HK Tech 300 National Start-up Competition expands to 12 Mainland cities. Injecting new impetus into the Innovation and Entrepreneurship ecosystem

City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK) held the HK Tech 300 National Start-up Competition (National Competition) 2nd Award Ceremony and the Launch of the 3rd Competition on 1 September at CityUHK (Dongguan). Twelve start-ups from Hong Kong and the nine mainland cities out of 400 participating teams were awarded for their innovative solutions for a wide range of industries, including digital healthcare, energy sustainability and artificial intelligence applications.  The 3rd Competition expands to 12 mainland cities including Dongguan, Hangzhou and Xian for a more robust and wider area innovation development.

At the award ceremony of the 2nd HK Tech 300 National Start-up Competition are Ms Li Jun, Deputy Mayor of the Dongguan Municipal People’s Government (front, third from right), Dr Raymond Leung Siu-hong, CityUHK Council member (front, third from left), Professor Michael Yang Mengsu, CityUHK Senior Vice-President (Innovation and Enterprise) (front, second from right), Professor Lu Chun, CityUHK Vice-President (Mainland Strategy) (front, second from left), and distinguished guests and representatives of the 12 winning start-ups.
Photo credit: City University of Hong Kong

Together with angel funding of up to HK$1 million each, the winning start-ups will receive extensive support, including professional training, business networking and investment matching from the HK Tech 300 ecosystem. The 12 winning start-ups delivered their final pitches at the ceremony. Receiving the Gold Award was Beijing Rising IC Co., Ltd., which focuses on the R&D of chip-level micro-actuators. The judges also unveiled the awards of Silver, Bronze, “Technology Innovation” and “Best Social Impact” (see the winners’ list below).

Presiding over the 2nd Competition Award Ceremony and the Launch of the 3rd Competition was Professor Michael Yang Mengsu, Senior Vice-President (Innovation and Enterprise) of CityUHK. Officiating at the ceremony included Ms Li Jun, Deputy Mayor of the Dongguan Municipal People’s Government. Guests from the 12 mainland cities in the 3rd Competition joined the ceremony, including Mr Chen Xu, Deputy Director of the Chengdu Science and Technology Bureau, and Ms Yang Chan, Deputy Director of the Changsha Science and Technology Bureau and more.

Joining the mainland cities’ representatives to kick off the 3rd HK Tech 300 National Start-up Competition are Ms Li Jun, Deputy Mayor of the Dongguan Municipal People's Government (seventh from right), and Professor Michael Yang Mengsu, CityUHK Senior Vice-President (Innovation and Enterprise) (seventh from left).
Photo credit: City University of Hong Kong
Professor Michael Yang Mengsu, CityUHK Senior Vice-President (Innovation and Enterprise), delivered a speech during the ceremony.
Photo credit: City University of Hong Kong

Professor Yang congratulated the award winners, saying, “Technology should be used by people and should be able to contribute to social development.

CityUHK will continue to synergise the strengths and resources of Hong Kong and the mainland through HK Tech 300, translating the University’s research achievements into innovative solutions to tackle pressing challenges in Hong Kong, the mainland and the rest of the world,” said Professor Yang. “We aim to build a more robust start-up ecosystem on both sides to further bolster the development of Hong Kong as an international I&T hub and inject new impetus into the country’s ‘new quality productive forces’.”

Ms Li Jun, Deputy Mayor of the Dongguan Municipal People's Government (fifth from left), and Professor Lu Chun, CityUHK Vice-President (Mainland Strategy) (fifth from right), at the plaque-unveiling ceremony of the City University of Hong Kong (Dongguan) Technology and Innovation Center. Photo credit: City University of Hong Kong

CityUHK organised its first National Competition in June 2022 and launched the second one in mid-July 2023, covering nine clusters in the mainland: Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Shenzhen Chengdu, Changsha, Qingdao, Suzhou and Wuxi. The third competition will be expanded to 12 cities, including Dongguan, Hangzhou and Xian, and allow start-ups from Hong Kong to join the competition, further promoting innovation and talent collaboration.

At the same event, CityUHK co-hosted the plaque-unveiling ceremony of the “City University of Hong Kong (Dongguan) Technology and Innovation Center” (the Center). The Center will take advantage of CityUHK’s world-class research capabilities and Dongguan’s industrial superiority to establish a university–industry integrated innovation system. The Center will form a bridge between Dongguan and Hong Kong to support HK Tech 300 start-ups to set up and develop in Dongguan, attracting outstanding start-ups from at home and abroad. This will foster the innovation, entrepreneurship and industrial development of the two cities, thereby enhancing the international competitiveness of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

“CityUHK is a bridge to synergise the innovative resources of Dongguan and Hong Kong.  It enhances the collaboration of Hong Kong’s scientific research achievements with Dongguan’s strengths in research, industry support and costs. This fosters a more robust environment for technological collaboration, nurtures and supports more innovative talent and projects, and encourages cultural exchanges between Hong Kong and the mainland.” Ms Li said.

The HK Tech 300 National Start-up Competition 2nd Award Ceremony and the Launch of the 3rd Competition was one of celebratory events of the Grand opening of CityUHK (Dongguan).

The 12 winning start-ups:

Start-up Introduction

Beijing Rising IC Co., Ltd.


Gold Award,Technology Innovation Award

Rising IC focuses on the research and development of piezoelectric materials and the industrialisation of high-precision micro-actuators, which provide ultra-high-precision control for lithography machines and laser communication alignment systems between low-orbit satellites. Only two overseas companies in the world possess this technology. The micro-actuators are also used for mobile phone lens control and are currently supplied to the top three mobile phone manufacturers. No other domestic company can offer a similar solution, and the market for micro-actuators used in mobile phones is worth hundreds of billions of dollars. The micro-actuators can also be used in lenses for automobiles, drones and robots. The company has secured investment from Samsung Group and seed fund support from Tsinghua University.
The piezoelectric micro-actuators also have applications in GPU cooling and energy-saving (NVIDIA is a core client of the company), the medical field, and haptic feedback applications in the metaverse, with a market scale that could reach trillions.
Applications in lithography machines and low-orbit satellites are part of the national strategic direction, and medical and mobile applications align with the goal of promoting health and well-being, further contributing to the country and society through the company’s technology. Rising IC has now achieved mass production of chip-level piezoelectric micro-actuators and high-precision control applications for various lenses, establishing itself as a leader in high-precision control and rapidly developing into a unicorn company.

CityUHK Patent Used:Method of Controlling a Drive System, a Controller for Controlling a Drive System, a Drive System and an Assembly Comprising a Controller, a Drive System and a Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor
Inventors:Shen Yajing, Lu Haojian

Deephytec Co., Ltd.

 Deephytec is committed to the miniaturisation technology and industrialisation of high-temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells (HT-PEMFCs). It has completely independent intellectual property ownership of HT-PEMFC metallic bipolar plate fabrication technology, as well as HT-PEMFC membrane electrode assembly mass production technology.
Deephytec’s technology can significantly enhance the specific power of HT-PEMFC stacks, thereby meeting the performance requirements for applications including aerial, ground, surface and underwater mobile transport vehicles, as well as backup power systems.
This technology significantly lowers the requirements for the purity of hydrogen fuel. This makes the application of reformed hydrogen-rich gaseous fuels from methanol and other green liquid fuels practical and could significantly reduce the cost of hydrogen storage and transportation, thus achieving the low-cost application of fuel cell technology.

 

CityUHK Patent Used：An adsorbent for CO2 capture from N2 or CH4*
Inventors:Shang Jin, Sun Mingzhem, Wang Tianqi

Fresnel Instrumentation (Shenzhen) Limited

 Fresnel Instrumentation (Shenzhen) Limited specialises in precision measurement based on electron optics and instrumentation engineering. It is committed to providing internationally leading-edge scientific instruments, such as scanning transmission electron microscopes, correlative multi-scale environmental microscopes, and customised technical support and testing services for universities, enterprises and research institutions worldwide. The company includes top-tier innovative talent in the research and engineering fields from Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and aims to establish a leading manufacturing base for high-end precision instruments in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA).
The company is benefiting from the world-class academic environment in cross-disciplinary research and innovation talent cultivation at City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK) and the CityU Shenzhen Futian Research Institute (currently called the CityU Matter Research Institute (Futian)). Led by its technological research and development, the company is focusing on manufacturing, producing and innovating compact/classic pulsed hollow-cone aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopes and correlative multi-scale environmental microscopes to meet demand in the semiconductor industry, biomedical industry and materials science research sector. With its world-class integrated industry-academia-research team, along with collaborative efforts across the GBA, the company is poised for significant growth. Building on over 30 years of technological achievements of Professor Chen Fu-Rong's team at CityUHK, the company aims to establish an integrated base for industry, academia and research that represents world-class production levels of electron-optical precision instruments within the next three to five years.

 

CityUHK Patent Used：Electron Gun and Apparatus Incorporating the Same
Inventors:Chen Fu-Rong, Hsueh Yu-Chun, Li Pei-En, Tsang Ying-Shuo

Hunan Hefu Culture Technology Co., Ltd.

 Hefu Technology is a technology enterprise that focuses on artificial intelligence (AI), machine vision and edge computing technology. Benefiting from years of the team’s technical accumulation and industrial practical experience, the company is committed to providing customers with full-stack solutions integrating software and hardware in the industrial field.
The company focuses on the research and development of industrial intelligent manufacturing and embedded terminal equipment. Its products and services cover the complete chain, from underlying hardware to numerous applications, including:
• A high-performance machine vision engine: Using advanced image processing and deep-learning technology to achieve rapid and accurate identification and analysis of complex environments;
• Edge intelligent terminal: Combined with edge computing technology, providing low-latency, highly reliable data-processing capabilities to support real-time decision-making and control;
• Multi-machine cooperative intelligent system: Developing a multi-machine cooperative intelligent terminal to achieve efficient collaboration and job scheduling in complex scenarios.
The company will continue to deepen its research in the field of AI, machine vision and edge computing, and expand application scenarios to bring smarter and more efficient solutions to people from all walks of life. With technological advances and the growth in market demand, the company will usher in greater development opportunities.

 

CityUHK Patent Used：Method for Generating Multi-view Images from a Single Image*
Inventors:Peter Tsang Wai-ming

LMBO Medical Technology Development (Suzhou) Co., Ltd.


Bronze Award,Best Social Impact Award		 LMBO’s vision is to solve the current international pain points of viral and bacterial transfusion-transmitted infections and to achieve transfusion safety.
Based on a patent invented by Dr Lu Maomin, Co-Founder of LMBO, the company developed a plasma/platelet component pathogen inactivation system (including a plasma/platelet component pathogen inactivation light cabinet and disposable medical plasma/platelet virus inactivation transfusion equipment). The loss rate of plasma active ingredients is lower than the international standard, filling the domestic gap, and is at a world-leading level.
The company built a 3000 m2 GMP-standard production plant in Zhangjiagang. The plasma component pathogen inactivation system products have been tested in the Shenzhen Medical Device Testing Center, and the platelet component pathogen inactivation system was submitted for testing in August. The product is expected to obtain four domestic Class III medical device registration certificates before December 2025 and continues to actively pursue CE certification. In 2023, the company won the Zhangjiagang City Leading Talent Award and was awarded RMB 9 million from the Zhangjiagang Government project special support fund. LMBO completed RMB 20 million Series A financing at a pre-money valuation of RMB 85 million.
Blood component pathogen inactivation is a highly anticipated product in the industry. The industry threshold is high, the competition track is narrow, and it relies on customer satisfaction and customer relationships of the associated companies, as well as stable sales channels. The company will focus on the Chinese market (targeting a 70% market share), while actively exploring the international market. LMBO aims to achieve a net profit of over RMB 30 million in 2026 and over RMB 100 million in 2028, and to complete an IPO.

 

CityUHK Patent Used：一種滅菌型塗層前體及其制法和應用*
Inventors:Yao Xi, Hou Changshun

Shanghai Fuelture Energy Co., Ltd.

 Shanghai Fuelture Energy Technology Co., Ltd. is a cutting-edge enterprise deeply engaged in the field of green energy. Through continuous innovation in composite materials and electrochemical materials technology, it promotes the green transformation of the global energy structure. The company focuses on developing independent distributed green energy products, especially fuel cell systems using methanol as fuel, to provide efficient, clean and economical energy solutions for global users, help address climate change challenges and promote sustainable development. The company's methanol fuel cell independent uninterruptible power supply has entered the market promotion stage and has been successfully applied in multiple demonstration projects, gaining strong recognition from users. It has continuously optimised product performance, enhanced the user experience, and actively expanded domestic and international markets to accelerate the commercialisation process of its products.
Since its establishment, the company has won widespread attention and praise from the industry due to its outstanding technical strengths and innovation capabilities. The company has obtained multiple rounds of venture capital, significantly strengthening its financial position. The company has been selected for multiple well-known incubation programs at the national and global levels, providing strong support for its rapid development.

 

CityUHK Patent Used：Method for Surface Modification of Nanoparticles
Inventors:Wand Feng, Kong Wei, Sun Tianying

Shenzhen Hua Han Biotechnology Co., Ltd.

 Hua Han Biotech, a vanguard of innovation in the field of medical devices, is dedicated to innovative research and development and practical applications of bio-welding technology. The company has assembled a team of top experts from various disciplines, including clinical medicine, biomedical science, automated equipment and informatics, to jointly create a high-tech R&D platform that integrates multiple disciplines. Armed with its proprietary intellectual property, Hua Han Biotech developed a revolutionary multifunctional biological welding instrument for surgical use, resulting in benefits such as reduced operating time, minimal bleeding and swift recovery. This innovative achievement breaks through numerous limitations of traditional surgical techniques and offers an innovative solution for the implementation of minimally invasive surgery and rapid patient rehabilitation. Through continuous technological innovation, Hua Han Biotech is committed to promoting the construction of a welding biology system and leading the global development trend of bio-welding technology, to have a profound impact on the global medical industry. The vision of Hua Han Biotech is to provide safer and more efficient medical solutions for patients through unremitting technological progress, while providing medical professionals with more advanced surgical tools to jointly usher in a new era of medicine.

 

CityUHK Patent Used：一種滅菌型塗層前體及其制法和應用*
Inventors:Yao Xi, Hou Changshun

Sino Thermal Control Technology (Suzhou) Co., Ltd.

 Sino Thermal Control Technology (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. is a start-up company specialising in the in-depth development of temperature control technology and shape memory alloy (SMA) materials.
The company’s main goal is to provide efficient and reliable temperature control solutions to meet the needs of different industries through innovation, research and development. Its flagship product is deflectable bending electrically controlled guidewire made of SMA wire, which can be widely used in the field of minimally invasive medical procedures. The SMA electrically controlled deflectable catheter guidewire is the most cutting-edge auxiliary device in minimally invasive interventional surgery. The release of this technology is a domestic first, and it is on par with that of its international counterparts. The development of the SMA electrically controlled deflectable catheter guidewire is novel, advanced and original. As a result, Sino Thermal Control Company has been granted two invention patents and two utility model patents. This technology can alleviate patient pain, reduce the difficulty and intensity of surgery for doctors, shorten surgery time, and improve hospital operating room utilisation rates.

 

CityUHK Patent Used：一種超分子聚合物、自修復疏油塗層及其制備方法與應用
Inventors:Yao Xi, Yi Bo

Suzhou Qiguang Shenghuo Technology Co., Ltd.

 Suzhou Qiguang Shenghuo Technology Co., Ltd., established in January 2024, is located in Suzhou City, Jiangsu province. It offers the first domestic solution to the technical problems of silicon-based optical computing chips, achieving domestic substitution in the entire industry chain and reaching the leading international level.
With pioneering technology in the field of integrated optoelectronics and the world's leading photonic logic computing research and development team, the company is committed to providing its clients with solutions for computing power transition in the post-Moore's Law era, enabling the era of AI intelligence. The company has R&D bases in the University of Science and Technology Beijing and the Institute of Semiconductors of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and has four types of customisable products, including optical computing core chips, which integrate photon filtering, optical logic operation, all-optical regeneration and other functions to achieve 8-channel aliasing integration. The computing speed can reach more than 100Gbps, reaching the advanced international level. The company launched optical computing supporting core devices, including lasers and a thin film lithium niobate modulator, which have been successfully applied to satellite communications to assist in the integration of optical computers. The company has core independent intellectual property rights, has applied for more than 20 invention patents, has published more than 20 high-level papers, and has been involved in nearly 10 key research and development programs of the Ministry of Science and Technology, all of which are closely related to high-speed optoelectronic devices. It has been involved in many projects with enterprises such as the Suzhou Nano Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Zhongji Xuchuang, with revenue of hundreds of millions of yuan.

 

CityUHK Patent Used：Doped Polymetric Optical Waveguide Amplifiers
Inventors:Edwin Pun Yue Bun, Polis Wong Wing Han

Taikangnuo Biotechnology Limited

 Taikangnuo (TKN) Biotech is a digital biomedical company incubated as a seed funding team by HK Tech 300 of City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK).
The team comprises PhD and postdoctoral fellows from the Department of Neuroscience of CityUHK. TKN developed AnimismTM, a multimodal Al large model cloud platform focusing on the recognition and analysis of behavioural representations of brain diseases.
The company has more than 10 automated behavioural analysis modules, covering multiple fields, such as lab animals, pets, livestock and patients. It has global clients and is cooperating with many medical institutions.

 

CityUHK Patent Used：Video-Based Automated Recognition Of Epileptic Seizure in Rodents in Home Cages
Inventors:He Jufang, Ren Junming, Xiao Zhoujian, Yang Yujie, Zhang Yujia, Micky Tortorella, Che Lijia, He Ling, Yoon Ezra Ginn, Zhang Mengfan

Wuxi BEWIS Microelectronics LLC

Wuxi BEWIS Microelectronics Company is a high-tech start-up focusing on the field of intelligent driving. Leveraging its deep expertise in inertial chips and packaging microsystems, the company is dedicated to breaking through industry technological barriers. Its core product is a high-precision six-axis IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) chip, used in satellite navigation to achieve tightly coupled integrated navigation, meeting precise positioning needs under complex environmental conditions. In terms of technological innovation,
Wuxi BEWIS Microelectronics has mastered core technologies such as 8-inch line production processes, low-noise analogy-digital hybrid circuit design, and high-stability packaging processes, providing an ideal combination of cost-effective, high-performance products. In particular, the company's products have reached industry-leading levels in temperature compensation and shock resistance, complying with AECQ-100 standards and ASIL-B requirements.
The company successfully launched products integrating System on Chip (SOC) and GIP100 algorithms, significantly improving navigation accuracy and stability. The team has also made breakthrough progress in miniaturising BeiDou-inertial integrated navigation microsystems and developing high-dynamic MEMS inertial devices, leading the development of industry technology. Looking to the future, Wuxi BEWIS Microelectronics will continue to deepen its technological research and development, optimise product performance and accelerate market expansion. Working together with its industry partners, it will promote the development of intelligent driving technologies and contribute to human travel safety and convenience.

CityUHK Patent Used: A Near-Field Optical Nano-Scale 3D Imaging Method *
Inventors:Li Wenjung, Zhang Guanglie, Chen Meng

Zhuhai MOORE TECH Co., Ltd.
Silver Award

Moore Tech has developed a new generation of AI-driven, new energy biometric digital chips. It is the only company in the country that has successfully industrialised this technology, addressing critical technical challenges and filling a significant domestic gap by replacing foreign chips. Its chips are utilised in 3D biometric security fingerprint sensors and handheld ultrasound devices and feature Internet of Things capabilities, supporting applications such as biometric identification bank cards and haptic feedback in the metaverse.
Currently, its most important application involves the non-destructive testing of power batteries, which is set to become standard in every new energy vehicle, enabling safety monitoring in the Internet of Vehicles. Its technology is also used to monitor energy-storage systems, tapping into a trillion-dollar market. Its chips also have versatile applications in areas such as automotive active safety, underwater detection, robotic ranging, lens cleaning, LiDAR control and printer heads.
Moore Tech is already supplying ultrasonic non-destructive testing systems to BYD and CATL, and handheld ultrasound device probes using its chips to Mindray Medical. It is gradually developing its own complete machine systems, with the vision of handheld ultrasound devices soon in every household. Its current client base includes industry leaders such as GE, BYD, CATL, Mindray Medical, BOE and Huawei. With strong momentum, Moore Tech is on track to achieve a market valuation in the billions. It has received support from the Zhongguancun Science City Seed Fund and secured second place in the National Maker China Finals.

CityUHK Patent Used: System and Method for Photoacoustic Imaging and Ultrasound Imaging
Inventors:Wang Lidai, Zhang Yachao