The Former COO of OKX Just Raised $2 Million for an AI Platform That Turns Watching Sports Into a Prediction Market

Andy Cheung has spent his career at the intersection of technology platforms and mass consumer behavior. As Chief Operating Officer of OKX, one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, he helped scale the platform to hundreds of millions of users. As CEO of Groupon Hong Kong, he built commercial operations in one of Asia's most competitive consumer markets. The pattern across both roles is consistent: large platforms, large user bases, and commerce built on the engagement of audiences in real time.

K25.ai, the company he leads as co‑founder and the face of its latest fundraising announcement, applies that same pattern to a market that sits at the convergence of AI, live streaming, and prediction markets.

K25.ai, a Singapore‑based AI‑native live streaming and watch‑to‑predict platform, announced Thursday that Nasdaq‑listed NewGenIVF Group Limited has made an initial $2 million strategic investment in the firm. The transaction values K25.ai at a $100 million pre‑money valuation, with an option to increase the investment to up to $10 million if exercised in full. The deal also grants NewGenIVF an exclusive agency partnership to promote and commercialize K25.ai across permitted APAC markets such as Thailand, Singapore, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.

The round was closed under a Pre‑A strategic investment structure, giving the early‑stage startup both capital and a publicly listed commercial partner without requiring the full Series A process that would demand more extensive financial disclosure.

What K25.ai Actually Builds

The platform's core concept — watch‑to‑predict — occupies a specific and growing space in the consumer technology landscape that traditional media companies have not successfully addressed and that pure prediction markets have not made visually engaging enough for mainstream audiences.

K25.ai is designed to combine artificial intelligence, live‑streaming content, creator communities and prediction‑based engagement into a watch‑to‑predict consumer platform for permitted APAC markets. Users watch live events — sports matches, esports tournaments, entertainment broadcasts, cultural events — and make predictions about what happens next, in real time, using K25.ai's AI‑powered interface. The AI layer does several things simultaneously: surfacing relevant prediction opportunities at the right moment in a broadcast, calibrating odds based on real‑time event data, and personalizing the experience to the viewer's known preferences and prediction history.

The commercial logic is strong in theory. Live sports and esports are already among the highest‑engagement content categories in digital media. Prediction markets, as demonstrated by Kalshi's $22 billion valuation and Polymarket's continued growth, have proven that users will engage with probabilistic information markets when the interface is good and the content is relevant. K25.ai's thesis is that combining both into a single platform, where the content drives the prediction and the prediction deepens engagement with the content, creates a product that neither live streaming platforms nor standalone prediction markets can easily replicate.

K25.ai is also pursuing a potential public‑market pathway, including through a strategic transaction or RTO. A reverse takeover of an existing Nasdaq‑listed entity would allow K25.ai to reach public markets significantly faster than a traditional IPO process. NIVF's involvement as both a capital investor and an APAC commercial partner, with K25.ai co‑founders including Cheung joining NIVF's board, creates the structural proximity to an existing listed vehicle that an RTO pathway requires.

Why NIVF Made This Bet

NewGenIVF Group is not a traditional venture capital firm. The company is a technology‑driven, diversified growth company that has been actively pivoting beyond its original fertility services business into technology investments. NIVF reported fiscal 2025 results with US$32.7 million in assets and US$9.9 million net profit, supported by a US$19.2 million bargain purchase gain.

Siu Wing Fung Alfred, Chairman and CEO of NewGenIVF, said: "We see K25.ai as a generational opportunity at the intersection of AI and prediction markets. Andy's track record at OKX, Groupon, and Prenetics, combined with the explosive growth of this sector, makes this one of the most compelling strategic investments we've evaluated."

For NIVF, the K25.ai investment serves dual commercial purposes. The direct equity stake at a $100 million valuation gives the company exposure to a pre‑revenue AI consumer platform at a price that could look attractive if the prediction market category grows as rapidly as current indicators suggest. The exclusive APAC agency partnership, which entitles NIVF to commissions on gross profit from referred customers across its commercial territory, creates a revenue stream that does not depend on K25.ai reaching liquidity through a public listing or acquisition.

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