Bulletin Autumn‧Winter 1999

Spinning Research to a Different Plane: Technology Transfer by Spin-off Companies Three Examples Since the mid-90s, many of the University's technology inventions have been transferred through spin-off companies. Examples include Wisers Information Ltd., IXTech Ltd., and Montimedia Co. Ltd. These companies have all found business partners or attracted external investment, w i t h the University gradually relinquishing equity and management control. The latter two are now completely independent, and the University's involvement in Wisers has been reduced to the bare minimum. The technologies transferred were respectively Intelligent Processing of Chinese (IPOC), The Chinese University Broadband Internet Exchange (CUBIX), and Montage. A l l three originated f r om research projects conducted at the Faculty of Engineering. The researchers and students involved i n the projects realized their commercial potential and felt it wo u ld be a great loss if it were not realized. After discussing w i t h the University, they set up companies and obtained license for the inventions to start their own businesses. The HKSAR government established the Applied Research Fund i n 1993 to encourage the establishment of local hi-tech companies. In 1998, it injected a further HK$750 mi l l i on into the f und and selected three international venture capital companies to be responsible for managing the portfolio. Wisers Information Ltd. received an investment of US$1 million from Walden International Investment Group, one of the three venture capital companies, i n September this year, becoming the first spin-off among Hong Kong's tertiary institutions to have received funding indirectly from the Applied Research Fund. Technology Transfer