CityUHK students, CityUHK alumni, CityUHK research staff, and general public championing commercial use of CityUHK’s intellectual property (IP, knowhow or patented/patent pending invention) can apply for HK Tech 300 Seed Fund and Angel Fund.

A PIC should be the major person who drives a project or a company. The PIC can be a jack-of-all-trades (i.e. responsible for multi-roles) until the company grows to afford hiring professionals.

• Innovation – to resolve technical issues faster than anyone else in the team; ensure tech development is on schedule with strategic use of resources, etc.
• Product/Service Manager – familiar with/know customer needs and forecast/predict customer needs; product development, marketing and pricing strategies, project product sales, etc.
• Operations – looking into various aspects of start-up operations
• Marketing & Communications – for creating and building the customer base, exploring revenue generation and company profitability, brand strategies, budget generation
• Finance – budget, expenses monitoring and management, financial planning, risks vs goals
• Sales – to convince prospective clients to take a try out on an untested product, an unknown company; define sales strategy, process and sales strategies; hire and groom a sales team (eventually)
• Customer Relations – to ensure customers have a lasting impression of the company, sell the value of company products, and generate feedback/referrals; establish workflow and process between sales and marketing

The adaptability of team members is the key to enabling a project to transform into a company and grow.

You may provide a justifiable reason for our consideration. However, it is not allowed to change the Person-in-charge (PIC).

Yes, for general public, as long as the project team is championing a CityUHK IP throughout the Programme.

No, each project team should focus on one project.

Recommended 3 – 5 members per project team. Team members should be chosen strategically, based on what they can bring to the project.

Certainly. We encourage anyone interested in specific CityUHK’s research results to discuss with faculty who is/are responsible for the particular research results concerned, and to get to know more about the potential use of the research work. This will maximise the chance of turning the research ideas into successful products as direct dialogue with the researchers would be beneficial to understanding the theory behind the research and the gist of the problems that could be crucial to commercialisation.

Certainly, as long as it leads to novel business applications. Very often, a useful technology proposed in the past did not get to any market or lead to any useful products. Timing, availability of other enabling technologies as well as market maturity could make a big difference. It is thus not unusual to see that many successful products are built on the basis of a previously proposed technology but targeted to a new application with completely new sets of practical parameters addressing completely new market needs.

Yes, HK Tech 300 runs several cohorts per year. Please refer to the webpage of HK Tech 300 Seed Fund and HK Tech 300 Angel Fund for details.

Registration as a business/company is not required at the time of project team formation, enrollment or training. Incorporation of a new business registration should be done by the end of the Seed Fund period. For Angel Fund application, the applicant must be a company registered under the HKSAR Companies Ordinance normally within 7 years as of the date of application.

There are no restrictions on technology areas or market segment for a project team to focus. The HK Tech 300 Programme aims to enable participants to demonstrate innovation and build sustainable businesses that will benefit to society.

Participants can enroll in any of the cohorts each year. For application timeline, please refer to HK Tech 300 Seed Fund and HK Tech 300 Angel Fund.

Generally speaking, project teams that have not yet established a company are advised to go through all phases of the programme. Nevertheless, we also consider project teams that are at a more developed stage to participate directly in an advanced phase.

Yes, Seed Fund project teams and Angel Fund companies are eligible to use the HK Tech 300 co-working space at Admiralty during their agreement period.

Project teams supported by the Seed Fund should observe the relevant operation guidelines to ensure proper use of the funds.

Co-incubation at the same time is allowed in order that the project teams or companies can benefit from the most resources possible.

The funding period will be shown in the agreement to be signed, and the disbursement of funding is subject to the stipulated requirements. The project team must submit interim and final reports together with the expenditure reports as required, complete the agreed milestones within the funding period for review, before the funding is released to the project team via the designated bank account in three respective installments.

A project name will suffice if a company name is not yet ready.

Announcement email will be sent to the teams shortlisted for panel interview. Please refer to the webpage of HK Tech 300 Seed Fund for details.

The Incubation (Seed Fund) will last for a period of up to 12 months.

Funding support, co-working space, business matching, mentorship and other support, including milestone review, consultation, etc., will be provided when necessary to help project teams on their entrepreneurship journey.

For teams which involve prototypes in their project or business, the usable prototype for market validation is expected to be developed within the Seed Fund period (i.e. within 12 months).