Project to offer US$30,000 in seed funding to five Hong Kong start-ups
The Betatron programme fills a gap in Hong Kong, claims its co-founder, by providing funding, mentoring and working space
Betatron, a three-month business accelerator, mentoring and seed-funding programme, is offering to invest up to US$30,000 each into five companies in Hong Kong,
Rafal Czerniawski, chief executive of Hong Kong company IC Studio and the co-founder of Betatron, said most accelerators, sometimes called business incubators, and start-up programmes in the city are nothing short of “corporate branding exercises” which “do not enough for start-ups”.
Czerniawski and his IC Studio co-founder Nelson Cheng, were working on a taxi-sharing app Hopsee in Hong Kong, when it struck them just how much the city lacked funding for start-ups.
“Most accelerators do not offer start-up funding, they just provide [working] space and mentoring,” Czerniawski said.
“I came to the conclusion that what Hong Kong needs is an accelerator programme focused on founders that put start-ups as the priority, as well as giving them funding,” he added.
Czerniawski then approached several VC funds which backed his idea, including Mindworks Ventures, Vectr Ventures and Cocoon Ignite Ventures which are founding partners in Betratron, together with The Aria Group, a private company that manages investments and trusts on behalf of a family.
In Hong Kong, there are at least 18 accelerators which start-ups can apply to, according to the government’s Startmeup.hk portal.