Never too old to start up: 70-year-old entrepreneur completes incubation programme for Hong Kong tech companies

The graduation on Monday of the Hong Kong Science Park’s largest incubation programme for technology companies is living proof that you are never too young, or too old, to live your dream.

Seventy-year-old Dr Peter Wai Ming-sau, general manager of DME Microelectronics, was among the 68 entrepreneurs who completed the programme, which provides working space, training, facilities and expert advice to start-ups.

“We want to make microchips for bluetooth so affordable that they can be used for corporate gifts,” said Wai, who spent 50 years working in the United States for companies including Intel and Texas Instruments.

He said he chose to build his business in the Science Park instead of the US because of the facility’s support.

“There is an IC [integrated circuit] centre that we can use, which made this business happen at all,” Wai said. “We have invested HK$50 million in the business, but it may have cost up to US$30 million if we did it in the US.”

After studying at the London School of Economics, Andy Leung, 23, returned to Hong Kong to co-found FreshLinker, a job-pairing website.

“I think Science Park really helped because they have experts who can show us the way and teach us a lot of technical knowledge,” Leung said.