Hong Kong startup nears $500 million valuation

Bloomberg

TNG FinTech Group Inc., a Hong Kong-based digital wallet operator founded in 2013, is poised to close a funding round and is targeting a valuation of about $500 million, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The firm has attracted almost $60 million in the series. A round from investors including a Beijing-based private equity fund, said the person, who asked not to be named discussing private deliberations. TNG, which offers global money transfers, foreign-exchange transactions and bill payments, expects to be profitable this year and is targeting a listing in either New York or Hong Kong by 2019, the person said.
Hong Kong, with an economy focused on property and finance, has struggled to create major startups and no companies from the city make the CB Insights
list of unicorns, or firms with a
$1 billion valuation.
WeLab, an operator of online lending platforms, reportedly came close to that mark in January after it completed a $160 million funding round. In April, Tink Labs Ltd., which leases phones to travellers, was in the process of raising about $40 million and aiming for a unicorn valuation, people familiar with the matter said at the time.
Hong Kong’s fintech companies are gaining in scale as they start to move overseas, rather than focusing on the local market as was the case in the past, said Charles d’Haussy, head of fintech at the government’s Invest Hong Kong. TNG’s ambitions show how some local fintech firms “are getting big and they are starting to expand in Asia Pacific,” d’Haussy said.
Evonne Xiao, a spokeswoman for TNG, declined to comment.

Tencent Competitor
TNG competes for digital payments in Hong Kong with Chinese internet giants Ant Financial and Tencent Holdings Ltd., and local operator Octopus Cards Ltd. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has granted so-called stored-value facilities licenses to 16 firms including the two Chinese companies since last year, helping fuel the popularity of digital payments in the city.
The number of stored-value facilities accounts in use rose 3.8 percent to 42 million at the end of the first quarter from December, HKMA data show. Besides the Beijing PE fund, other investors in the round include a Taiwan-based technology fund and an Israeli-Hong Kong PE venture.
TNG, which is also targeting individuals in developing countries without access to banking services, has more than 600,000 users in Hong Kong, with 190,000 cash pick-up points in 13 countries, according to company figures.