The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has set up the Redbird Innovation Fund, looking to collaborate with investment partners and create a pool of venture investment funds (VIFs) with up to HK$2 billion ($256 million) for financing into startups in its ecosystem.
The HKUST Redbird Innovation Fund (RIF), a HK$500-million ($64 million) initiative, has already received an initial HK$200-million ($25.6 million) commitment from the university as the first tranche, HKUST announced in a statement.
The university is now looking for investment managers to co-establish multiple VIFs in support of its startup ecosystem. One of the RIF’s key objectives is to support startups built by HKUST staff, students, and alumni, as well as companies that commercialise HKUST intellectual properties or are incubated by the university.
This pool of funds will invest in early- to growth-stage, deeptech startups across areas like artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductors and robotics, new materials, energy and sustainability, biomedical, and healthcare.
HKUST said that a management board comprising HKUST members will be set up to devise the investment strategies and the fund’s application criteria with selected fund managers.
HKUST treasurer and council member Stephen Yiu Kin-Wah said that the university looks to work with fund managers to create VIFs of “multi-billion dollars” by leveraging the RIF.
Yiu said that this initiative “perfectly aligns” with the university’s plan to foster strategic collaboration with universities and businesses in the Greater Bay Area. He said that the university also looks to support Hong Kong’s integration into the overall national development and expand connections with regional and global enterprises.
Founded in 1991, HKUST is famed for some of its star professors, including Li Zexiang, who was among the first Chinese to study in the US before returning to teach at this pre-eminent technology university in 1992. Li has groomed a generation of entrepreneurs and set up an incubation academy, funding or nurturing promising startups in robotics and AI, such as DJI, which is now the world’s biggest drone maker.
HKUST offers a range of funding programmes to startups of different development stages. In 2019, the university established the Entrepreneurship Fund (E-Fund), currently managing HK$100 million ($12.8 million) for seed to early-stage startups. As of April 2024, E-Fund has backed 19 companies, which collectively attracted over HK$400 million ($51.2 million) in subsequent funding rounds.