Participated · Series A · Jul 2023

Rice Robotics is a four-year-old Hong Kong company that builds autonomous indoor delivery robots and a line of disinfection robots. Its delivery robots carry up to 30 kg, offer internal storage of 39 x 27 x 34 cm, run for 12 hours and can recharge within one hour, navigating with SLAM. The robots have a starting market price of $9,000 and have been deployed since January 2021 delivering 7-Eleven products to SoftBank staff; Japan is now Rice’s biggest source of revenue. Rice counts clients in Japan including SoftBank, Toyota, Japan Post and Mitsui Group. The company moved production to a new 13,000-square-foot plant in Hong Kong, which increased annual production capacity from 500 to 2,000 robots. A portion of its recent funding has been deployed to scale manufacturing in Hong Kong and to push further into the Japanese market.

Participated · Equity · May 2023

Sandbox VR builds location-based, full-body virtual reality venues and an in-house AAA gaming studio that creates immersive multiplayer experiences. Its platform combines physical holodecks and proprietary VR technology to deliver fully immersive adventures, including the newly announced Seekers of the Shard: Dragonfire directed by Michael Hampden and created by industry veterans who worked on titles like Assassin's Creed, Far Cry 6, Cyberpunk 2077, The Witcher franchise and Battlefield 2142. Dragonfire introduces branching storylines, melee combat, magic, unlockable items and other features designed to increase replayability, and will roll out globally starting June 9. The company also plans a Sandbox VR x Squid Game experience slated to open late 2023. Sandbox VR now operates in over 35 global locations, launched a dozen locations in the past twelve months, occupies venues of 5,000+ sq ft with at least four holodecks each, and sells nearly 100k tickets every month, with over 30,000 five-star guest reviews. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, has an office in Hong Kong, and said its latest round has raised over $37 million from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund, Gobi Partners and Craft. Sandbox VR operates location-based VR venues that combine head-mounted displays, backpack computers, motion-capture sensors and haptic vests to create immersive, social game experiences. The company develops its own games and technology (it currently offers five titles) rather than relying on licensed content. After severe disruption during the COVID-19 pandemic—including a near-complete staff reduction and a bankruptcy filing—Sandbox VR says it has rebounded, with revenue up 20x since the start of the year after reopening global locations in April. The company currently runs 12 retail locations across the U.S., Canada and Asia and employed 35 people as of October. With the new funding it plans to open 10 additional retail sites (including Paramus, London and Toronto in 2022), add two corporate and two franchise locations, scale its internal studio and build an SDK for third-party development. Longer-term product plans include developing wireless backpack technology to remove current hardware burdens and an ambition to enter the metaverse in roughly 3–5 years. Sandbox VR runs physical, location-based virtual-reality venues—next-generation arcades where groups play multiplayer VR games using relatively expensive hardware. The company builds its own content and technology while also operating retail locations, a combination the team describes as being “three startups in one.” Sandbox faces content and cost challenges: it needs an exclusive content ecosystem, has a $48 ticket for a 30-minute experience, and must compete with cheaper consumer headsets like the Oculus Quest. Sandbox has partnered with CBS Interactive Studios to create a Star Trek title as part of its content strategy. The company plans to open 16 locations by the end of 2020 and is trying to use celebrity investors to boost brand perception. Financially, Sandbox has now raised $82 million in total capital. Sandbox VR builds location-based virtual-reality experiences that place teams in modest-sized rooms outfitted with headsets, PC backpacks, tracked toy rifles, motion capture and haptic vests. The Hong Kong–founded company operates seven locations across Asia and North America and positions its product as a premium, multi-social entertainment format. Management and investors emphasize the user bond and physical sociality of its experiences versus in-home VR. Backers and the company argue the format is scalable — rooms can be installed in malls or boutique retail sites and scaled like movie-theater screens. The startup is raising capital amid a broader market cool-down for VR even as investors pay increasing attention to adjacent AR opportunities.

Participated · Seed · Apr 2023

BioMed Technology Holdings, founded in 2018, is a Hong Kong-based firm that operates the probiotic health supplement brand PGut and provides microbiome health management solutions. Its offerings include microbiome DNA testing, tailor-made probiotic products, and dietary recommendations aimed at improving physical and mental health. The company plans to expand into the pet healthcare market, partnering with local veterinary group PetSpace to conduct a large-scale research project involving 500 felines and canines. It is also collaborating with PSG Vivet to develop gut microbiome tests and personalised probiotics for pets, with a pet healthcare product line expected to launch in Q3 this year. Financially, BioMed recently raised an undisclosed investment from CUHK Innovation, the investment vehicle wholly owned by the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Previously it sealed a $2 million oversubscribed seed round in April 2023 from Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund, Gobi Partners GBA and The International Medical. BioMed Technology Holdings, founded in 2018 and a partner company of Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation, develops microbiome DNA testing and personalised microbiome health management solutions. Its core offerings combine microbiome DNA testing with tailored product recommendations and the PGut brand of pre+pro+postbiotics. The company has partnerships with over 100 healthcare service providers, a microbiome database of more than 10,000 profiles, and PGut distribution across 300+ retail outlets. R&D is expanding beyond the gut to include oral and skin microbiomes as part of a total microbiome solution. BioMed is shifting some operations from B2B toward B2C in markets such as Thailand and plans lab/premises setup in Shenzhen plus GMP manufacturing and product development in Japan. The company positions itself on precision, personalised microbiome interventions for wellness and disease prevention rather than conventional one‑size‑fits‑all supplements.

Participated · Series B · Nov 2021

Qupital provides financing to e-commerce sellers by harnessing sales data to streamline credit underwriting for merchants on platforms such as Amazon, eBay, Lazada and Shopee. The platform targets creditworthy merchants who are traditionally underserved and packages receivables as an alternative asset class for professional and institutional investors. As of October 2021 Qupital had advanced over US$500 million in loans to roughly 7,000 merchants and tracked an annualized gross merchandise value (GMV) of over US$3 billion. The company plans to scale its cross-border lending business, build a B2B “buy now, pay later” marketplace, and expand its footprint across mainland China as well as Southeast Asia, North America and Europe. Qupital intends to invest in R&D—specifically AI, big-data technology and MLOps—and expects to triple the size of its team by 2022 to support expansion. The firm currently concentrates operations around Guangzhou and Shenzhen and emphasizes Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area as strategic hubs for growth. Qupital operates a platform that provides invoice-backed lending and supply-chain financing for small and medium-sized enterprises, matching loans that cover most of an invoice's value with investors and funders. The company charges SMEs a fixed-percentage service fee and a discount fee, and takes a percentage of net gains made by investors. Qupital has processed 8,000 trades totaling HKD 2 billion in value and says it has served hundreds of SMEs. It plans to expand its supply-chain financing products and launch operations in mainland Chinese cities, including Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Qupital will set up a new technology center in the Guangdong‑Hong Kong‑Macau Greater Bay Area and hire roughly 100 people for its Hong Kong office this year to bolster tech development and risk management. The company uses alternative data sources to assess creditworthiness and targets SMEs underserved by traditional lenders. Qupital operates a marketplace that lets SMEs take loans against unpaid invoices while matching those loan needs with investors/funders. The platform went online in August 2016 and to date has processed 80 trades with a total value of over $2 million. It earns fees from borrowers of 0.25–0.75% of invoice value and takes 20% of net gains made by investors; investors can expect roughly 1% per month (about 12% annualized). The company aims to reach break-even within the next 18 months by scaling its customer base. Founders are mid-20s entrepreneurs Andy Chan (25) and Winston Wong (26). Qupital is considering new products such as purchase order financing and automated investor contributions, and may expand to export-oriented markets like Vietnam, Taiwan or Thailand after a Series A.

Participated · Series B · Jan 2021

Lynk operates a knowledge-as-a-service marketplace that uses machine learning algorithms to match users with more than 840,000 experts. The platform serves clients including financial institutions and government organizations, aiming to surface experts not easily found online or via traditional consultancies. Lynk has offices in New York, Hong Kong, Singapore, Mumbai, Shanghai and Toronto and was founded in 2015 by CEO Peggy Choi. As part of its commercial strategy it partners with institutional clients and research teams to integrate expert access into their workflows. The company is expanding a collaboration with UBS to give UBS research analysts and institutional investor clients access to Lynk’s database and tools. Financially, Lynk has raised a total of $35 million to date, with a $29 million Series B that was recently increased by UBS’s strategic investment. Lynk is a knowledge-as-a-service platform that connects clients with more than 840,000 experts and uses machine learning to match users to specialists based on what they know. Its flagship product, Lynk Answers, is used by about 200 enterprise clients for research on geography expansion, product-market fit, due diligence and supply-chain issues. The platform includes SaaS collaboration features such as auto-transcription and organized, searchable expert interviews. Lynk monetizes by charging enterprise clients a subscription fee. The company has more than 200 employees and operates offices across multiple cities including Hong Kong, New York City, Singapore, London, Mumbai, Shanghai, Hyderabad, Toronto and Manila. Planned use of funds includes product launches and expansion in North America and China. Lynk operates a Software-as-a-Service platform built on an expert network that lets customers access expertise and insights from advisors to innovate, enter new markets, and evaluate risk and opportunities. Its KaaS technology leverages natural language processing, conversational AI analytics, and machine learning with human-in-the-loop to enable expert knowledge acquisition and sharing at scale. The company gathers and structures data from diverse sources, curates and validates them, and organizes information via a knowledge graph that objectively scores experts. Customers include Fortune 100 companies, top-tier consulting firms, global private equity funds, hedge funds, media, government agencies, multinational enterprises and start-ups across more than 60 countries. Led by CEO and founder Peggy Choi, Lynk has offices in New York, Hong Kong, Singapore, Mumbai and Shanghai. The company closed a funding round of undisclosed amount and says it will use the proceeds to continue expanding its business reach. Lynk provides a SaaS-based curated platform enabling enterprise users to find, compare and engage experts across a wide range of sectors. Users can connect with experts via phone calls, in-person meetings, teleconferences and consulting projects. The platform features over 35,000 experts across 70 countries, covering sectors such as tech, logistics, banking and finance, healthcare, media, legal, education and consumer goods. Founded in 2013 by CEO Peggy Choi, Lynk serves enterprise clients seeking on-demand expertise and knowledge. The company intends to use the new funding to expand its market reach and continue to develop its platform. The articles report the company raised a Series A round of US$4m.