Hong Kong startup creates first intellectual property marketplace in APAC

It has over 27,000 patents to date.

Hong Kong startup IP Nexus bills itself as the first marketplace for intellectual properties in Asia Pacific. Founded in 2012, IP Nexus matches IP owners with interested buyers, licensees or their agents globally and offer a range of other complementary services and features for all parties involved in intellectual property monetization.

In an exclusive interview with Hong Kong Business, founder Hidero Niioka shared that they have signed partnerships with a number of significant IP players including the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). “ We have already made successful matches with a firm offers and transactions closed for IP on our platform. As of May 2014, we list over 27,000 patents and other intellectual property on our platform," he added.

IP Nexus team are experts in IP law, practice and commercialization themselves. Their in-depth knowledge and experience in the complex field allow them to actively and strategically market the IP on their platform and offer added value to IP owners seeking to monetize their inventions.

Niioka is born in Japan but grew up in Germany. He obtained his PhD at the Max Planck Institute. He holds a LLM from Stanford Law School and has worked as an IP litigator and investment banker. He drew on his dual experience in IP law and investment to develop this unique marketplace solution to IP monetization.

"While working in the IP field, we saw that there were very few opportunities for smaller companies, startups and individual inventors to monetize their IP. At the same time, buyers and licensees sometimes struggled to find unique and unsifted IP. We felt there was an opportunity to match these two groups through an online marketplaces,” he said.

According to Niioka, the platform started being self-funded with an early support from the Hong Kong Cyberport incubator platform. It has successively raised USD880,000 total funding. IP Nexus recently secured its first seed funding from a renowned venture fund, and a number of successful individual angel investors.

When asked about their future plans, he shared that they have been focusing on their platform capabilities and is launching new platform in beta this July with a range of new features and services for everyone involved in IP development, protection and monetization.

"We want to continue our momentum in attracting interesting IP and have set strong targets for the number and quality of IP we want to see on our platform," he said.

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Company Profile

Company Name: IP Nexus
Founder: Hidero Niioka
Website: www.ipnexus.com
Total funding at hand: USD880,000
Start of Operation: 2012

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