Media

HKU DreamCatchers 100K Entrepreneurship Seed Fund – a million dollars awarded to support young students and alumni

01 Sep 2016

The Final Pitch of HKU’s first Entrepreneurship Seed Fund, “DreamCatchers 100K”, was successfully held today (28 August). Amongst 144 participating teams, 10 Finalists of HKU students and young alumni have each won a seed fund award of HK$100,000.

The scheme commenced in March 2016 -- over 550 students and young alumni applied. After months of Preliminary Pitch and mentors’ guidance, 18 teams were admitted to the Final Pitch, where finalists presented their business idea and prototypes.

All seven judges, including industry experts and academics, commended the teams on their performance. CEO of Cherrypicks Mr Jason Chiu, who was amongst the speakers of DreamCatchers Forum a year ago, emphasized the importance of startups in “identifying a niche market and provide specific solution towards a problem in market.” The Hon Mrs Fanny Law, Chairperson of Hong Kong Science & Technology Parks Corporation, encouraged all finalists to continuously enhance their business models or products regardless of the Final Pitch results. Professor Andy Hor, Vice-President and (Research) of HKU said, “No one lost today.  Those that did not win should prove the judges wrong. Hence unsuccessful candidates should keep moving forward, as many renowned enterprises nowadays have also experienced countless failures during their initial startup.”

Event photos: goo.gl/bRXJNY

Details of the 10 winning teams are as follows:

•         Chillazy
“A physical hammock lounge for the exhausted working class”
•         CONZEB
“To build a fully automated instrumentation for easy and simple cancer screening”
•         DNA Replicator
“To provide an affordable and portable PCR machine for DNA am in schools and developing countries. ”
•         Living Tissues Company Limited
“To develop an automated system to fabricate cartilage from stem cells and biomaterial for repair in-house with minimal human interference”
•         MedEXO Robotics
“Exo-Stabilizer: Public Affordable Wearable Robotic Device for Parkinsonʼs Disease Patients”
•         Movabar
“TA Platform(Web & App) and System for Off-Site Food & Beverages (F&B) Catering Services”
•         Motion
“To enable an affordable solution for self-contained motion tracking and sports training for the general public and professionals alike”
•         RECIPIO
“A revolutionary digital receipt solution that replaces traditional paper receipts to streamline the whole aftersales process, while enhancing customer loyalty”
•         ROOTS
“Your curated online food and food lifestyle marketplace that revives the everyday artisan and his/her products through a community-driven platform of experienced foodies”
•         Smiley Box
“To deliver boxes of toys to households on a tiered and annual subscription basis, following toy-curriculums developed by our child-education experts; these toys are later collected and recycled to generate educational opportunities for underprivileged children, to minimize resource waste, and to contribute to our local communities”

We welcome interview invitations from media targeting specific teams concerning their business ideas, and would make immediate arrangement upon request.

Enquiry: Technology Transfer Office Mr Laurence Tang (Tel: 3917 1714/ 6076 9413; Email: laurence.tang@hku.hk)
Development & Alumni Affairs Office Ms Polo Leung (Tel: 39171732; email: pololeung@hku.hk)