Media

Over 20 startup founders and practitioners, together with alumni from a wide range of industries and business backgrounds, assembled in the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum on October 10, 2020, to discuss on a heat topic for startups – venture capital financing and to respond to the HKU Business School’s call for establishing a startup ecosystem.

Amidst the backdrop of the challenging local, regional and global economy, startup founders are facing more difficulties to stand out from the crowd, meet the investors’ expectations and achieve success in venture capital financing. HKU Business School stepped up its efforts in nurturing a vibrant startup ecosystem and launched the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum, aiming to share the best practice on how entrepreneurs and reputable investors worked together to turn innovative idea into good business.  Being the Presidents of Hong Kong Venture Capital and Private Equity Association, Mr. Vincent Chan, Senior Managing Director and Head of Asia of Samena Capital, as well as Mr. K.O. Chia, Director of Grace Financial were invited to give out hints to the up-and-coming start-ups that may become the next unicorns.

“Make sure you have stable, trustworthy teammates who would be able to share all the ups and downs and go through the cycle of growth and development with you. This could also benefit your fund-raising process as the investors will consider everything about your product, your team and the track-record of your company. Do not be afraid of failure, but to learn from it and keep your passion.” Mr. Chan said.

Mr. Chia further illustrated that “People-centered management becomes a very critical element when you want to become an effective entrepreneur. Remember to keep evolving your business model over time, uphold the core of your business and leverage on technology as ancillary tool.”

One of the event participants, Ms. Yina Chan, Co-Founder of Bamboo Network, was inspired by the sharing from both of the speakers and found the Forum useful to transform her innovative idea into reality. “The speakers have highlighted some potential concerns from large corporates when they consider investing in a business, which startup founders may not be aware of before. For instance, how would the corporates evaluate the technology and the team structure of the startups.”

Professor Hongbin Cai, Dean of HKU Business School, also encouraged all stakeholders in the ecosystem to work together during a time of stark economic challenge faced by Hong Kong recently. He said in the welcoming remarks that, “A comprehensive ecosystem is necessary for further assisting Hong Kong to transform to a heart of global innovation, technology and entrepreneurship hub. As part of the ecosystem, HKU Business School will try its best to contribute to the local economy by nurturing innovative minds, promoting entrepreneurship spirits, building research facilities and reaching out to the society, China as well as the international community.”

For media enquiries, please contact:
HKU Business School
Christina Chung
Assistant Director
Communications and Public Relations
Tel: +852 9092 2699 / +852 3917 1692
Email: chungmc@hku.hk      

Karis Yuen
Manager
Communications and Public Relations
Tel: +852 6447 7120 / +852 3917 1552
Email: ykaris@hku.hk

Locus Communications Limited
Claudia Lo
Tel: +852 9560 1518 / +852 9505 0517
Email: claudialo@locuscomm.com

Grace Ng
Tel: +852 6505 1595
Email: graceng@locuscomm.com 

About HKU Business School
HKU Business School strives to nurture first-class business leaders and foster academic and relevant research to serve the needs of Hong Kong, China and the rest of the world in the new Asia-led economy. As Asia’s premier international business school, we engage leading scholars from all corners of the globe and they instil in the students global knowledge with an Asian perspective. HKU Business School attracts top students from Hong Kong and beyond. It admits the highest proportion of non-local undergraduate students amongst all Faculties at HKU. Three of its undergraduate programmes are ranked among the University’s top 10 programmes.

Our full-time MBA programme has a strong Asia and China focus, and the programme has been ranked Asia’s no. 1 in the World MBA Rankings released by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) for nine consecutive years from 2010 to 2018. Students can opt for an overseas exchange opportunity to supplement their campus learning in Hong Kong: a London track at London Business School, a New York track at Columbia Business School or a Hong Kong/China track at Fudan University.

HKU Business School also offers an elite EMBA-Global Asia programme, jointly with CBS and LBS, for globally-focused senior executives and professionals. Its International MBA Programme, delivered in Shanghai in collaboration with Fudan University, was the first of its kind when it was launched in 1998. The School collaborated with Guanghua School of Management of the Peking University and offered a DBA programme and the HKU-PKU EMBA Programme in 2017 and 2018 respectively.

HKU Business School is fully accredited by the European Quality Improvement Systems (EQUIS) and the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).

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