HKU set to take tech whizzes to next level

The University of Hong Kong has stepped up its efforts to help start-ups, including setting up a center to support tech entrepreneurs with a HK$400 million HKU Entrepreneurship Engine Fund.

Techno-Entrepreneurship Core is HKU's new one-stop platform aimed at synergizing cross-disciplinary resources to foster development of technological start-ups.

"As many scholar-background founders are unfamiliar with company operations, TEC will provide support, resources, as well as guidance at different phases," its director, Paul Wang Peng, said yesterday at the HKU Innovation and Entrepreneurship Day: DreamOn 2023. "We will also hold training courses and networking seminars."

Two initiatives to back emerging businesses were implemented, with HKU's typical stake reduced from 10 to 5 percent and inventors also getting more in the way of profit for their intellectual property, up from a third to 70 percent.

The university has also set up a HK$400 million Entrepreneurship Engine Fund to support the transformation of disruptive technology into meaningful products, with the first HK$50 million to be allocated and more money to be raised.

"We want to create a more friendly ecosystem for scientist-entrepreneurs, stimulating their inner motivation," said Anderson Shum Ho-cheung, associate vice-president (research and innovation) and TEC's deputy chairman.

MetTactics, set up in 2019, is a cancer-focused biotech company supported by HKU that has received funding of more than HK$3 million from 2021 to 2023.

Its main product, metastasis-on-a-chip, can detect highly metastatic cancer cells, namely those that can transfer to other organs, and test different cancer treatments. More than 90 percent of cancer-related deaths are caused by metastasis, yet only a small number of cancer cells are metastatic.

"Compared with traditional cell culture models that could take months to finish the analysis, MoC is able to complete DNA sequencing and drug testing within a week," said CEO Sophie Lam So-ngo.

"This could provide patients with a timely, personalized and accurate treatment plan," she said.

Manifold Tech, set up in 2021, specializes in real-time laser scanning and 3D mapping technology.

In March and April, it carried out 3D reconstructions of the Tai Pak Floating Restaurant and the Hong Kong Museum of History.

"We only took 20 minutes to scan HKMH, which has an area of tens of thousands of square meters," said CFO Kevin Li Bo-wei. The firm has received more than HK$1 million in 2022 and 2023 and plans to mass produce the scanner at the end of this year.