Deep-Tech Lab

Building massively scalable,

science- and technology-based business ventures

at their seed stage

About Deep-Tech Lab

Deep-Tech Lab is an incubation program that aims to enhance the commercialization of science in order to make an impact on business and society. Deep-Tech Lab has collaborated with the business school to offer a special course in which students learn to facilitate the ventures.

DTL Updates

DTL Reception

Deep-Tech Lab (DTL) successfully hosted its reception on March 1, 2024. During the reception, Prof. Kevin Au, Founder of Deep-Tech Lab, extended a warm welcome to all guests, mentors, and ventures. We were delighted to have Mr Tommie Lo, Founder and CEO of Preface shared with us the merging of technology, learning and lifestyle in Preface, and Dr. Chen Fong, Co-Chair of the Global Strategy Board of the Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) to deliver a distinguished VIP speech regarding the current progress of Deep-Tech Lab.

Through this reception, we brought together our mentors, strategic partners, industry experts and DTL ventures to foster synergy and forge meaningful connection. We would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to our event sponsor - Preface and strategic partners - Invest HK, HKSTP, Cyberport, InvestAlberta, Amazon Web Service, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Centre of HKBU, and CUHK Innovation Limited, for their continuous support!

DTL Meet-up Session 3

The Deep-Tech Lab (DTL) Meet-up Session 3 was successfully held on 2 March 2024. The event brought together 9 ventures from diverse sectors, including Health Care, Biotechnology, IT, AI, Manufacturing, Climate and Food. Thank you to our esteemed elite moderators and mentors for generously devoting their valuable time and expertise with our ventures through the small group meetings and large room discussion:

Session 1: Small Group Meetings

Venture founders engaged in "speed mentoring" rounds, meeting with precisely matched mentors, as well as other mentors. In a private and discreet environment, they discussed the developments, difficulties, and sought advice.

Session 2: Large Room Discussion

This session was moderated by Prof Kevin Au and Ms Joyce Ng. All the DTL mentors went together throughout this session and met with every team to review their progress, and discuss, deliberate, and decide on the team’s upcoming objectives.

We were glad to see the venture teams had made a good progress since the Meet-up Session 2. In the deliberation session, our DTL mentors voted for supporting 8 ventures to proceed to the Stage 2. Our mentors will continue to support the matched teams during the DTL Stage 2. We are looking forward to seeing the ventures and mentors again in June!

Background

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Hong Kong was born entrepreneurial. After a period of dormancy in the 1990s and 2000s, this spirit has once again risen in recent years, reversing the negative trend caused by short-term thinking, a backward mentality, oligopoly, and obsolete institutions.

Now with more inventions, training, and accelerator programs, a new breed of talents, a rapidly growing hinterland, and opportunities in the region, new tech ventures have spouted inside while an equal number of them, if not more, are attracted to set up in Hong Kong. Innovation-driven economy has taken off.

Riding on this trend, deep-tech startups, that provide technology solutions based on substantial scientific or engineering challenges and valuable intellectual property, have drawn interest from investors and policy-makers. See successful deep-tech ventures originated in Hong Kong.

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While Hong Kong has many startup awards and incubation programs, few of them focus on deep-tech ventures. It is high time for Hong Kong to explore new ways to spot more of them and facilitate their success.

Services

Completely free of charge for ventures
Take your business to the next level

Team-based, Objective-oriented Mentorship

Every admitted venture has access to practical and measurable guidance from investors, business leaders, industry experts, technical mentors, and business partners. Unlike other programs, the DTL program takes an objective-based approach. Usually 3 or more mentors will work as a team to nurture the admitted ventures.

An International Networking of Exchange

Mentors of DTL are picked with a nurturing mindset instead of deal-focused. We look for those who served Creative Destruction Lab and those around this region. Networking events, both online and offline, will be held to build a bridge between entrepreneurs and both incubators and investors.

Investment and Go-To-Market Opportunities

We will seek a wide range of investors and sponsors from local and overseas to participate in the DTL program. Investment opportunities will be provided across the whole DTL program. Corporates and consulting firms will supply the platform for product- testing and go-to-market experiments.

Services

Debated, Peer-reviewed Advice

Rather than a mentor dictating a direction for the venture in a one-on-one mentoring design, the peer mentors debate their views and then prioritize the most important things to increase value and de-risk the venture quickly within the incubation period. Besides, meetings will be held for all the admitted ventures, mentors, industry experts and partners. Mentors of each venture will report the progress and upcoming plans on the stage to receive constructive suggestions openly.

Business Support by Elite Business Students

Students from a bespoke MBA course will support the venture and its mentor group. Each venture will be paired with a student to assist venture founders, who are scientists rather than businessmen, to investigate potential markets, find solution for competition, and explore funding options under the guidance of the mentors

Our Team

Our team members bring their unique professional backgrounds and expertise to foster the growth and success of deep-tech ventures in Hong Kong and beyond throughout the program.

Chen FONG

Prof Chen Fong is currently the Professor Emeritus of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary. He is also the Co-Chair of the Global Strategy Board of the Creative Destruction Lab; a platform for mentoring of young entrepreneurs.

Chen has 18 years of experience in the building of start-up entrepreneurial companies and is the co-founder of Pureweb Inc. Current board directorships include Pureweb Inc, Clarius Mobile Health, Cohesic Inc and Innovere Medical. He is active in the community and sits on a number of philanthropic boards in healthcare.

Peter LEE

Peter is a Hong Kong based investor and founder / Chairman of Gallant Investment Partners. Over more than 15 years, Peter has grown Gallant’s investments from simple beginnings to an impressive international portfolio of private equity, venture capital and real estate opportunities.

Peter is also an active member of the alumni UBC Hong Kong Alumni Leadership Committee, providing counsel to the association and UBC to build stronger programs to support alumni in the region.

Johnson CHENG

Mr Johnson Cheng is the founder and partner at Voyager Capital, the VC arm of his family office that focuses on Series A-C AI and enterprise SaaS opportunities across the globe. Their portfolio includes companies like FiscalNote, AutoX, Sonatus, CrowdComfort, Full Truck Alliance, etc.

He also founded Voyager Education, which offers experiment-based science education courses certified by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Prior to founding Voyager, he ran a B2B industrial goods and MRO e-Commerce platform that reached 800K+ members, over 3M SKUs, 186M RMB annual GMV, and a strategic partnership with JD.com (NASDAQ: JD).

He is a member of the Advisory Board of FiscalNote, Board member of the Family Business Network - Asia, member of Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO), and advisor for the Cornell Emerging Markets Institute. He received his B.S. and MBA from Cornell University.

Kevin AU

Prof. Kevin Au co-founded the CUHK Centre for Entrepreneurship and serves as the current Director. He also serves as a director for the Hong Kong Business Angel Network Ltd.(HKBAN), Family Firm Institute (US), and International Study of Entrepreneurship Education Outcomes (ISSEO). He has provided consulting and training for the government and business corporations. His clients include the Central Policy Unit, Hong Kong Cyberport, and a number of business startups and family businesses in Hong Kong. He is an active angel investor on a few startups.

In the capacity as Chairman of the Successful Transgenerational Entrepreneurship Practices (STEP) Project of the Asia Pacific Consortium, he worked with dozens of schools in Asia and Babson College to promote family business research in the region. In the public domain, he is currently member of the Social Enterprise Advisory Committee and the Social Innovation and Enterprise Task Force, a sub-committee of the Commission for Poverty.

Edward WONG

Mr. Edward Wong has worked in various industries for over 18 years, gaining domestic, PRC, and international management experience. In 2009, he co-founded a Hong Kong-based company that operates in fields such as Digital Marketing, eCommerce, and Distribution. Additionally, he serves as the project director of the CUHK Center for Entrepreneurship.

Edward has held management and executive positions at BMW Group, China Travel Service Group, Logwin AG, and Winnington Metal & Plastics, where he was responsible for business development and operations.

Since 2017, Edward has been the VP of the MBA Alumni Association of CUHK, as well as the VP of the Alumni Association of the Graduate School, CUHK. He was also a founding member of the Rotary Club of Shouson Hill, Rotary International, an organization that supports NGOs and social enterprises.

Leona WONG

Ms Leona Wong is a columnist, author of several books on startup founders Hong Kong, and founder of Leona Wong Consultant Limited.

Before running her own agency to advise startups on PR and fundraising matters in 2017, Leona was the Deputy Leader Writer of Hong Kong Economic Times and the Executive Director of Hong Kong Wireless Technology Industry Association (WTIA). She also had experience in startup fundraising.

Leona holds an M.Phil. degree in Communication, Chinese University of Hong Kong. She’s also a graduate of CUHK’s School of Journalism and Communication, minoring in Psychology.

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