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Anyone have any experience with raising funding from VCs in major Tech Hubs?
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Anyone have any experience with raising funding from VCs in major Tech Hubs?

randvegetarandvegeta Member, Host Rep

I'm involved in a BitCoin related project that has already had quite a bit of money invested into it, but realistically, I think we need a bigger team and more funding.

This is probably not the right place to ask, but it suppose it doesn't hurt to ask.

Anyone have any experience finding and dealing with VCs in major Tech Hubs like London or Silicon Valley (SV in particular)?

Comments

  • For BTC.... hard, all i know that got series B/C are EU based and have a banking license (eg. bitcoin.de), are US based or bankrupt (MtGox, JP). Most newer BTC startups seems to be based on existing banks or working with them (which, obviously, makes sense).

    SV investors primarily want local companies; assuming you talk about something asia - especially HK - based this is likely not an option. This has from what i was told primarily taxation and legal reasons; foreign profit moved to the US has to be taxed in a complex way and legal enforcement of contracts is hard outside as well.

    Chinese love BTC, but Chinese investment foreign is... complex... even in HK. I'd still go the CN route and see if one of the larger conglomerates might be interested (the usual bunch with gov parts are CITIC, NWS and TEDA, without you have like Yatai and Alibaba but we both know that gov<->private business separation in mainland is... complex...).

    In HK you have a lot as well, even Hutchinson (yea yea now CK Hutchinson) has a financial arm (well, at free banking licenses and not much regulation i'd open a bank as grocery store as well) - Henderson does financial but i do not like their gov connection to mainland (you've probably seen the name 李兆基 before... LS is kinda shady).

    Overall the local banks should be interested to get funding for a cut as everywhere, so that might be the best choice if you know someone in an investment part of HSBC or similar.

  • randvegetarandvegeta Member, Host Rep

    @William, as always, I am impressed with your wealth of knowledge. Seems you have your fingers in every pie imaginable.

    The company is HK/UK based, but there is no reason it could not relocate to where the money/action is.

    As I mentioned, there is a need for a bigger team, and talent in HK is hard to come by, and this is part of the reason why there are operations in the UK now as well.

    Perhaps I'm wrong, but SV would seem to be a good bet on finding talent given it is has a global draw. Could be wrong though. I have no experience in this particular area.

    As for raising funds directly in HK, my experience with the banks and other financial institutions was that actually they are extremely risk averse these days and won't touch BTC with a 40-foot pole. I have a couple of deep pocketed contacts in HK who knows a lot of high up people in the banks in HK... I suppose it doesnt hurt to ask, but HK has so far proven to be a very difficult place to actually get anything done. HSBC in particular is on a crack down, closing accounts for many, seemingly without any reason, and refusing to open new accounts (business accs in particular). Given this attitude, I have not even considered they might be interested in a BTC related business.

  • randvegeta said: Perhaps I'm wrong, but SV would seem to be a good bet on finding talent given it is has a global draw. Could be wrong though. I have no experience in this particular area.

    If it can move - sure, not cheap but talent available obviously and at the worlds high end tech center.

    randvegeta said: As for raising funds directly in HK, my experience with the banks and other financial institutions was that actually they are extremely risk averse these days and won't touch BTC with a 40-foot pole

    Makes sense after all the issues others had, and with less regulation than EU more possibly failing hm, maybe the Chinese but the central gov's opinion on BTC (and legality thereof) is (unless that recently changed) "uncertain" at the very least :/

  • randvegetarandvegeta Member, Host Rep
    edited August 2017

    William said: maybe the Chinese

    I'm not sure I want to go that route :D. In theory, i suppose it could be 'relatively' easy as I hold PRC citizenship essentially, so there should be no restrictions on me owning or operating a business there. But I am not really all that clued in on the workings of Chinese business and am not all that interested either.

    William said: If it can move - sure, not cheap

    Without funding, it could not move. With funding, it could. The question is weather or not the business needs to move first or if it could simply be relocating is a condition of any investment? The company is pretty agile and flexible at the moment (small) so I don't see a legal relocation being an issue. Although if it means someone having to move to and live in the US, I guess there may be some issues with Visas? Again, I don't know how difficult that would be.

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