Investors plough huge sums into Asian startups

Hong Kong

THE rise of a mobile software company from nothing to a US$1 billion valuation in just over a year from its first product release would typically draw rapt attention, and jealousy, inside Silicon Valley.

Yet the Apus Group, one company with such a stratospheric rise, is largely unknown in Silicon Valley. That is because the company is based more than 9,600km away, in China.