According to PANews, Terence Kwok, CEO of Humanity Protocol, a competitor of Worldcoin that previously raised $30 million, was responsible for nearly bankrupting his $1.5 billion smartphone company, resulting in a loss of $170 million for investors. Kwok founded the Hong Kong-based Tink Labs in 2012. This unicorn company raised hundreds of millions of dollars to provide smartphones for hotel guests to use during their stay. His goal was to offer an alternative to roaming charges, enhance their hotel experience, and sell the collected customer preference data.
However, as reported by the Financial Times, his company began operating at a loss of £9.06 million in 2017. This was reportedly due to several factors, including his aggressive expansion policy, cheaper and more widespread roaming charges, and hotels' reluctance to pay for the phones he provided. According to a former employee, Tink Labs' investor SoftBank was concerned that the company was 'transferring funds from its Japanese joint venture to other regions to maintain operations,' which forced the company to abruptly halt a major project. Kwok reportedly struggled to pay employees and contractors, and carried out massive layoffs before shutting down Tink Labs on August 1 of that year. It was reported that laid-off employees 'smeared cake all over the walls and floor' as they left the company's Oxford office. Tink Labs' European division began liquidation in January 2020 and subsequently entered bankruptcy proceedings. The former head of human resources operations at Tink Labs told the Financial Times, 'I never thought it would last, but I didn't think it would shut down so quickly.' She also told the Financial Times that Kwok was only concerned about 'making money.'
Last year, Kwok launched Humanity Protocol, a blockchain-based identity verification company that relies on scanning people's palms for identification.