5 Questions with Catherine Tan, Co-Founder of Notey

August 21, 2014 by Iris Leung

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Before co-founding Notey, Catherine was an investment banker for a number of years on both the regulatory and derivatives side. While she enjoyed the fast-paced and well-compensated nature of a finance job, she felt it was too removed from the dynamism of change and innovation of the entrepreneurial realm – a place where she’s always felt drawn to.

Yearning to build something from the ground up that makes people’s lives simpler, Catherine teamed up with her husband and co-founder Kevin Lepsoe to create their first startup.

What’s coming up for Notey? Besides presenting at CoCoon’s Final Pitch at the end of this month, they’ll also be representing Hong Kong at TechCrunch Disrupt SF next month as a part of the Hong Kong ICT Delegation with Cyberport.
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Filed Under: Interviews Tagged With: Catherine Tan, Kevin Lepsoe, Notey

Hong Kong’s Bigcolors Acquires Australian Startup GetViable to Help Founders Validate Their Ideas

August 19, 2014 by Iris Leung

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Crowdfunding for equity platform Bigcolors has just acquired Melbourne-based startup GetViable for an undisclosed amount. With offices in Hong Kong and the US, GetViable is a business idea incubator that helps founders move towards the validation stage by offering a suite of tools and resources.

The acquisition will expand Bigcolors’ investment offerings, which currently includes deal sourcing and seed investment, to include services such as MVP set up, mentorship, pitch deck and business planning. Besides the complementary support services that GetViable offers, the two-year-old Australian startup also comes with a loyal global customer base of 2,000+ founders.

Since Bigcolors backs very early stage and pre-seed startups, added support from GetViable could lend a hand to those startups seeking funding; but aren’t quite investor-ready.

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Filed Under: News Tagged With: Bigcolors, GetViable

Hong Kong Mobile Logistics Startup GoGoVan Raises US $6.5 Million in Series A Funding for Asia-Pacific Expansion Plans

August 18, 2014 by Iris Leung

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GoGoVan, a mobile startup that matches delivery vehicles up with the people that need them, has raised US $6.5 million in Series A funding. The homegrown startup was able to secure the deal in just 4 weeks with Centurion Private Equity (headquartered in Singapore with offices in Hong Kong and Shanghai) and a group of prominent Singaporean-based investors.

We had a chat with co-founder Steven Lam to get an update on his startup since we featured him in a “3 Founders to Watch” post earlier this year.

He said that since expanding to Singapore back in June of this year, GoGoVan has already added 2,000 registered vehicles to their platform. This is in addition to their current user base of 18,000 on the driver’s side, which collectively makes up the largest logistics fleet in Hong Kong.

Steven said that due to similarities between the two city-states, Singapore was seen as an ideal market to test the waters for the rest of Southeast Asia. “Singapore’s economic nature is very similar to Hong Kong’s, because they’re both trading hubs. Also, how small and medium companies and people move things around town are very similar, so we thought it was the best place to test our product,” he said.

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Filed Under: News Tagged With: GoGoVan, Steven Lam
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