Luxury resale marketplace PopChill has closed its Series Pre-A+ round at $3.1 million. Separately, Hong Kong’s de facto central bank has extended the term of its deputy chief executive Arthur Yuen for two years.
PopChill raises $3.1m, may expand to SG
PopChill, a luxury resale marketplace operating in Taiwan and Hong Kong, announced on Wednesday the completion of a $3.1 million Series Pre-A extension round to fuel its business expansion.
PopChill raised the new round in two tranches. The recent $1.3 million tranche was from new investors including Top Taiwan Venture Capital. It announced the first tranche of $1.8 million in October 2023 with the support of 500 Global, Acorn Pacific, ITIC, AVA Angels Fund, Acorn Pacific Ventures, and Darwin Ventures.
The new capital injection takes the firm’s total fundraising so far to $6.2 million.
PopChill said that the funding comes as the firm is targeting to break even in Taiwan, currently its biggest market where it has a team of 26 people, by the end of 2024.
This investment will allow it to expedite growth in Hong Kong, which now contributes about 10% of its total transaction volume. It is also planning a new market entry, likely into Singapore, within this year.
HK’s central bank extends tenure of its deputy chief executive
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), the city’s de facto central bank, has extended the term of its deputy chief executive Arthur Yuen for two years beyond the standard retirement age of 65.
The extension of his tenure, effective August 2024, will see Yuen continue to be in charge of the full range of banking policy, supervision, conduct, and enforcement issues at the HKMA, the authority announced in a statement.
Yuen, who first joined the HKMA in 1996 as head of administration, has been with the central banking institution in Hong Kong for almost three decades.
He has since taken up various responsibilities including research and liaison on China economic and market development issues, before being appointed head of banking supervision in 2000. Yuen then served as an executive director (banking development) in 2004; executive director (banking supervision) in June 2005; and executive director (external) in July 2008. He has been HKMA’s deputy chief executive since January 1, 2010.
Yuen works alongside another two HKMA deputy chief executives—Howard Lee, who is responsible for reserves management, financial infrastructure and fintech; and Darryl Chan, who oversees the work of external, monetary management and research departments.
