A sweet day for Cake Group, but not former CTO

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Court is somewhere no one wants a conflict between two founders to end up, unless you’re a lawyer perhaps.

Apart from the obvious sadness those involved must feel for being unable to resolve the issue themselves, I think the authority of a judicial ruling has to weigh heavily. If an outside party with that level of authority rules against you, where do you go from here?

I imagine these are some of the thoughts running through U-Zyn Chua’s head these days. The Singapore High Court ruled against the Cake Group co-founder’s attempt to liquidate the crypto firm, which leaves him in a bind.

An appeal could be forthcoming or some other way to resolve the dispute with his fellow co-founder Julian Hosp, but as today’s featured piece explores, the future is far from certain.

Today we look at:

• The options Cake Group’s former CTO has now after losing court battle
• Abnk, Atome, Grab, and SeaMoney receiving accreditations for buy now, pay later services in Singapore
• Other newsy highlights such as Elon Musk making a surprise trip to China to discuss Tesla’s business in the country and Animoca Brands reporting a surge in assets.

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Resolving this dispute is no piece of cake

Image credit: Timmy Loen

There’s been another turn in the Cake Group drama, as the Singapore High Court dismissed the winding-up application filed by U-Zyn Chua.

The court said that the crypto firm’s co-founder and former CTO “has gone too far” with the move.

• Denied: Judicial Commissioner Alex Wong ruled that there were no grounds for shuttering the firm and added that it was inappropriate for Chua to seek liquidation when selling his shares is still an option to exit the company. The legal conflict between Chua and his fellow co-founder and CEO Julian Hosp began in December last year, though the two first fell out in October 2023 over disagreements about the layoffs at Cake Group.
• Back to square one: Chua told Tech in Asia that the ruling came as a surprise to him and said working with Hosp was still not an option. “We definitely can’t work with each other anymore. We mutually agreed last September that one of us has to leave,” he added.
• What now?: In a previous hearing on February 28, Hosp offered to sell his stake in the firm to Chua as a way to resolve the acrimony, but the deal failed to materialize. Chua said that he and Hosp had also discussed the latter buying Chua out, to no success. “We’ve tried so many times, but [our attempts] kept failing in the past six months,” he said.

Read more: Singapore Court dismisses bid by former CTO to liquidate Cake Group

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