Speech by the Chief Executive Officer at the 3rd International Bio-Computing Innovation Summit (6 November 2026)

Financial Secretary, Wei, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, 

Good morning. It is my great pleasure to join you all at the 3rd International Bio-Computing Innovation Summit organised by BioMap and supported by the HKIC. In the 1st edition of the Summit in 2024, we announced the investment in and partnership with BioMap, as well as the establishment of InnoHub. In the 2nd edition in 2025, we shared the latest technological advancement of BioMap and progress of InnoHub, with achievements including the co-founding of BioGend which is an AI-powered antibody discovery company focused on precision immune modulation as well as the release of the world’s first multimodal Breast-Cancer Tumor-Cell Foundation Model. Here in the 3rd edition of the Summit this year, I am pleased to share that BioMap has continued to do well in supporting the HKIC‘s dual mandate in terms of both financial return and strategic contribution to Hong Kong’s development.

BioMap is a classic example of what the HKIC described as our “point, line and plane” approach for building the financial-cum-innovation & technology ecosystem for Hong Kong. In thise case, we started off by planting the seed in investing in the company i.e. a point. This seed continues to take root and grow in Hong Kong in furthering its business and enabling other companies or grooming new ones in the same or adjacent sectors i.e. sectoral line or lines. Last but not least, with the BioMap-HKIC ecosystem, the flywheel effect of “capital-technology-talent” is not only proven but also getting stronger and faster i.e. plane.

What I mentioned is exactly the new paradigm of investment that the HKIC is committed to, under which each limb of our dual mandate, namely seeking financial return and building long-term strategic benefits to Hong Kong are complementary to each other and mutually reinforcing, rather than competing. For future growth, momentum is important. At the same time, in today’s world, innovation is happening and start-ups are being formed literally everywhere as we we speak. Therefore, momentum needs to couple with moat. This is to strike the right balance between development and security in the midst of geopolitical and market uncertainties noting the cross-cycle, cross-generation nature of our portfolio companies and partners.

This is what made BioMap very topical. With BioMap‘s efforts, life is becoming readable and increasingly programmable. Proteins are a language. Genomes are code. With BioMap‘s foundation AI models like xTrimo, we are learning to read, write and design that code at a scale and speed never possible before. The impacts are extraordinary. On the to-B (business) front, drug discovery that once took a decade can be compressed into a fraction of the time.  Proteins and enzymes can be designed to order, opening new frontiers in green manufacturing, biomaterials and agriculture. On the to-C (customer) side, the distance between a clinical question and a solution is significantly narrowing.

The tangible outcomes speak for themselves. In addition to financial return, for example, the HKUMED-BioMap breast cancer multimodal model from last year has progressed on track, with phase II launching this year; BioMap has deepened its collaboration with Soy-Sky, another HKIC portfolio company around an AI-agricultural breeding platform; and there have been in-depth collaborations with 20+ lead scientists and clinicians.

So what next? The HKIC is very committed to enabling this partnership and playbook of success to compound and be replicated. I am sure BioMap and our other investee companies could testify with their own experience that Hong Kong is a key element of their growing success. Hong Kong‘s world-class capital market supports the different growth stages of companies from venture capital, venture debt, private equity and stock market, and the HKIC is a participant in all these different segments of the market. We invest and also innovate bespoke approaches to support our portfolio companies to access the supply chain and appilcation markets in the Greater Bay Area, the development of the Northern Metropolis, and the HKIC’s efforts in launching the world‘s very first offshore RMB fund focusing on Chinese innovation and technology. In addition, Hong Kong is home to many best-in-class and differentiating niches like “One Country, Two Systems”, rule of law, with regulatory, disclosure, accounting, intellectual property protection and dispute resolution approach in line with and well recognised internationally. The powerful combination of all these becomes secret sauce for success for scientists and entrepreneurs, which just cannot be found in other parts of the world. From world-class and best-in-class, we are ready to further first-in-class. In fact my colleague Joshua is going to moderate a panel with different strategic partners of BioMap on that front.

To close, I would like to congratulate Wei and your team in BioMap not only on this Summit but also how far you have gone in furthering your dream as scientists and entrepreneurs for decoding future biology. On the solid foundation built, the HKIC looks forward to continuing to join hands with you and our audience to contribute to the future of Hong Kong. Thank you.