Sino Group Supports Innovators From Ideas To Potential Market Adoption

Sino Group is using entrepreneurship support, community trials and industry partnerships to help promising technologies move from development into wider use. Its initiatives are designed to support innovators at different points, from early ideas and business models to technology validation, community testing and possible market adoption.

The approach centres on connecting innovators with universities, communities, businesses and investors when feedback, practical experience and industry relationships can help their ideas gain momentum. The content of this article has been produced by the advertising partner.

Building support around early-stage ideas

Launched in 2011, the HKUST-SINO One Million Dollar Entrepreneurship Competition gives aspiring entrepreneurs access to training, mentorship, investors and industry contacts as they develop technologies and business models. The competition is one part of a wider route intended to help ideas progress beyond the university or early-development stage.

Support continues after the competition through HKUST InnoBay 1M PLUS. The programme gives promising teams access to real-world application scenarios, industry networking, partnership matching and proof-of-concept opportunities as they move from technology validation towards market adoption.

Smart City will be the first theme of HKUST InnoBay 1M PLUS. According to David Ng, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Sino Group, the initiative seeks to connect young ventures with partners across government, industry, academia and the community. It also aims to connect them with businesses and investors that can help promising ideas progress towards application.

“Through the HKUST InnoBay 1M PLUS programme, we hope to connect promising teams with start-ups, industry partners and investors, opening up more opportunities for collaboration, application and commercialisation,” he said. Partners include Samsung Electronics, Cyberport, Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation and the Smart City Consortium.

Companies from the competition’s mainland regional contests will also gain access to Hong Kong’s industry, investment and business networks. That creates a route for teams from those contests to connect with networks beyond the competition itself.

Moving from validation to deployment

The finalists this year illustrated why young companies can require different forms of support as they develop. For Waveity, the immediate task is putting its technology into a full-scale operating environment.

“Our first priority is full-scale deployment because we still need to validate the idea under real-world conditions,” the team said after the competition. “After that, we can potentially look at Hong Kong infrastructure and try to implement the technology here.”

The comments highlight the gap between developing a technology and demonstrating that it can operate in real-world conditions. Prof Carrie Ling, Director of the HKUST Entrepreneurship Centre, said early-stage companies often need time to establish customers, refine products and produce evidence that investors can assess.

Support, therefore, does not end when a technology leaves a university or competition setting. The next challenge can be determining whether the technology works for the people it was designed to serve.

Testing solutions with communities

Impactathon addresses that stage by matching start-ups with community organisations in the Northern Metropolis. The programme enables start-ups to test their solutions with residents and refine them through direct feedback.

More than 50 partners participated in the five-month programme. They included the Northern Metropolis Co-ordination Office, or NMCO, Social Ventures Hong Kong, or SVhk, over 10 start-ups and six local universities.

More than 1,000 residents and stakeholders were engaged during the programme. Seven community partners helped identify local needs before the start-ups worked directly with the people their technologies were intended to serve.

Hong Kong healthtech start-up GOFA had developed a solution using AI to screen older people for fall risk. The solution also provided exercise training, intervention and ongoing monitoring. What the team had lacked was direct access to its intended users.

Through Impactathon, GOFA was paired with the Chinese YMCA of Hong Kong and invited 28 older people to try its solution. After refining the solution through the community trial, GOFA received both the Grand Prize and Most Innovative Award at Impactathon.

For start-ups such as GOFA, direct user feedback can reveal design and usability issues that are difficult to identify during development alone. The community trial provided an opportunity to refine the solution after older people had tried it.

Industry settings and pilot projects

Melanie Kwok, Deputy General Manager for Sustainability and Innovation at Sino Group, said the business sector has an important role in creating settings where emerging technologies can be applied. “What is most important is that the business sector can provide an application setting,” she said.

She added that feedback gathered from operating properties or customers can help start-ups refine their products. Industry connections may also open doors to more opportunities.

Beyond community-based trials, Sino’s property portfolio has served as a testing ground for emerging technologies. Sino Inno Lab provides a platform for proof-of-concept development and pilot projects.

Established in 2018, Sino Inno Lab has engaged more than 800 innovators and supported more than 140 technology solutions. Its role places testing and pilot work alongside the support provided through university programmes, industry networks and community trials.

As a start-up matures, it may need university guidance, industry contacts, community trials and investment at different stages. Access to these networks, user feedback and real-world testing can help promising technologies progress towards wider adoption.

Source: South China Morning Post