HKU has selected 25 university-linked businesses to receive funding from its portion of the government-funded Technology Start-up Support Scheme for Universities.
The tech transfer office of University of Hong Kong (HKU) has supplied funding to 25 spinouts through the latest iteration of a government-funded tech transfer support program, according to OpenGov Asia.
The capital was sourced through HKU’s 2019/20 Technology Start-up Support Scheme for Universities (TSSSU@HKU), part of the Hong Kong-wide TSSSU initiative, which will from this year provide six local universities with up to HK$8m ($1m) annually to fund teams commercialising their research.
Launched in 2014, HKU’s leg of the scheme has supported the launch of 48 businesses to date with 24 of those going on to secure leases at local business parks Cyberport and HKSTP.
The other TSSSU members are Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong Polytechnic University and City University of Hong Kong.
Each TSSSU@HKU investee stands to raise a maximum of $200,000 per year through the scheme for up to three years, helping to fund early-stage operations such as setting up the company, R&D and marketing.
OpenGov Asia also said HKU’s innovation and entrepreneurship unit, iDendron, had formed a new six-month accelerator with an initial batch of 12 university-linked businesses.
The iDendron Incubation Programme will supply expertise from a roster of 21 mentors, including university faculty and VC investors, as well as industry experts, entrepreneurs and external accelerator representatives.
The move comes after iDendron set up another six-month accelerator – dubbed the Seed Programme – in 2017.
