HKVCF2015

The second annual Hong Kong Venture Capital Forum (HKVCF), organized by the Hong Kong Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (HKVCA), was held on Friday, March 13, 2015. Hosted at KPMG’s splendid conference rooms at Hysan Place, the Forum proved to be an overwhelming success with more than 200 industry professionals in attendance at the jam-packed half-day event.

The theme of this year’s Forum was “Future Technologies and Hong Kong” and the event featured a series of three expert panels discussing the impact and increasingly important role that both Hong Kong and the Mainland play as promoters and creators of innovation in the fin-tech, med-tech and internet of things (IoT) ecosystems.

The Forum was opened by the Hon. Gregory KL So, Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development for the Hong Kong SAR Government. Following the keynote address by Jun Wang, Managing Partner at Fosun Kinzon Capital, a lively panel discussion was held on the specific opportunities for growth within fin-tech. The panel consisted of Lawrence Chu, Co-founder and Managing Director, BlackPine Zheng He Capital Management; Melissa Guzy, Managing Partner, Arbor Ventures; Chris Dark, President International, C2FO; Zhengyu Wang, PhD, Founder and CEO, China Rapid Finance; Barry Freeman, Co-founder and CFO, Jimubox; and Simon Loong, CEO, Welab.

The second panel featured a discussion on the latest investment trends in medical technology and featured a host of well-known sector experts: Andrew Teoh, Founding Partner, Ameba Capital; Jeremy Fearnley, Head of M&A, KPMG Corporate Finance; Judith Li, Principal, Lilly Asia Ventures; Paul Berriman, Group Chief Technology Officer, PCCW-HKT, and Nisa Leung, Managing Partner, Qiming Ventures. Much of the panel’s discussion centered around the importance of the Mainland market, both as consumers of med-tech and, increasingly, as technology innovators.

The final panel of the afternoon was on the IoT and featured a lively discussion by panel members James Savage, Partner, Venture Investment Team, Headland Capital Partners; Steve Monaghan, Regional Director, Head of Edge, AIA; Rocky Lee, Asia Managing Partner and Head of Greater China Corporate Practice, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft; Marcin Dudar, Chief Technology Officer, Creedon Technologies; Tony Kwan, Director, Intel Capital; and Julie Ke, Vice President, Sequoia Capital China. Among the issues the panel pursued was a discussion on which devices would prove to be key in supporting the proliferation of the IoT and what technical and regulatory hurdles likely stood in the way of the sector’s evolution.

The mini “Demo-Day” session that was held immediately after the panel discussions was followed with great interest by Forum participants, with excellent presentations from a variety of local start-ups.

The Forum ended with a reception hosted by our sponsor KPMG and allowed all participants – investors, advisors and entrepreneurs – and invaluable opportunity for networking.

The HKVCA would like to thank our panelists for their tremendous contribution to this year’s event. We would also like to extend our heartfelt appreciation to our sponsors – KPMG, Cadwalader and the Poseidon Group – who helped make the HKVCF a resounding success.