PolyU announced two new funding programs to support tech startups last week, on top of their existing ‘Micro Fund’ and ‘STEFG-PolyU China Entrepreneurship Fund’ – which offers up to $200,000 RMB of funding.
The first is the HKSTP-PolyU Tech Incubation Fund (TIF) and PolyU Tech Launchpad Fund (TLF), which are backed by the Hong Kong Government’s ‘Technology Startup Support Scheme for Universities.’
‘Tech Incubation Fund’ (TIF)
PolyU teams up with Science Park to offer seed funding of HK $100,000 with incubation support and office space – for a total support package worth up to $745,000. Tech startup teams made up of PolyU students, alumni or staff established for less than two years are encouraged to apply.
‘Tech Launchpad Fund’ (TLF)
The TLF is structured as an collaborative program where PolyU and investors will match dollar-for-dollar up to a maximum grant of HK $1 million and applications are open to startups that are currently in, or have graduated from Hong Kong incubation programs such as the PolyU Micro Fund, HKSTPC or Cyberport.
“It’s our vision to further develop funding platforms with collaborating partners as a way to encourage and generate more innovations from our youngers,” said PolyU’s executive vice president Nicholas Yang. “Young people may fail along the line, but we should embrace failure and encourage them to learn, step up and try again.”
So far, successful student run startups such as HKUST’s Sensbeat, HKU’s Launchpilots and PolyU’s Umbrella Here have come onto our radar. The ingenuity of Hong Kong’s student founders have really impressed us and it’s encouraging to see that university’s such as PolyU are actively creating programs to support young entrepreneurs.
As an example of how a little financial support can go a long way, after the ‘STEFG-PolyU China Entrepreneurship Fund’ backed email app MailTime with $200,000 RMB, they went on to launch their startup at TechCrunch’s ‘Startup Battlefield’ stage.
Watch co-founder Heatherm Huang‘s pitch here (while Charlie Sheng gives a live demo!):
