Mobile Startup Snaptee Has Raised US $750,000 to Boost US and Japan Expansion Plans

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Custom t-shirt design app Snaptee has raised US $750,000 from a group of Hong Kong and Southeast Asian investors. New to this round include Hong Kong-based seed and early stage venture fund SXE Ventures, investment incubator NEST and Groupon founders Danny Yeung and Joel Neoh.

According to a release, the funds will be used to speed up expansion into the US and Japan and for a product update, which co-founder and CEO Wai Lun Hong said will have an added focus on community interaction. “The new version will facilitate how people discover other designers’ work. Users will have more interaction with each other through commenting, tagging and following,” he said.

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Hong Kong Startups HotelQuickly and Bindo Stay Competitive with Mobile Payment Product Updates

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Mobile payments are on the rise with $235 billion transactions processed in 2013, up 44% from the previous year’s $163 billion (Gartner). Mainland China alone has reportedly reached a total of 1.67 billion transactions made in 2013 – worth an unfathomable US $1.6 trillion.

The growth in mobile payment tech not only amps up security and convenience for customers, but it’s also become quite the crowded space for entrepreneurs. Two of our startups, last-minute hotel booking app HotelQuickly and iPad point-of-sale system Bindo, have announced product updates this month in order to maintain a competitive edge.

Just last week, HotelQuickly announced a partnership with PayPal to offer their users a seamless mobile experience. This makes the last-minute hotel booking app the first travel merchant in Southeast Asia to integrate PayPal’s mobile SDK. HotelQuickly customers can now make speedy in-app hotel bookings in just a few clicks.

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Hong Kong Startup Salaries: How Much Do Startups Pay Programmers and Designers?

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[Updated September 1] While finding quality engineers in Hong Kong is a common complaint, the war for talent in established ecosystems like Silicon Valley is just as present. In fact, some tech companies like Facebook and Airbnb have been recruiting interns straight out of high school.

Earlier this year, the founder of a successful enterprise tech startup shared the ludicrous but true story of their efforts to lure a programmer from Google with US $500,000 annual salary as bait. Turns out, the engineer turned down the generous offer because he was already making $3 million in cash and restricted stock units (what are RSU’s?).

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