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Former Pro Poker Player, Who Founded Asian Delivery Giant Lalamove With His Winnings, Becomes A Billionaire

Chow Shing Yuk, a former professional poker player who studied economics at Stanford University, has joined the billionaire ranks, but not because he drew a lucky hand.

Over the past decade, Chow, 44, has steadily built Lalamove into a logistics and delivery giant from a base in Hong Kong, backed by the likes of Neil Shen’s Sequoia China and Lei Zhang’s Hillhouse Capital. On Tuesday, Chow’s company, whose formal name is Lalatech Holdings, filed for an initial public offering in Hong Kong that revealed he owns a 25% stake through a family trust. Based on Chow’s stake and proceeds of earlier share sales, Forbes estimates his net worth to be $2.2 billion, making him a rare startup billionaire in Hong Kong.

Lalatech’s last private fundraising was a $230 million Series G round in November 2021, during the startup bubble. According to a report by technology website the Information, that round valued Lalatech at a lofty $13 billion. Since then, many startup valuations have fallen amid interest-rate hikes and recession fears. The company’s IPO prospectus revealed that Chow sold 2.17 million shares of Lalatech to Chinese internet giant Tencent, another one of its investors, for $100 million in December, valuing the company at about $7.8 billion. Lalatech did not respond to a request for comment.

The logistics giant’s application to list in Hong Kong comes nearly two years after it reportedly filed confidentially for a U.S. IPO that could raise more than $1 billion, according to a Bloomberg News report.

Besides Sequoia China, Hillhouse and Tencent, Lalatech’s other investors include billionaire Richard Li’s Asian life insurer FWD Group, real estate tycoon Adrian Cheng’s C Capital, property investor Goodwin Gaw’s Gaw Capital Partners, Xiaomi cofounder Lei Jun’s Shunwei Capital, Chinese food delivery giant Meituan, billionaire Daniel Sundheim’s hedge fund D1 Capital Partners and Boyu Capital, a private equity firm set up by a grandson of former Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

Chow, who serves as chairman and CEO, cofounded Lalatech in 2013 to digitize the entire road freight booking process, which was traditionally done through call centers. The company’s mobile app connects people and businesses with carriers that deliver groceries, furniture and even pets.

Lalatech operates under the Lalamove brand in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, and as Huolala in mainland China. The company first launched in Hong Kong in 2013 and then expanded into mainland China a year later. It is focused on growing in Southeast Asia and Latin America, and is planning to enter the Middle East over the next few years.

The company said in its listing prospectus that in the first half of last year it was the largest end-to-end (from order placement to freight matching to payment) logistics transaction platform in the world by gross transaction value, with a market share of 43.5%, citing consultant Frost & Sullivan. That’s 3.5 times more than No. 2 Uber Freight, the logistics arm of the U.S. ride hailing giant Uber Technologies, which is considering its own listing, according to a Bloomberg News report earlier this month.

Lalatech, which focuses on same-city deliveries, managed to narrow its net loss by roughly 96% year-on-year to $93 million in 2022, according to its listing prospectus filed with the Hong Kong stock exchange. During the same period, the company saw its revenue jump 23% to about $1 billion, with its mainland China business contributing more than 90% of its sales.

Lalatech attributed its steady growth to the vast network of merchants and carriers it has built over the past few years. As of the end of last year, Lalatech said it had more than 7 million verified carriers on its network and over 11 million merchants using its platform monthly on average. The Hong Kong-based company has presence in 400 cities across 11 markets, including Bangladesh, Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam. Lalatech’s network allows the company to generate more income from membership fees and commissions paid by carriers.

Chow, who was born in mainland China and grew up in a dilapidated wooden house in Hong Kong, earned a scholarship to study in the U.S. after scoring straight A’s in his high school exams, according to an interview he gave to the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where he earned a master’s degree in economics. After getting his bachelor’s degree from Stanford, Chow started his career as a consultant at Bain & Co. in Hong Kong.

Having spent much of his working hours playing Texas Hold ’em poker online, Chow decided to try his hand at it professionally. Over his eight years as a professional poker player, Chow earned HK$30 million ($3.8 million) in winnings.

In 2013, Chow used his poker winnings to start Lalatech (which was called EasyVan at the time) with cofounders Gary Hui and Matthew Tam after being frustrated by using call centers to book delivery services. In the Chinese University of Hong Kong interview, Chow disclosed his ambition to make Lalatech synonymous with deliveries.

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