full Truck Alliance Group, GogoX has expanded into countries including Singapore, India, Vietnam, and mainland China, operating across 300 cities. 

Hong Kong rental solutions startup Dash Living bags $8.8m in series A round

A Hong Kong based startup to rental solutions, Dash Living, secures USD 8.8 million in Series A round. The round was led by Grosvenor Asia Pacific, with returning investors Clearmind Capital and Mindworks and  other investors Gobi Partners and Taronga Ventures also joining in.

Currently, the company is operating 1,300 units of serviced apartments, co-living homes, and hotel rooms across Asia, over 280,000 square feet under its management. 

Dash Living aims to use these funds to launch its serviced rental solutions in Japan and Australia and also looks towards expanding into Southeast Asia. The company also plans to use these funds towards improving their platform, including implementing new features in its mobile app, improving existing AI tools, and stimulating more user-generated content and events. 

Saverin’s Venture Firm Enters China With Ex-SoftBank Partner

Eduardo Saverin’s B Capital Group, Facebook Inc.’s co-founder, has announced that they are moving into China, and hiring former SoftBank Vision Fund partner, Daisy Cai, to help search for promising startups. 

In an interview, Cai discussed the tremendous opportunities for technology companies and how the theme is very similar to what has happened in the U.S. throughout the past 20 years.

The firm is also planning to continue with their investments in India and Indonesia as they are two fastest-growing technology hubs in Asia. In Indonesia, the company led a $20 million Series A round for an e-commerce platform Ula, and a $53 million Series B funding for personal finance platform Payfazz.

Robinhood building platform to allow users to buy into IPOs, sources say

Robinhood is currently building a platform that would allow users of its trading app to snap up shares alongside Wall Street funds, a move to further erode Wall Street’s grip on stock market flotations as Wall Street is accustomed to getting big allocations in IPO.

The company plans to divide out its shares on offer in its IPO for the 13 million users on its platform and use the technology it is building to administer this part of the offering. This move could potentially increase Robinhood’s valuation in its own IPO as the offering would price in additional demand for the shares.