Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund picks DayDayCook, GRANA and NOSH

Alibaba Group has announced the investments of its not-for-profit initiative, Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund (the Fund), in three rising companies based in the city. This is the second round of investments made to early-stage companies since the Fund was established in November 2015.The three companies selected to receive minority investments are GRANA (Read also: The stories of global fashion production: GRANA’s Instagram campaign), a fashion e-commerce retailer that offers wardrobe essentials created from quality fabrics sourced around the world; NOSH, an O2O food delivery company that prepares and delivers fresh, ready-to-eat meals that cater to health-conscious, eco-friendly consumers; and DayDayCook, a creator of food and lifestyle content in Asia, which produces bilingual cooking videos with recipes and step-by-step instructions for a wide range of cuisines."The three selected companies in this round impressed us particularly with their unique value propositions, innovative business models, growth potential and their team members' entrepreneurship," said Cindy Chow, executive director of the Fund."We are also excited to see that Hong Kong has become an increasingly attractive city for global talents to start their businesses," added Chow. "That’s why we see entrepreneurs, like the founders from Grana and NOSH, choose Hong Kong as the hub to launch their businesses and realize their startup dreams. Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund is committed to supporting the healthy growth of Hong Kong’s startup ecosystem with our local partners."In addition to funding, the companies will benefit from the resources offered by Alibaba’s ecosystem in e-commerce, logistics, mobile platforms, cloud computing and financial services.Luke Grana, CEO and founder of GRANA said, "Our success is a testament to the amazing and talented in-house team, who have dedicated themselves to making quality products and creating a brand that drives so much word-of-mouth and online advocacy for us. We’re honored to have Alibaba as a lead investor and the continued support from existing investors as strategic partners."Maximilian von Poelnitz, founder of NOSH, said, "The partnership with Alibaba gives NOSH access to world class inventory management software, logistics best practices, and a venture capital investor that can help with fund raising in the future. With Alibaba we will be able to scale up our already thriving business both in Hong Kong and abroad."Norma Chu, founder of DayDayCook, said, "DayDayCook specialises in content creation. Lifestyle and products are seamlessly blended into our content and with Alibaba’s investment, there are significant synergies from data analytics to stock keeping unit expansion to traffic support. This marks an important milestone for DayDayCook's expansion into content e-commerce."This is the second batch of investment from the Fund, with the first round having taken place in May 2016 when the Fund invested in YEECHOO, Shopline and GoGoVan. (Read more: Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund picks GoGoVan)