Fintech firm backed by Hong Kong billionaire Richard Li raises $22 million in funding round led by PCCW

Despite the drop in startup funding, Hyphen Group, a Hong Kong and Singapore-based fintech company backed by the likes of Hong Kong billionaire Richard Li, Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund and Goldman Sachs, raised a round of $22 million table.

The round was led by Li's PCCW, which controls Hong Kong's largest mobile operator, HKT, and streaming service Viu. Previous Hyphen investors include World Bank IFC, Hong Kong conglomerate Jardine Matheson and SBI, Japan's largest online brokerage.

“The closing of this funding round demonstrates the confidence of our investors at a time of high market volatility, but also with undeniable opportunities for profitable growth,” Prashant Aggarwal, Chairman of Hyphen Group, said Friday in a statement. communicated. "We are well positioned for the years to come."

Meanwhile, Sam Allen stepped down as CEO after more than six years at the helm of fintech. Allen, who will remain an advisor, will be replaced as interim CEO by Derek Fong and Kenneth Chan of the private investment firm of Li Pacific Century Group, Hyphen's largest shareholder.

Bloomberg News previously reported that Hyphen was in talks to go public through a SPAC merger valuing the company at up to $1 billion.

Founded in 2014, the company was previously known as CompareAsiaGroup. The company helps analyze and compare financial products such as credit cards and insurance in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan. The company was renamed Hyphen last year after acquiring Seedly, a Singaporean personal finance company, from ShopBack.