Hong Kong Startup News Roundup - 7 July 2019

Animoca Brands acquires Gamma to boost gamer audience and distribution capabilities

Animoca Brands has acquired Gamma, the name behind GammaNow – a monetisation solution for players looking to loan out spare computing power. The acquisition will help Animoca Brands add new audiences and leverage distributed computing power.

Based in Los Angeles, Gamma is focused on developing the GammaNow computing engine, a desktop application that allows users to leverage their computers’ idle processing power to generate Gamma Points, which are used to acquire in-game rewards for their favorite games.

The firm recently executed a software license and development agreement with Razer, a global lifestyle brand for gamers.  The acquisition of Gamma confers to Animoca Brands a commercial relationship with Razer, which represents a potential audience of 60 million users, consisting primarily of gamers.

Inauguration of Hong Kong Academy of Finance cum Fellowship Conferment Ceremony

On June 26, The Hong Kong Academy of Finance (AoF) was formally established. The mission of the AoF is to serve as a centre of excellence for developing financial leadership and a repository of knowledge in monetary and financial research, including applied research.

The Inauguration Ceremony was officiated by the Financial Secretary and the Honorary President of the AoF, Mr Paul Chan, and the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the Chairman of the AoF Mr Norman Chan. 

The Inauguration Ceremony was immediately followed by the first Fellowship Conferment of the Academy. The AoF conferred Fellowship on 10 distinguished leaders in the field of finance who have made outstanding contributions to Hong Kong.

Hong Kong’s cancer DNA tests industry gets a boost as Taiwanese provider ACT Genomics opens lab

Hong Kong’s cancer DNA tests industry has received a shot in the arm from Taiwan-based ACT Genomics opening a HK$20 million laboratory at the Science Park in Sha Tin to process cancer patients’ samples.

The five-year-old firm, based in Taipei, aims to build a regional network of self-operated and joint venture labs.

“We want to become Asia’s most important DNA tests provider [for cancer patients],” ACT’s chief executive Chen Hua-chien told reporters on Thursday after the lab’s opening ceremony. “We plan to achieve this by setting up our own labs as well as forming partnerships in markets that are difficult to enter.”

ACT has performed DNA tests on over 7,000 cancer cases in Asia, including around 450 in Hong Kong.

Women in tech: How Esther Wong rose from IT support in America to senior management at China’s AI champion SenseTime

About 20 years of banking and investment experience have taught Esther Wong the value of strong research to find gems from among the many companies in the market. That acumen is now serving her well in the complex field of artificial intelligence (AI).

Wong, 42, serves as managing director of strategic investments at SenseTime Group, the world’s most valuable AI start-up. Wong was managing director and head of equity capital markets at Bocom International before that.

Since joining SenseTime in April last year, Wong has focused on IoT investments and companies within the AI ecosystem. Wong is also a partner in the SenseTime AI Fund, which has about 5 billion yuan (US$724 million) of assets under management.

Wong said the culture at SenseTime promotes a results-oriented evaluation system that focuses on a person’s working capability, which is fair to both genders

RISE 2019 is back in Hong Kong and we have everything you need to know

One of Asia’s Largest Tech Events is happening in Hong Kong this week from the 9th July to the 11th July at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.

With 16000+ attendees from 100+ countries, 71% being senior management and more than 700 journalists and 350 speakers, from the biggest names to the newest names, everyone will be there. From the CEO of Razer and Tinder to the CEO of Shiseido and Ping An Technology.

Go to www.whub.io/rise2019, to find everything that you need to know, from satellite events (only in one place, not even on the RISE website) to the startups from Hong Kong.

We met Paddy Cosgrave, CEO and Founder of the WebSummit before RISE at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University where Paddy discussed his journey and experience in a fireside chat with Bien Perez from South China Morning Post. Get inspired: https://whub.io/s/zHrfUWw!