These are Hong Kong’s future unicorns

Hong Kong has always proudly boasted that it is a city where you can get rich, really rich. Finance and property are the hallmarks of what make people wealthy here. My friend Yonden Lhatoo from SCMP recently wrote that Hong Kong is the land of opportunity and efficiency. And so many entrepreneurs are claiming a stake in this new opportunity.

We see this with a new breed of company that is setting the scene for what could be a new tech revolution. Hong Kong tech startups that have successfully raised exorbitant fundraising amounts could be en route to be Hong Kong’s first unicorn in the next 5 years.

Unicorns are companies valued at over US$1 billion. In Hong Kong, this mystical creature is yet to be found.  In the USA, a far more developed market, only 0.14 percent of tech startups ever reach that status. In a series of articles to be published in the coming weeks, we look at Asia’a potential unicorns. Here are the candidates that Oddup is rating as among Hong Kong’s potential unicorns within the next five years.

Compare Asia Group

Led by Gerald Eder, Compare Asia group is one of the most successful startups in Hong Kong, with the largest Series A raised in the past year. Backed by Nova Founder partners, Goldman Sachs, Jardine Pacific, and other strong investors, Compare Asia group runs Moneyhero.com.hk and its many different regional websites.

With a team already over 100, and offices around South East Asia, Compare Asia has been one of the silent achievers in Hong Kong. Launched in 8 countries and serving over 1500 products, the group of websites offers all consumers the ability to compare products from different providers when considering insurance and financing. The financial aggregator model is already a strong model working in the US, UK, and Australia. Compare Asia is helping to build this model in Asia.

As a potential unicorn, Compare Asia’s group’s chance of success are high. There should be little doubt that Compare Asia could emulate the success of Australian listed Iselect and be one of the first unicorns of Hong Kong. Only time will tell, but Goldman and Jardine may help them move in that direction a little faster.

WeLab

Led by Simon Loong, and launched in 2013, WeLab is Hong Kong’s first social lending platform. Following the lead of US based platforms including Prosper and Lending Club, Welend has been expanding their P2P platform into China. They compete against Creditease and PP Dai in a dynamic market which has seen incredible growth.

P2P lending, also known as social lending, democratizes the money borrowing process allowing anyone to invest their savings by becoming a lender, and lowering the barrier to entry for borrowers.

Raising US$20 million in one of the country’s biggest Series A rounds including stellar investors TOM Group, Sequoia Capital, ICONIQ Capital, and Yuri Milner. WeLab’s biggest risk to becoming a unicorn lies not with its customers or investors but with regulatory authorities in both China and Hong Kong.

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