Futu Securities: Hong Kong’s First Possible Unicorn!

Here’s something interesting. According to China Money Network, Hong Kong may finally have its first magical pony:

Chinese Internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. has led a US$145.5 million C round financing in Futu Securities, an online brokerage platform serving Chinese investors trading U.S. and Hong Kong-listed stocks.

Existing investors Matrix Partners China and Sequoia Capital China also participated in the round, which values the company at “unicorn level,” its founder Li Hua said in an announcement, without disclosing exactly how much the company was valued at.

The news site seemed a little skeptical about Li’s statement, but nevertheless welcomed the idea that this could be Hong Kong’s first official unicorn. Terence Kwok’s Tink Labs was in the running to be Hong Kong’s first this year, but from the looks of things Futu may have beaten it to the punch.

Anyway, the online trading platform was founded back in 2012 by former Tencent employee Li Hua. It currently boasts nearly 3.5 million customers, and has purportedly made $73 billion in trades – with $44 billion of it rolling in in 2016 alone. It apparently had a bit of a bother with the CSRC this year, but its founder says that they were “hit by mistake.”

Pony Ma, founder and CEO of Tencent, had this to say about Futu:

“Futu Securities has great Internet genes and product technology capabilities…The team has focused on building and improving its products, while creating its core competitiveness and is loved by investors in U.S. and Hong Kong stocks.”

Photo: Bernard Goldbach