A promising future for Vizag based start-ups

As part of the four day Vizag Fintech festival, Fintech Valley, along with WHub, conducted the $1 Million challenge to enable start-ups to showcase their solutions and get funding to set up shop in the city.

Drawing similarities between the two business hubs in Hong Kong and Vizag, CEO and Co-Founder of WHub, Karena Belin hoped to have much more in common between the two cities in terms of job opportunities.

“Our objective is to bring Vizag based start-ups over to Hong Kong to explore opportunities there and other thriving markets in South East Asia,” she said.

“We want to give talent in Andhra Pradesh an opportunity to seek jobs in Hong Kong and on the other hand bring Hong Kong-based start-ups to Andhra so they can set up shop here,” she added.

With five Hong Kong-based start-ups at the Festival, she shared her excitement in having companies from the Greater Bay Area conquer the Indian market through Andhra Pradesh.

“It was really inspiring to hear the IT Minister; the Chief Minister and other officials here speak the language of start-ups. Now we know why Andhra Pradesh ranks among the top places for ease of doing business; just like Hong Kong,” she said.

A carefully chosen panel of experts screened the applications of each start-up which competed with 25 others on the basis of its Business Model, IP, team and willingness to set up their office in Vizag after the event.

WHub was the host of Roadshows in Hong Kong and the one million dollar pitching challenge globally. After a four day gruelling conference, Karena and her team plan to unwind at the city’s beaches before they head back to Hong Kong’s very own Fintech Festival.