Home to over 600 fintech companies, Hong Kong is an international fintech hub characterized by a diverse, resilient, and dynamic landscape that’s supported by a strong network of incubators and accelerators, a pool of experienced angels and venture capitalists (VCs), a host of government-backed programs, and a number of trade associations.
These past years, the domestic fintech ecosystem has developed rapidly and a number of players are turning into leaders in their own specialties. To get a sense of Hong Kong’s hottest fintech companies and the players VCs are betting on, we look today at the top 5 most well-funded fintech companies headquartered in the city.
For this list, we’ve excluded Airwallex, a company created in Australia before moving its headquarters to Hong Kong in 2018. As of April 21, 2022, the company appears to have moved its headquarters back to Australia, according to its Linkedin, CB Insights and Pitchbook pages.
Similarly, we’ve excluded Amber Group, which appears from its Linkedin page and website, to have moved its headquarters to Singapore, as well as FTX, which moved its headquarters to the Bahamas in September 2021.
WeLab – US$600 million
Founded in 2013, WeLab is a pan-Asian fintech company providing mobile-based consumer financing solutions and digital banking services to retail individuals and technology solutions to enterprise customers.
The company uses a proprietary risk management technology and advanced artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to analyze unstructured mobile big data within seconds to provide innovative financial services including consumer financing solutions. It also offers business-to-business (B2B) enterprise solutions by partnering with traditional financial institutions, which utilize its technology to offer fintech-enabled services to their customers.
Key brands operated by WeLab include WeLend, WeLab Pay and WeLab Bank in Hong Kong, WeLab Digital, Taoxinji, Wallet Gugu, and Tianmian Tech in Mainland China and Maucash in Indonesia.
The company claims to serve more than 50 million individual users and over 700 enterprise customers. It completed a US$75 million Series C-1 funding round in March 2021, bringing its total funding raised to more than US$600 million.
In December 2021, a consortium led by WeLab called WeLab Sky raised US$240 million to acquire Indonesian commercial bank Bank Jasa Jakarta (BJJ) and launch a digital bank.
ZA International – US$230 million
ZhongAn Technologies International Group, doing business as ZA International, is the operator of Hong Kong-based virtual bank ZA Bank. Officially launched in March 2020, ZA Bank was the first fully-operating virtual bank to go live in the city, offering 24/7 banking services covering deposit, loan, transfer, payment and insurance and serving both individuals and businesses.
In January 2022, ZA Bank expanded its footprint into the investment business, becoming what it claims the first only digital-only bank to receive a license by the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) to deal with securities. The license allows it to offer users investment services and wealth products.
ZA Bank claims 500,000 users, HK$6 billion (US$764 million) in personal deposits and HK$650 million (US$82.8 million) in loan disbursements, making it Hong Kong’s biggest virtual bank.
ZA International was established by publicly listed Chinese insurtech firm ZhongAn Online P&C Insurance back in 2017 for the purpose of exploring international business development, collaboration and investment opportunities in the area of fintech and insurtech in overseas markets.
Last year, ZA International raised more than US$230 million in a Series A funding round. The round included participation of AIA, Chow Tai Fook, ZhongAn Technology, and other investors, the firm said in a LinkedIn update.
Qupital – US$167 million
Founded in 2016, Qupital is a supply chain finance platform. The company specializes in cross-border e-commerce trade finance and makes use of big data, machine learning (ML) and predictive analytics capabilities to automate credit decisioning and monitoring.
Qupital allows SMEs and sellers on e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, eBay, Lazada and Shopee, to raise capital in a few clicks by connecting them with professional investors, whilst at the same time providing a new asset class to investors that was previously unavailable.
Qupital is headquartered in Hong Kong, with offices in Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Shanghai and Hangzhou. The company claims it has served over 500 e-commerce sellers by providing more than US$500 million worth of loans.
Qupital raised US$150 million in November 2021 in a combination of Series B equity funding and a receivables-backed securitization facility. The company said it will use the proceeds to scale its cross-border e-commerce lending business into international markets and further strengthen its technological capabilities.
The fundraising brought the total of amount of funding raised by Qupital to US$167 million.
Oriente – US$155 million
Founded in 2017, Oriente develops tech infrastructure for digital credit and other online financial services, focusing on markets that are underserved by traditional financial institutions.
Oriente uses AI, ML and big data analytics to provide real-time credit scoring, on-demand lending, point-of-sale (POS) financing, working capital, and other tailored financial solutions to millions of underserved consumers and MSMEs in emerging markets.
The company operates three main ventures: Cashalo, a consumer finance platform in the Philippines that provides access to credit both offline and online; Finmas, a licensed digital lending platform built to serve individuals and MSMEs in Indonesia; and Finizi, a licensed digital credit marketplace in Vietnam.
Oriente is headquartered in Hong Kong with additional offices in Singapore, Taipei, Manila, Jakarta and Ho Chi Minh City. It also has a global engineering hub in Shanghai.
The company has raised US$155 million in equity, including US$105 million in November 2018 and a US$50 million Series B in April 2020. In March 2020, it secured a US$20 million debt funding facility from Silverhorn Group.
Hyphen Group – US$110 million
Hyphen Group, formerly known as CompareAsiaGroup, started off as an online financial comparison platform before evolving into a comprehensive financial management platform for consumers. The company also provides software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions to financial institutions in Asia.
Headquartered in Hong Kong and Singapore, Hyphen Group focuses on three core pillars: a comparison business for consumers to build their personal finance product portfolio; a membership business focused on building meaningful connections with users through personalized digital experiences, educational content and tools; and a SaaS business, powered by eKos_connect, which serves financial institutions in Asia.
Launched in 2019, eKos_connect is a SaaS provider connecting financial institutions with their digital partners and affiliates. It claims it is the largest independent fintech platform in the region with over 200 integrations and 4 million consumers connected through its partnership network.
In 2020, Hyphen Group completed its most significant acquisition to date, purchasing Seedly, Singapore’s largest and most trusted personal finance community. Acquiring Seedly brought Hyphen Group’s total number of monthly users to 10 million.
Hyphen Group has raised US$110 million in funding so far, with the latest round being a US$20 million Series B1 in August 2019.
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