Mainland Chinese fintech companies set up shop in Hong Kong to access Asean markets

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Companies receive support from city’s Office for Attracting Strategic Enterprises

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Salina Li

Published: 12:15pm, 10 Nov 2024

Fintech companies from mainland China are setting up their headquarters in Hong Kong, drawn to the city’s accessible capital and robust talent pool, as they attempt to build up their businesses in Asean countries.

KN Group, a non-traditional provider of financial data, rented a floor spanning 8,000 sq ft in Taikoo Place, where it has 80 to 100 employees, the company said. It was founded in 2014 and uses an artificial intelligence (AI) risk control model to generate data on consumer behaviour for individuals who have been underserved by traditional financial systems.

“We are going to transfer some of our domestic risk and research-and-development teams from the mainland to Hong Kong, but we want to seek more talents locally,” said Jiang Xuan, a senior vice-president of KN Group, in an interview.

He said his company has received a lot of support from the Hong Kong government after it was lured to the city by the Office for Attracting Strategic Enterprises (OASES), which seeks to attract firms in strategic fields.

“We’ve been given a lot of support in terms of local recruitment or visa support for our staffers shuttling over from the mainland,” he said, adding that KN Group was able to work with local universities to carry out data research projects.

The government identified four industries that are important to its development: health technology; artificial intelligence and data science; financial technology; and advanced manufacturing and new-energy technology. More than 10 companies from those strategic areas will set up offices in Hong Kong following a government push, the city’s finance chief said in early October.

“Before setting up our headquarters here, we studied many places in Southeast Asia, such as Bangkok and Singapore,” Jiang said. “In the fintech industry, mainland Chinese companies are very competitive, and we are in a place where we can better connect the technology of these companies with the Southeast Asian market, and the sufficient capital here can help us to expand our business.”