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Department and Hospital Authority, since it will change the current workflow
and cooperation for prescribing, collecting and distributing medicines.

A different technology which also requires the collaboration of different
stakeholders to implement is the stairs climber, which is produced by
the business sector but requires the NGO sector to conduct the service
which connects the technology to the end-user. Very few NGOs in Hong
Kong provide this service at the moment. Currently many technologies
are put aside due to the lack of collaborations among stakeholders, hence
obstructing the advancement of technology products.

iii. Valley of Death (Gap 9):
There is a lack of support for Hong Kong gerontechnology companies to
overcome a common issue termed the “Valley of Death”. The valley of death
is a funding gap that startups often face in the later stages of prototyping
and throughout the product enhancement stages because venture capitalists
prefer to invest at the later stages of a startup’s business development when
more information is available and the startup faces a lower risk of failure, hence
there is very limited funding input during the initial stages of prototyping from
the private sector. As a result, the lack of funding makes it difficult for startups
to successfully commercialise their business ideas.

Businesses may overcome the valley of death if they acquire sufficient
funding at earlier stages that will last long enough until venture capitals
begin investing, or if venture capitals are willing to invest in the earlier
stages. In the US, there’s a funding scheme called the Small Business
Innovation Research (SBIR) programme, which is a competitive awards-
based programme that helps early stage small businesses aiming to
commercialise technologies cross the valley of death.

In Hong Kong, there is not enough support for startups before they receive
funding from venture capital firms. The closest examples of government
support which helps startups overcome the Valley of Death is the HKD 2
billion that the government earmarked in 2016 for mid-downstream research
but the amount is far from enough. Another example is another HKD 2 billion
for Innovation and Technology Venture Fund set up by the government
separate from the mid-downstream research programme, which aims to
support startups at later stages to encourage more private investment in
local startups by co-investing with the government, but startups would still
have to struggle to survive the Valley of Death since funding is again too
little and too focused on the later stages.

The gerontechnology industry is currently still at a very early stage and the
number of start-ups in this field is also relatively small. These characteristics
make it difficult for startups to get funding, as the funding might go to
startups in more mature and competitive industries. Thus, there is still a lot
of room for improvement in providing funding support, especially from the
private sector, to gerontechnology startups in Hong Kong.

Executive Summary 9