Hong Kong Online-Only Fashion Brand GRANA Raises US$1 Million in Seed Funding From Local Investors

grana2
Disruptive fashion brand GRANA raised a US $1 million seed round from Hong Kong luxury retail marketer and distributor Bluebell Group, with local strategic and angel investors also participating in this round.

Founded by Australian entrepreneur Luke Grana (pictured middle in above image), the brand is all about delivering high quality fashion at disruptively low prices. Selling exclusively out of its online store, GRANA is able to keep prices low by cutting out the middlemen, dealing directly with their fabric mills and shipping straight out of their brand new Hong Kong warehouse in Wong Chuk Hang.

The GRANA idea was started on a trip to Peru, where Grana discovered the superior quality of Peruvian Pima Cotton. He then realized the gap in the market for beautiful and durable garments for an affordable price. “I was annoyed with the low quality and high markups that customers have to pay for their clothing at the main street retail stores. As a result, we have focused on what we think is most important for the customer: selling high quality basics made from the world’s best fabrics at an amazing price,” said Grana. [Read more…]

Startmeup Week 2014 is Running Hot this November as Hong Kong Hosts Startup Events Across the City

startmeup

Kick the starter, give it all you got and get out your calendars and book off the second week of November for Startmeup Week 2014!

The Invest HK-backed ‘StartmeupHK Venture Programme,’ received 550 applications hailing from 47 countries this year in its mission to attract entrepreneurial talent from around the world to Hong Kong. Besides encouraging foreign founders to use Hong Kong as their launchpad for the Asia-Pacific region, StartmeupHK’s aim is to showcase Hong Kong as an innovation and entrepreneurship hub.

Monday, November 10th

If you’ve been anticipating the launch of Swire Properties’ new B2B accelerator and co-working space, this is for you. blueprint will be hosting ‘beta blues,’ a night of live jazz, drinks, food and a sneak peak while the project is still in beta phase. The event is at 6pm – 9pm, 16/F, Cornwall House at TaiKoo Place and is open to the public.

Tuesday, November 11th

The ‘StartmeupHK Forum and Awards’ will have the 12 finalists pitching to a panel of judges and an audience of angels, VCs and business communities from Hong Kong and overseas. Entrepreneurs will be competing for three Grand Awards and three special awards for the categories of ‘Data Analytics,’ ‘Fintech,’ and ‘Smart City.’ Besides pitches, the event will also have keynote and panel speakers.

[Read more…]

Meet the 6 Hong Kong Startups Heading to Google to Meet Silicon Valley Entrepreneurs and Investors

BikingatGoogle
The Bay Area has seen a whole lot of Hong Kong as of late. While our own Shopline has been accelerating with 500 Startups and the Cyberport Delegation to the US has come and gone, six teams (HITA, Jobdoh, Myflat.HK, Optica, Talk-Now and Trafluence) from the Google EYE program will be visiting the tech giant’s HQ in Mountain View from October 19-24.

After the program launched in February, 900+ participants teamed up, wrote business plans and went through multidisciplinary training to learn entrepreneurship and tech know-how. 40 teams were then selected to enter the second mentorship-focused stage of the program, where they refined their business plans and built their prototypes.

Eight months later, six teams were chosen to visit Mountain View to meet with Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and investors. We had a chat with all six teams and asked them two questions: ‘What did you get out of the Google EYE program?’ and ‘What are you hoping to get out of Mountain View?’

[Read more…]