After 18 Months and $8 Million Funding, 8 Securities Finally Launches Publicly

After 18 months and a recent $8 million in funding, 8 Securities is finally set to launch publicly. The Hong Kong-based financial startup is a sexy financial trading platform which allows users to select their own web apps, ranging from news, Twitter feeds, trading tools, to videos. The dashboard looks pretty. Note that it isn’t another tool just for trading research, but you can also do actual trading on 8 Securities. Traders can now trade the Hong Kong and United States markets in HKD, CNY, or USD. More will be up soon, its website promises.

The founders are Mathias Helleu and Mikaal Abdulla who used to work at ETRADE. They launched ETRADE in Hong Kong together 11 years ago which largely explains how they ended up in Asia. But Mikaal and Mathias are loving it in Asia. Life is good in Hong Kong as I heard from the folks. Mikaal explains to us his story in brief:

My co founders and I left ETRADE two years ago to launch 8 Securities. We had been at ETRADE too long and were eager to bring new ideas to the market that we new could only be achieved through a new venture.

Both founders have the experience in the financial sector and also saw opportunities in the market. He added:

Unlike North America and Europe, the brokerage industry in Hong Kong has been stagnant for the last decade with no innovation. Our competitors largely run the same technology they did a decade ago and nobody has evolved the online user experience. All of the products we saw were static rather than dynamic and built around a customer’s unique needs… Hong Kong is currently the seventh-largest stock exchange in the world and boasts over two million individual investors.

It’s an interesting shift. While there are still a lot of Asians dreaming to be in Silicon Valley, it is apparent that there are more and more foreigners entering the Asian markets, expanding/building their startups here. This continent (just think of China, India, Indonesia) has more potential after all. So is it tough doing business as a foreigner? Mikaal, who is an American, says no. In fact, he feels that bringing in the US mindset to Asia – or Hong Kong, to be specific – is an advantage:

I believe being a foreigner and starting a new company in Hong Kong has been an advantage. I am American and I started my career in Silicon Valley. It made a very strong impression on me and molded my attitude towards challenging convention and taking risks. The US rewards risk-taking where in Hong Kong it is avoided at all cost. For all of its strengths, Hong Kong cannot emerge as a hub for innovation until people can come to terms with the simple fact that risk is a necessity to drive change. We have applied US principals such as simplicity of design, an engaging user experience and a customer centric business model as cornerstones of our product and service.

The future looks fun but challenging for 8 Securities. After launching in Hong Kong, Mathias and Mikaal plan to bring their product to Japan, India, China, and the US. 8 Securities will also have an API to encourage developers to build apps on top of its platform. Plus, it will also set up a fund to help developers get started.