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The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is embarking on a journey to achieve interdisciplinary collaboration and propel innovative inventions that benefit our city and humankind. CUHK Innovation Limited (CUHK Innovation), in collaboration with the Office of Research and Knowledge Transfer Services (ORKTS), hosted the inaugural CUHK Innovation Summit on 25 April, which aimed to foster connections and facilitate collaborations between CUHK start-up companies and the investment community.

The summit, themed “Igniting Innovation – from Insights to Impact”, took place at Yasumoto International Academic Park. Facilitating networking between venture capitalists and academics, it created valuable opportunities for collaboration and knowledge exchange between the two groups.

CUHK Innovation is dedicated to providing early-stage funding to promising CUHK start-ups, catalysing their growth and success in the competitive landscape of innovation and entrepreneurship. The event commenced with opening speeches delivered by Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Director of CUHK Innovation Professor Sham Mai-har and Vice-Chairman of CUHK Council and Chairman of the Board of CUHK Innovation Dr Norman Chan Tak-lam, setting the tone for an insightful and impactful gathering.

Professor Sham remarked, “This CUHK investment company provides not only funding support for innovation projects but also a platform for inventors and investors to network, explore potential partnerships and exchange ideas. Working together, we are building up the CUHK innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem.”

Dr Chan added, “We have developed a joint investment platform by inviting a group of seasoned institutional investors to be our co-investment partners. Our collaboration with our investors has greatly enhanced our ecosystem through the addition of considerable connections and resources.”

Notably, CUHK Innovation has formed an Investment Committee led by Ms Cindy Chow, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund. The committee includes investors from prominent institutional investment backgrounds, half of whom are CUHK alumni.

Furthermore, CUHK Innovation has signed Memorandums of Understanding with nine new investing partners: Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund Limited, Beyond Ventures, CICC International, Gobi Partners GBA, Great Eagle Group Limited, Hong Kong Innovation Angel Investment Limited, LKK Group Limited, qonvolv Ventures and Wings Capital Ventures LP.

A panel discussion shared insights on the application process for the first cohort of Research, Academic and Industry Sectors One-plus Scheme (RAISe+) applicants. The conversation revolved around the theme of “Unlocking Capital: Bridging the Gap between Groundbreaking Research and Applications that Benefit Society”. Esteemed guests on the panel included Professor Samuel Au, Professor of the Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering; Professor Lam Hon-ming, Choh-Ming Li Professor of Life Sciences; Professor Liu Yunhui, Choh-Ming Li Professor of Mechanical and Automation Engineering; Professor Tsang Hon-ki, Interim Dean of Engineering; Mr Kent Hou, Director of Business Development at n-hop technologies Ltd.; and Dr Victor Lau, Head of Venture Acceleration at ORKTS. The discussion was moderated by Ms Joyce Ng, Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer of CUHK Innovation. The knowledge sharing and networking sessions allowed more than 10 teams of CUHK academics to showcase their innovative solutions to societal and scientific challenges to a crowd of over 20 investment firms and organisations.

The CUHK Innovation Summit provided an outstanding opportunity for academia and the business world to converge, fostering public-private collaboration in building a better society. With over 160 individuals in attendance, the summit exemplifies CUHK’s commitment to driving innovation and entrepreneurship forward.

For more information about the CUHK Innovation Summit, please visit:

https://cuhkinnovation.hk/