Exclusive | What will it take for GoGoVan’s founder to raise capital in his hometown, Hong Kong?
A Hong Kong listing may take place in the next one to two years for GoGoVan, said co-founder Steven Lam Hoi-yuen
Now that GoGoVan has become Hong Kong’s first billion-dollar start-up, will the three founders of the on-demand van hire service pick their hometown if they ever need to raise capital to fund their expansion?
“We definitely have a plan to be listed in Hong Kong,” said Steven Lam Hoi-yuen, chief executive officer and co-founder of the company, during a Beijing interview with the South China Morning Post. “That’s one of the goals as a Hong Kong company, and that’s really something that our team wants to achieve.”
That would add GoGoVan to the litany of voices clamouring for Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd. (HKEX) to establish a new board for start-ups and technology companies to raise capital in the city. The bourse operator is overseeing a public consultation on its proposal to divide the new board into two segments called the New Board Premium and New Board Pro, segregated by investor-protection standards commensurate with risks.
Hong Kong had been missing out on the surge in initial public offerings (IPOs) by technology companies, which tripled in value to US$18.87 billion in the first eight months of 2017, according to Thomson Reuters data. Asia’s third-largest equity bourse by capitalisation wasn’t even among the top 10 of technology IPOs during the period.
