Hong Kong Fintech Ecosystem Report – March 2025
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December 2024
- Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund launches $150M AI-focused AEF NextGen Fund / full item
- Hong Kong: An intro to PonsAI and its software that generates personalised, GenAI-created avatars for individuals, focusing at this time on corporate events / full item
- Hong Kong approves significant new cryptocurrency exchange licenses, adding to global hub bid as the Bitcoin price rises / full item
Hong Kong: City University researchers unveil 6G-ready antenna, delivering “next-generation large-capacity and high-security information systems, real-time imaging, and wireless power transfer” / full item
- Hong Kong: Stablecoins bill is to be introduced, aiming to regulate virtual tokens, in ongoing fast-track moves to secure global crypto industry hub status / full item
- Hong Kong: Cyberport Artificial Intelligence Supercomputing Centre has launched – here’s an overview / full item
China’s CATL batteries giant to seek Hong Kong IPO, pending regulator approval “CATL, world’s top battery maker, has a global market share of roughly 37% in [EV] batteries…” / full item
- Hong Kong: SUNeVision Startup Programme from Sun Hung Kai Properties opens for applications from HK-registered companies in real estate and related spaces / full item
‘Singapore forged ahead with efforts to formulate a digital-assets hub in 2024, while rival financial center Hong Kong has struggled to gain traction.’ / full item
- Singapore and Hong Kong ranked as the most blockchain-friendly regions based on patents, jobs, and crypto exchanges in an ApeX Protocol study / full item
- China’s HK-based SenseTime, best-known for facial recognition tech, restructures to add generative AI focus for both opportunities and in a bid to stay relevant as AI evolves / full item
IDC: How Southeast Asia Buys and Sells (pdf link)
November 2024
- Hong Kong: ZA Bank adds cryptocurrency trading to services for retail clients, initially offering Bitcoin and Ethereum only / full item
- China’s Baidu is to trial Apollo Go robotaxis in Hong Kong as soon as year-end / full item
- Hong Kong: Gov’t raises $288M in spectrum auction, with China Mobile spending $137M, Hutchison Telecom spending $79M, and HKT and SmarTone also featuring / full item
- China Mobile is in talks to acquire HKBN, a major Hong Kong fibre and enterprise connectivity provider / full item
- Hong Kong’s Animoca Brands Web3 firm raised an additional $10M for Mocaverse, its platform for building open metaverse spaces, with an eye on consumer crypto adoption / full item
- HK-Singapore biotech firm, Avant, launches skincare range based on lab-grown marine peptides, addressing climate, animal welfare and traceability challenges / full item
- China’s Oppo smartphone giant and Hong Kong Polytechnic University are to launch a joint AI and imaging research centre, with Oppo pledging US$4.2M over 5 years / full item
- Hong Kong: A brief intro to Braillic, changing surgical practice with augmented reality tech that allows surgeons to precisely locate areas in the brain without invasive surgery / full item
- Hong Kong continues global digital assets hub bid with its first policy guidelines around the use of artificial intelligence in finance, and potential virtual assets tax break / full item
- Singapore’s Nium payments platform and JP Morgan’s Kinexys boost collaboration on data supply to validate bank accounts in int’l payments to Malaysia, Thailand and Hong Kong / full item
Lowy Institute: Five One-Chinas – The contest to define Taiwan
October 2024
- Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing launches HKEX Virtual Asset Index Series, providing pricing benchmarks for Bitcoin and Ether / full item
- HSBC Hong Kong unit has joined China’s worldwide interbank renminbi payment system, CIPS, as a direct offshore participant, with Beijing pushing to internationalise the yuan / full item
- Hong Kong: Civil service is now banned from using messaging and cloud services including WhatsApp, WeChat and Google Drive on work computers due to ‘severe internet safety risks’ / full item
“Hong Kong’s Cyberport is undeniably the epicenter of the city’s tech innovation. As of this year, roughly 2,000 companies and startups call Cyberport home…” / full item
- Hong Kong Science & Tech Parks Corporation unveils 12 new partner organisations, working in international data, health tech, artificial intelligence and more / full item
- Hong Kong: 27 arrested in $46.35M crypto investment scam raid, with scam and fraud cases accounting for 43.9% of all crime reported in the city in H1 2024 / full item
- Hong Kong FinTech Week 2024 took place October 28th to November 1st, featuring 8 key forums looking at blockchain, payments, insurance-tech and more / full item
Secure World Foundation: Global Counterspace Capabilities
