Wavemaker-backed Lynk raises funds in round led by MassMutual Ventures

Hong Kong-based startup Lynk has raised an undisclosed sum in a funding round led by Singapore’s MassMutual Ventures Southeast Asia.

Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund and Wavemaker Partners also participated in the round, according to a statement.

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Lynk is a “knowledge-as-a-service” company that allows its users to access expertise and insights from advisors to help them enter new markets, analyze business risks, and evaluate opportunities. It uses natural language processing, conversational AI analytics, and machine learning to scale its services, without eliminating human interaction, the company said in a statement.

Lynk plans to further expand its reach and open a new office in Toronto this year. It currently operates in New York, Singapore, Mumbai, and Shanghai.

“With the ever-increasing specialization of knowledge, it has become incredibly challenging for both small and large firms to understand new areas of interest accurately. Costs to hire or build expertise in-house are often prohibitive,” said Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund executive director Cindy Chow.

Lynk positions itself as a more flexible option for companies to have access to expert advice on any given topic at any time, Chow added. Its network of advisors includes C-level executives, retired senior managers, scientists, engineers, consultants, lawyers, accountants, and financial analysts, among others.

In the past year, Lynk claims requests for its solutions from both existing and new clients have grown threefold.

In 2017, the startup raised US$4 million in a series A round from the Hong Leong financial group and Wavemaker Partners, among others.