Looking for funding and VC in Hong Kong

We are looking for funding to support our product research and development. Because we don't have a large amount of cash to bootstrap for long.

 

Besides seeking advices from friends, experts from startup hong kong community (Special thanks to Vincent@Primitus and Jonathan@boot.hk), I tried the gov consultation service SUCCESS: https://www.success.tid.gov.hk/tid/tcchi/bas/bas.jsp

 

It is an online helpdesk. I sent a question to them regarding gov funding and the issue of shortage of bootstrapping cash. Their representative replied me within hours on the phone. Some information provided which I think it may be useful to you all.

 

In General

Most of the government funding only support 50% of your cost. It is very good already, because you can purchase equipment and recruit engineers by investing 50%.

If you cannot afford even the 50% of your running cost, the remaining option is low-rate business loan or even no-rate business loan.

If you still think loan is not suitable, or the max. amount they fund is not enough for your project, you can look for investors.

 

Available services

SERAP

SME Fund

SME Low-Rates Loan

Youth Business Hong Kong Loan

HKVCA

 

HKVCA

I haven't looked into the details yet, but I think the hkvca matching corner could help me a bit: http://hkvca.com.hk/hkvcpea/matching.html

It provides a place for teams to look for venture capital. You specify your project status and funding target, then let the investors to approach you.

 

Anything better ?

I personally expect a more interactive way to look for venture capitals in Hong Kong. It is good if there is a pool of investors that I could talk to and show my products or services to. Some open demo events with group of potential investors attending would be good. But still, venture capital is still not that popular and open in Hong Kong yet. sigh ...

After gathering all the information and advises, the best way I can think of is to build the prototype after office hours, and save money from my day time job salary. My target is to have enough money to off work for around 6 months and fully focus on developing several products. And then look for ways to sustain the financial expenses. Hope that this 6 months could happen earlier and then do the real startup earlier.