The funds will be used to scale Area28’s teams in Hong Kong and China and support the final stages of product development prior to commercial launch.

Established in 2017, Area28 is currently developing the world's first cloud-based collaboration platform and game engine.

Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund provides Hong Kong-based entrepreneurs with investment capital and strategic guidance to help them grow their businesses and penetrate global markets.

Prior to its investment in Area28, Alibaba participated in a roughly US$1.3 million pre-series A round for local media analytics platform Cloudbreakr.

“With China being one of the world’s biggest markets for games, we are looking forward to helping Area28 service in this market through collaboration leveraging the Alibaba ecosystem,” said Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund executive director Cindy Chow.