From generative AI to green energy, 15 finalist teams will take the stage after a record 390 teams entered this year's competition.
Updated
October 2, 2026 9:13 AM
Entrance Piazza, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. PHOTO: HKUST
The HKUST-Sino Million Dollar Entrepreneurship Competition 2026 will hold its finals on October 12, following a record 390 teams from 24 countries and regions taking part in this year's competition.
Jointly organised by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) and Sino Group, the competition aims to give young entrepreneurs a platform to develop and present their ideas. Sino Group Deputy Chief Executive Officer Wong Wing-lung said the Group has partnered with HKUST for many years to support young talent and the development of innovation and technology in Hong Kong.
He said the competition gives young entrepreneurs a platform to showcase their creativity, exchange ideas and put their concepts into practice.
The international participation is reflected in the universities and regions represented this year. Participants include students from the University of Oxford in the UK, the University of Pennsylvania in the US and the National University of Singapore. Teams have also joined from Australia and South Africa.
After multiple rounds of assessment, 15 teams have advanced to the finals. Their projects cover health technology, generative AI, smart buildings, and green energy management. At the finals, the teams will present their solutions to a judging panel comprising venture capital investors, industry leaders and academic experts. They will compete for more than HK$1 million in prizes and awards.
The 2026 competition has also expanded the areas it recognises. Three new awards have been introduced this year: the Transformative AI Award, the NextGen Biotech Award and the Societal Influential Award. The competition will also continue to offer the Sustainability Impact Award. Together, the awards focus on areas ranging from emerging technologies to social and sustainability challenges.
The organisers are also adding new activities to help teams develop their ideas further. This year's programme includes pitching skills training, AI workshops, investor matching sessions and mentorship opportunities. The AI workshops will cover areas including generative AI and AI agents, while representatives from venture capital firms such as Gobi Partners and InnoAngel Fund have been invited to share insights on fundraising, product positioning and market expansion.
These activities are intended to help young entrepreneurs strengthen their business plans and presentation skills. They also give teams opportunities to explore technology commercialisation and potential market applications.
The competition will also launch the InnoBay 1M PLUS Program during the Grand Final. The programme will focus initially on Smart City Development and aims to connect HKUST start-ups and competition alumni with industry partners. It will also support potential proof-of-concept opportunities and help promising innovations move towards commercial adoption.
The Grand Final will also include an audience voting segment. Members of the public will be able to vote for the team they believe has the greatest potential and impact, with those who correctly vote for an eventual winning team entering a lucky draw.
For Wong, the competition is part of a broader effort to develop Hong Kong's innovation and technology talent. He noted that Hong Kong's first Five-Year Plan and latest Policy Address both highlight innovation, technology and talent development.
Prof. Tim Cheng Kwang-Ting, HKUST's Vice-President for Research and Development, said the competition has also served as a platform for aspiring entrepreneurs to connect with investors, understand market needs, test their ideas and gain practical entrepreneurial experience. He added that the competition has strengthened its training, mentorship and networking activities this year.
The Group believes that closer cooperation between industry, academia and research institutions can help turn innovative ideas into practical applications. Through the competition and its wider support programmes, young entrepreneurs are given opportunities to develop their ideas, connect with potential partners and explore how they can be taken from early concepts towards real-world applications.
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Bindwell is testing a simple idea: use AI to design smarter, more targeted pesticides built for today’s farming challenges.
Updated
January 8, 2026 6:33 PM
Researcher tending seedlings in a laboratory environment. PHOTO: FREEPIK
Bindwell, a San Francisco–based ag-tech startup using AI to design new pesticide molecules, has raised US$6 million in seed funding, co-led by General Catalyst and A Capital, with participation from SV Angel and Y Combinator founder Paul Graham. The round will help the company expand its lab in San Carlos, hire more technical talent and advance its first pesticide candidates toward validation.
Even as pesticide use has doubled over the last 30 years, farmers still lose up to 40% of global crops to pests and disease. The core issue is resistance: pests are adapting faster than the industry can update its tools. As a result, farmers often rely on larger amounts of the same outdated chemicals, even as they deliver diminishing returns.
Meanwhile, innovation in the agrochemical sector has slowed, leaving the industry struggling to keep up with rapidly evolving pests. This is the gap Bindwell is targeting. Instead of updating old chemicals, the company uses AI to find completely new compounds designed for today’s pests and farming conditions.
This vision is made even more striking by the people leading it. Bindwell was founded by 18-year-old Tyler Rose and 19-year-old Navvye Anand, who met at the Wolfram Summer Research Program in 2023. Both had deep ties to agriculture — Rose in China and Anand in India — witnessing up close how pest outbreaks and chemical dependence burdened farmers.
Filling the gap in today’s pesticide pipeline, Bindwell created an AI system that can design and evaluate new molecules long before they hit the lab. It starts with Foldwell, the company’s protein-structure model, which helps map the shapes of pest proteins so scientists know where a molecule should bind. Then comes PLAPT, which can scan through every known synthesized compound in just a few hours to see which ones might actually work. For biopesticides, they use APPT, a model tuned to spot protein-to-protein interactions and shown to outperform existing tools on industry benchmarks.
Bindwell isn’t selling AI tools. Instead, the company develops the molecules itself and licenses them to major agrochemical players. Owning the full discovery process lets the team bake in safety, selectivity and environmental considerations from day one. It also allows Bindwell to plug directly into the pipelines that produce commercial pesticides — just with a fundamentally different engine powering the science.
At present, the team is now testing its first AI-generated candidates in its San Carlos lab and is in early talks with established pesticide manufacturers about potential licensing deals. For Rose and Anand, the long-term vision is simple: create pest control that works without repeating the mistakes of the last half-century. As they put it, the goal is not to escalate chemical use but to design molecules that are more precise, less harmful and resilient against resistance from the start.