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Deep-Tech Lab (DTL), an incubation programme by The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), celebrated a significant milestone last Friday, 14 June 2024 with its first graduation ceremony witnessing the graduation of eight outstanding deep-tech ventures in its first cohort. The ventures span various fields including healthcare, biotechnology, information technology, artificial intelligence, manufacturing and environmental science. Graduated ventures have successfully expanded market opportunities through DTL.

Initiated by CUHK’s Centre for Entrepreneurship (CfE), the DTL programme commenced in November 2023 with the aim of commercialising deep-tech projects and guiding them into the market. This programme offers team-based mentorship, international networks, and assistance from CUHK’s MBA students who provided business analysis support and gained valuable learning experience in return.

Professor Kevin Au, Founder of DTL and Director of CfE at CUHK, remarked at the ceremony, “Hong Kong is home to world-class universities and exceptional scientists. Fostering academic entrepreneurship and commercialising research has immense benefits for both Hong Kong and the global community. The success of our first cohort of graduates underscores DTL’s commitment to venture quality and the incubation process. We are now gearing up for the next incubation programme, with a target of incubating approximately 18 to 20 deep-tech enterprises from Hong Kong and neighbouring regions and helping them penetrate Mainland China and North American markets.”

Calling for startups to join the next batch riding on the successes of the first cohort

The event brought together a diverse group of researchers, startup teams, investors, business leaders, entrepreneurial mentors, and MBA students from both local and international communities. The eight graduating deep-tech ventures celebrated notable achievements at the ceremony. Kodifly Limited received the 2024 Railway Technology Excellence Award[1] and has been introduced to potential collaboration opportunities with a US railway company through the mentor network. Codex Energy secured a new round of funding in the US, enabling it to use flared gas from oil fields to expand its decentralised high-performance computing (HPC) data centre operation. NexoEdge, co-founded by a CUHK Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, becomes the first standardised open-source university project from Hong Kong endorsed by the Linux Foundation, and has now registered a company in Calgary, Canada to develop edge computing storage and information security markets while finalising investments from angel and venture funds.

The representative from Provectus Therapeutics, one of the graduated ventures, said, “We come from a biomedical engineering background. DTL surprises us when its innovative model calls for mentors to debate on setting goals for our ventures to achieve. It stimulates our business mindset and fills our knowledge gaps in areas such as financial accounting, patent licensing and marketing, helping us transform scientific research into a viable business.”

DTL also announced in the ceremony the establishment of a non-profit organisation to support its ongoing and future initiatives. This new entity aims at bridging universities, businesses, and public organisations to promote the commercialisation of deep-tech innovations, supporting Hong Kong’s role of being a super-connector. The founding members of this organisation include Professor Kevin Au, Dr Chen Fong (Co-Chair of the Global Strategy Board of the Creative Destruction Lab), Professor Alex Fong (Adjunct Professor at CUHK Business School and Director of GRE Manufacturing Limited), Mr Peter Lee (Chairman of Gallant Investment Partners) and Mr Francis Pun (Vice Chair, External and member of Executive Committee, The Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong). The NPO will seek partial funding from the government, and invite professionals and organisations to collaborate, thereby amplifying the impact of Hong Kong’s deep-tech ventures.

The next DTL programme will start in September 2024. Interested deep-tech startups are welcome to contact us via email at hkdtl@cuhk.edu.hk for more information and application details beforehand.

Deep Tech Lab’s first batch of 8 graduating ventures (in alphabetical order)

• Astra Optics Limited
• Codex Energy
• Gut Rhythm R&D (Hong Kong) Limited
• Kodifly Limited
• Meat the Next Company Limited
• NexoEdge
• Provectus Therapeutics Limited
• PuroChem Limited

[1] Presented by Railway Technology (https://www.railway-technology.com/)