Hong Kong’s construction tech firm Varadise has secured $3 million in a Series A financing round led by early-stage venture capital firm Betatron Venture Group, as it charts international expansion plans into Southeast Asia, Mainland China, and the Middle East.
The Series A round also saw the participation of the Innovation and Technology Venture Fund (ITVF), a HK$2-billion ($256.7 million) fund set up by the Hong Kong SAR government in 2017 to co-invest in local innovative tech startups with private VC funds selected under the ITVF programme, according to a release on Friday.
Founded in 2019, Varadise taps into the construction industry that has been slow to adopt new technologies including Building Information Modelling (BIM), which manages the information throughout the whole cycle of a built asset.
The Hong Kong-based firm offers digital twin technology and AI-driven construction solutions covering the entire built environment lifecycle from construction and facility management to urban data analytics.
Varadise’s investment comes shortly after Betatron Venture Group was selected as one of the four fund managers under the New Capital Investment Entrant Scheme (CIES) of the Hong Kong Investment Corporation (HKIC), an investment firm wholly owned by the Hong Kong SAR government.
Betatron Venture Group invests in early-stage business-to-business (B2B) startups across Asia’s largest industries such as construction, manufacturing, logistics, and environmental technology, counting integrated automation solutions developer Botsync, eCommerce shipping software ZhenHub, and cloud communications provider Toku among its portfolios.
The three other appointed managers include InnoAngel Fund, MindWorks Capital, and Radiant Tech Ventures Limited, per a release last month.
The new CIES is a cash-for-residency programme under the Hong Kong SAR government that aims to attract asset owners to settle in the city through wealth allocation and management.
Each eligible applicant under the scheme is required to make at least HK$30 million ($3.9 million) of investment which includes placing HK$3 million ($0.4 million) in the HKIC. The pool of capital collected through the scheme, which is expected to be at least HK$600 million ($72 million) by the end of 2024, will be evenly allocated to the four appointed managers.
