HONG KONG’s hottest startups 9. ZAOZAO Founders: Vicky Wu, Xiangling Cai Funding: HK$ 2.5M from private investors; HK$200,000 from Hong Kong Science Park Start of operation: April 2012 ZAOZAO is a web-based platform that allows designers to post projects and garner funds for production through crowd-funding. It bills itself as the ultimate destination for adventurous women to discover and to buy beautifully curated, one-of-a-kind pieces by emerging designers in Asia. ZaoZao targets the Asia market, particularly Hong Kong and Singapore. 10. Life Project Founders: Nishant Kapoor, Michelle Cheng Funding: HK$2.33M (US$300K); private angel investors Start of operation: November 2011 Life Projects bills itself as Asia’s first family focused e-Commerce portal. It launched its first initiative PetProject.hk in November 2011. It is an online store for pet food and supplies, carrying a full range of pet products, treats and toys, including natural and organic foods. Life Projects also provides convenient home delivery to all areas in Hong Kong, including the New Territories and all outlying islands. According to the founders, LifeProject. hk, a site for health and wellness, and Toddler.hk, a site for babies and children, will be launched this year. 11. Luxify Founders: Alexis Zirah, Florian Martigny Funding: HK$1.55M (US$ 200K); Angel investors from Hong Kong and US Start of operation: July 2013 Luxify bills itself as Hong Kong’s first bi-lingual online marketplace for buying and selling new, vintage and pre-owned luxury goods. According to founders, it is free to list and free to sell at Luxify. There is no commission on sales as well. Within eight pre-selected categories of Motors, Yachting, Fine Wines, Diamonds, Jewellery, Watches, Fashion and Bags, buyers and sellers can seamlessly exchange and trade the world’s most exclusive and prestigious brands on one safe and reliable online platform, claim founders. “Luxify provides an excellent online buying source for purchasers in the market for luxury goods, but also eliminates the hefty marketing expenses smaller operators and sellers need to invest, to advertise their product to reach potential buyers online, providing them with visibility and a platform at zero cost,” said founders. Luxify also hosts quarterly online auctions for unique luxury goods they source independently.
12. BSD Academy Founders: Chris Geary, Constance Ip, Nickey Khemchandani Funding: HK$1.3M; Naveen Khugputh / +1 confidential, equity Start of operation: May 2013 BSD Academy aims to provide the best learning and development environment in Asia for code and graphic design. “Learning code is one of the most important but under-provided needs in all levels of society today. Not only from the perspective of current and future careers, but also from the perspective of future innovation. BSD knows that it is not just about the code but also about the design and how the final product affects those in the environment around you.” say the founders. 13. FoodieQuest Founders: Benjamin Hall Funding: HK$1M; Nest Start of operation: Development of version 1.0 began in September 2013; the app will launch in Q1 2014. FoodieQuest is a food photography app- it’s part ‘Hot or Not’ for food, and part visual food guide. FoodieQuest allows people to compete with friends and strangers around the world, with their favourite food photos for a shot to be the number one foodie. As well as creating a social game, the app puts all the images to good use, allowing users to discover the hottest dishes and restaurants nearby, or even anywhere in the world with a user curated, interactive ‘foodporn’ map. Founder Benjamin all received about $130,000 in seed funding for his “food based” smartphone game. According to the British founder, the app will launch first in Hong Kong, as he believes the city is the ideal launch pad for an app that will translate and scale very easily as it launches in AppStores across the world. 14. Dimcook Founders: Jimmy Lam, Lawrence Shen, David Li, Jackie Yeung Funding: HK$530K from Cyberport’s Incubation Programme; $100,000 from Cyberport’s Creative Micro Fund Scheme Start of operation: 2013 Dimcook bills itself as Hong Kong’s first crowd-sourced recipes sharing and cooking blogging platform, with a growing network of local and overseas food bloggers. While it currently offers customized digital marketing solutions to food and ingredient businesses, it has plans to vertically integrate with vendors of ingredients to provide a one-stop ingredients shopping experience to extend beyond the current functionality of recipe searching, reviews, nutrition calculation, and social sharing.