STARTUPS
Green Monday pushes for sustainable living across Asia
Providing a ‘Neat’ solution in international trading
David Rosa, Co-founder and CEO, Neat
Green Monday Group aims to encourage sustainable living
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n a time when the world is facing climate change, food insecurity, public health issues, and population explosion,firm action is needed to avoid an eventual global catastrophe. This is the mission of the Green Monday Group, a multi-pronged, mission-driven venture that aims to shift the public towards sustainable living. It’s a movement, a new lifestyle, and mindset that has spread to more than 30 countries to date. Established in 2015, the group comprises of five distinct entitites. They are the investment arm which focuses on supporting the growth of like-minded entrepreneurs and startups globally. Green Monday Foundation, the nonprofit arm which advocates sustainable living through community initiatives. Green Monday Holdings, the operational arm under which OmniFoods and Green Common produce and distribute plant-based food products. OmniFoods is a food tech company that creates a range of alternative protein food products for both commercial and consumer markets, including OmniPork, OmniPork Luncheon, OmniPork Strip, and OmniEat. Meanwhile, Green Common is a onestop, plant-based platform that combines retail, distribution, and dining services in more than 10 markets. Treating the creation of a “flexitarian” population as the high priority, the Green Monday movement believes that people don’t need to be a full vegan. It will take sustainability education, trendy lifestyle
creation and product innovation to make change happen, and the group has already proven that in Hong Kong and in other parts of Asia. In Hong Kong alone, Green Monday has teamed up with over 1,800 restaurants to include plant-based options on their offerings. Institutions such as HSBC, Google, Sands, and MGM as well as celebrities have also joined in the movement. “We are extremely delighted to partner with investors like TPG and Swire and looking forward to work with more missionaligned partners who share the same goal to strive for genuine impact, channel their power to make further good to the world, and overcome the planet’s most imminent challenges,” Green Monday said in an interview with Hong Kong Business magazine. In the following months, Green Monday aims to expand its presence to more than 20 markets across Asia, EMEA, and North America. It also plans to increase point of sale operations to over 40,000 worldwide. Green Common flagship stores will also be launched in strategic locations in China in Singapore. As we continue to expand our distribution network across the region and globally, we are seeing a much better economy of scale in terms of ingredient sourcing, production, logistics, and partnerships. We will see continuous drop in cost and price in the upcoming 9-10 months,” the group added.
Frustrated with the state of IT systems in the traditional financial institutions, businessman David Rosa used his savings and decided to create a better and more accessible financial platform for entrepreneurs around the world. That platform is now called Neat. And Rosa is the CEO and co-founder. “The name came to me on a sleepless night, at 3:00 am. It resonated well as it was short; the relevant web domain was available and encapsulated the essence of what we wanted to bring to market,” Rosa told Hong Kong Business on why he chose Neat as the name of the company. The problems with international trading are the endless paperworks, bureaucracy, and long waiting. Rosa wanted Neat to be a solution to these problems. He said it would only take a short time to set up a Neat account that comes with various perks. An online incorporation takes about 15 minutes, guaranteed or you get your money back. With a Neat account, a company can now receive payments in USD, EUR, GBP, and HKD; make transfers to 35 countries at competitive foreign exchange rates; integrate with the Xero accounting software platform; and issue corporate expense cards to their employees. They make profit based on transfers and FX fees along with margins on interchange that the card payment network pays Neat for using their network. “One of our strengths as a company is our solid connection between Asia and Europe. We opened an office in London earlier this year and will continue to develop our team there. We’re also investing into business development resources for South East Asia. Combined with our multi-currency capabilities, this ultimately opens more doors for our customers to do business more smoothly in more places,” Rosa added. A Neat future Much more seems to be in store for neat as last April they’ve raised a total of US$15m in funding with investments led by the Pacific Century Group and other marquee investors like VISA and MassMutual Ventures. To date, they have a total of $155m (US$20m). With the recent fundings, Neat will utilise their new resources into further improving customer support experience and the launching of Neat Visa cards. “Neat is constantly working to expand its incorporation and account services to more countries. After opening our London office last year, our next step is to launch in Singapore. Our goal in the next 5 years is to be the #1 Fintech platform for import-export businesses worldwide,” said Rosa.
HONG KONG BUSINESS | DECEMBER 2020
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