Start-ups
bloom at CityU

A: I see HK Tech 300 as distinctive in its scale of funding and breadth of collaboration. The programme was officially launched in March 2021 with a theme of “Venture Beyond Boundaries” and plans to invest up to $500 million in three years to establish 300 tech start-ups championed by the CityU community. To do so, it provides a full range of supportive and energising opportunities and resources to enable innovative students, alumni, researchers, and others to realise their start-up dreams. These extend from recruiting, training, mentoring, seed funding, incubation with angel fund investment to final stage of launching. In addition, our extensive collaborative network spanning government, academia, industry, business, investment and the research communities, provides unprecedented synergy.

Looking back over the past year, I am delighted to report that HK Tech 300 has received an overwhelming response. As of April 2022, more than 1,000 CityU students, alumni and other participants have received training delivered by professional trainers, over 300 teams had been awarded with seed funding of $100,000 each to embark on their entrepreneurship journey. At the incubation stage, over 49 start-ups have been selected to receive angel fund investment of up to $1 million each to develop and validate their business models. Apart from these enthusiastic applicants, we are honoured to have over 80 seasoned entrepreneurs, industrialists, representatives of chambers of commerce, and other professionals joining us as mentors for the start-up teams.

Impressively, many Seed Fund teams have already received wider recognition of their project’s potential through success in other innovation competitions and by gaining additional funding externally. For example, in August 2021, two outstanding HK Tech 300 teams won the championship and second runner-up awards respectively in the Hong Kong Chapter of the “Maker in China” SME Innovation and Entrepreneurship Global Contest, competing against over 100 teams.

Here, I would also like to thank our many partners and supporters, including alumni, for their staunch support of HK Tech 300 in their respective areas. Their unstinting contribution has played an invaluable role in the programme’s remarkable success.

A: HK Tech 300 has strengthened the innovative community not only at CityU, but also in Hong Kong, by providing a new platform for our students’ and young people’s education and entrepreneurial growth, and translating CityU-led research achievements and intellectual property into practical applications. Through this programme, we have built up an entrepreneurship ecosystem with the support from the industry, business and investment communities. As an illustration, the programme has formed collaborative partnerships with major organisations, including a $100 million joint venture with China Resources Enterprise Limited (CRE) to nurture innovative unicorns, and the collaborative programmes in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area with Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) to further promote innovation and entrepreneurship in the region.

Programme start-ups also cover a tremendous array of sectors: Information and Communications Technology and Artificial Intelligence; Biotech and Health; Fintech; Deep Tech; and EduTech & EnviroTech. All are highly relevant in the quest to find solutions for the many social and scientific challenges facing the world today. For example, i²Cool has developed a zero-energy, low-cost passive radiative cooling paint to save energy and reduce carbon emissions based on CityU technology. Zeta Motion, a deep tech start-up, is pioneering visual AI, motion capture, and six degrees of freedom (DoF) object tracking technologies to provide affordable, practical solutions to industry. Greater Bay Biotechnology is applying a ground-breaking cryomicroneedles technology developed at CityU as a minimally invasive alternative to insulin injections for diabetic patients.

Indeed, the pursuit of excellence to benefit society is one of the University's key missions. And as a researcher in the biomedical field myself, I find it really exciting to see so many of these meaningful projects moving forward, step-by-step, from a concept in the lab to commercialised products and services.

A: Despite the on-going economic challenges amid the global pandemic, Hong Kong’s start-up ecosystem has remained buoyant, with a 2021 survey indicating total start-ups in the city reached a record 3,755, up 12% on the previous year.

Hong Kong certainly has many advantages for new businesses, including accessibility to international and regional markets, a simple and low tax system, and proximity to opportunities in the mainland, among others. Furthermore, it is now part of the Hong Kong government’s strategic direction to develop the city into an international innovation and technology hub.

Aiming to be the largest university-led entrepreneurship programme in Asia, HK Tech 300 will undoubtedly contribute to this goal, injecting even greater vibrancy into the city’s innovation and technology ecosystem through its nurturing of talents and promotion of a start-up culture. And CityU will continue to play a pivotal role in advancing the programme.

Last year, CityU shone again in the top 100 worldwide universities granted US utility patents by the National Academy of Inventors, ranking 51^st globally and leading the way among local universities for the fifth consecutive year. Such research excellence – a reflection of the effort that the University has made to promote novel invention over the years – is a key factor driving HK Tech 300 forward.

The programme will also strive to provide further hands-on learning experience for participants through a series of networking and training workshops. We see such activities as essential for inspiring and nurturing the next generation of home-grown innovators and adventurous changemakers.

Given HK Tech 300’s outstanding achievements and the wide recognition in its first year of operation and future plans, I am confident that the initiative will continue to be the No.1 programme of its kind in Asia, helping CityU and the wider community “Venture Beyond Boundaries” in Hong Kong and around the world.