KE Spotlight - Community Engagement - HKU Knowledge Exchange

HKU spin-off artificial intelligence startup closes Series Pre-A round led by Horizons Ventures

Fano Labs, a Hong Kong-based artificial intelligence (AI) startup specialising in speech and natural language processing (NLP) technologies and a spin-off from HKU, raised a Series Pre-A round led by Horizons Ventures. The company was co-founded in 2015 by Dr Miles Wen, a PhD graduate from HKU and Professor Victor O.K. Li, Head of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at HKU. With Fano Labs' technical focus in Chinese dialects processing and analysis, the funds raised will fuel the company's expansion into the billion-dollar Chinese call centre industry, where many of these calls are in various Chinese dialects. As of today, the company has already developed speech and NLP technologies for Cantonese and Sichuanese, in addition to English and Mandarin.

Three HKU teams win at Cyberport University Partnership Programme

Twelve winning teams of the Cyberport University Partnership Programme, including three from HKU, were each awarded an HK$100,000 seed funding and fast-track interview opportunity to the Cyberport Incubation Programme. Twenty-one teams from six local universities competed in the event.

HKU launches Innovation & Entrepreneurship Hub: iDendron

HKU held a launch ceremony on October 23 for iDendron, which serves as a co-working space, event space, and collaborative community for students, staff and alumni and partners. It will facilitate the partnerships of entrepreneurs, innovators and pioneers, through anchor programmes such as DreamCatchers and Entrepreneurship Academy, and with the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation, Hong Kong X-Tech Startup Platform and Cyberport CUPP, etc. Twenty startup teams, led by HKU students and young alumni, have moved in and are working on their projects. The establishment of this innovation and entrepreneurship hub on campus was enabled by the Azalea (1972) Endowment Fund and supported by Sino Group and Stanley Chu.

HKU student develops food recognition mobile app Marketeer

HKU Isreali student Mr Daniel Edelson developed Marketeer, a mobile app that recognises fresh food sold in Hong Kong’s wet markets and traditional shops. He utilised Artificial Intelligence with Machine Learning capabilities for recognition of a wide variety of food. The user can get all the information needed according to his/her health condition, body type, and nutritional goals. The app has got a start-up fund totalling HKD $600,000, from HKU DreamCatchers, Cyberport, IBM and the Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Fund. Mr Edelson plans to upload the app on Android in three months.

HKU graduates' start-up team develops new bone substitute

Novus, a start-up company formed by an HKU Faculty of Medicine PhD graduate with two fellow PhD students and a winning team of the HKU DreamCatchers 100K Entrepreneurship, developed a new bone substitute which can be applied in a variety of bone-related surgical procedures and will soon be tested in animal total hip replacement. The company will partner with CityU's School of Veterinary Medicine to sponsor NGO Paws Guardian free surgeries for stray dogs.

Global Youth Entrepreneurs Forum 2017 takes place at HKU

The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups and HKU DreamCatchers jointly organised a two-day Global Youth Entrepreneurs Forum 2017 attended by over 1,000 young entrepreneurs from 33 countries and regions around the world under the theme "WE THE FUTURE".