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Funding and assistance

Written by angus June 15th, 2007 . Tags: , , , , .

So you have a grand idea of how to make the next great web service or maybe you have a service with a user base already, but want to take it to the next level or think it’s fun to grab a little cash. Luckily in Hong Kong, there are options where you can get assistance and it’s by way of the Hong Kong SAR Government. Sure, everybody would love to grab the millions of dollars from VCs (I have that dream too), but things doesn’t exactly work like that in the real world, not in HK anyway, not yet at least.

Here’s what the HKSARG has to offer, although not guaranteed, which means, you still have to do your homework, write, promote and use your magical powers to get some hard earned cash or packages from them. Currently, I am only aware of three different schemes that are available.

In short and to my understanding, SERAP offers a grant of up to $2 million on a dollar-for-dollar matching basis, in the form of cold cash or manpower. HKSTP and Cyberport both offers some sort of funding and office space for the startups. All are free to applied given you and your team, partners, friends are legal Hong Kong citizens and have a registered business (which is simple to do). Oh did I mention, although it should be a given, that you need to write up some nice little business plan too. So better get the details from their sites and start cracking.

There are startups in Hong Kong that have gone through those programs. Some have graduated and continued their success with additional funding from notable VCs, others are still under their umbrella. In any case, they have took the step and applied. So, if you are reading this and debating whether or not to do it, I hope these resources will help you with your decision.

If there are other HKSARG funds for entrepreneurial startups, please add them to the comments.

Possible related posts:

  • Encourage fellow startup folks to try to apply for SERAP, it's a pretty good matching fund scheme if you have at least some funds for them to match you. Their terms for paying back the amount are pretty reasonable, and the way they pay out the matching funds is fairly helpful (every quarter). Angus and Kli you're right about not accepting manpower as contribution (it's still in their documentation but in practice, seems they wont accept it at all =_=)

    For one or two days worth of documentation and paperwork it's worthwhile to apply, and doing the business plan and forcing yourself to ask the tough questions would be a good exercise as well.

    For the presentation/meeting with assessment panel would be to have a working prototype there, no matter how rough..
  • Kli
    We got both ITF and HKSTP support. SERAP no longer accept manpower as contribution for quite some years, and getting support from ITF nowadays is a very challenging task.

    Alternatively, there is a "Youth Business Hong Kong" program that provides HK$100,000 interest free loan for small startups. Details below:

    http://www.yen.org.hk/ybhk/new/apply.htm
  • Angus,

    I stumbled upon your site which doing some web-search. It has been very informational. I thought most blogger would blog in chinese on web 2.0 or I.T. stuff.

    Anyway, I will be in HK from July onward. If you some kind of start-up meet-up, I wonder can you invite me to tag along? I just want to learn about the HK start-up scene.

    Sam
  • Cyrus Wen
    very comprehensive,

    thanks
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