Budget Speech

Start-ups

105. Hong Kong's start-up ecosystem has become increasingly vibrant, with an increase in the number of start-ups from around 1 100 in 2014 to over 3 300 last year.  Investment from venture capital funds in Hong Kong also increased from $1.24 billion in 2014 to $9.9 billion in 2019, representing an increase of over seven times.  Over the past three years, I&T enterprises in the Science Park and Cyberport have attracted over $41 billion of investment.  Besides, some 600 start-ups are being incubated by the Science Park and Cyberport on top of the nearly 1 300 start-ups already graduated from the programmes.

106. The Innovation and Technology Venture Fund (ITVF) has invested more than $100 million in 19 local start-ups over the past two years, attracting more than $500 million private investment.  The ITVF appointed three new co-investment partners late last year.  We will continue to partner with venture capital funds to invest in local start-ups.

107. In the past three years, the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTPC) has invested over $100 million in 13 technology enterprises through its Corporate Venture Fund, attracting about $1,350 million private investment.  The Cyberport Macro Fund set up by Cyberport also invested more than $120 million in 16 companies, attracting over $860 million private investment.  The HKSTPC and Cyberport will inject $350 million and $200 million into the two Funds respectively and extend their scope to cover Series B and later stage investments.

108. The Technology Start-up Support Scheme for Universities has provided funding of about $120 million to 139 start-ups in the past three years.  Among those start-ups which have benefited from the Scheme since inception, over half of them have launched their products in the market, more than 40 per cent have earned revenue and about 60 per cent have received capital injection from investors with a total amount of some $530 million.