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Phase Scientific began as a spin-off from Chiu’s PhD research in bioengineering at University of California, Los Angeles. After founding the company in 2015, he moved its headquarters to his native Hong Kong in 2017, building a presence across the Greater Bay Area and the US to leverage each region’s strengths in research, manufacturing and commercialisation.

Backed by the Gates Foundation, Phase Scientific initially focused on early cancer detection until the Covid-19 pandemic became a defining turning point. Witnessing the public’s fear and confusion, Chiu swiftly pivoted to develop a rapid test for the virus. “The public was panicking,” he says. “It wasn’t going to be a treatment but at least knowing if you have Covid allows you to get treated. I saw it as an immediate solution for society.” At the height of the outbreak, the company ramped up production of its kit to 50 million sets per month to meet surging demand.

A self-described “nerdy scientist”, Chiu soon realised that scientific breakthroughs alone were not enough to sustain a biotech company—they had to address real-world needs. It wasn’t just about dedicating resources to research but also about strengthening the commercial pipeline to ensure sufficient capital to keep the company afloat and drive innovation.

Since then, Chiu has become more strategic in encouraging market adoption of his products. For example, general practitioners will be among the main adopters of its HPV test. The company is backing the product with robust clinical evidence, including a large-scale study involving 17,000 eligible women led by Peking University Shenzhen Hospital. Launched in September, the trial will evaluate the test’s clinical performance.

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In May, Phase Scientific secured a US$34 million Series A funding round led by Value Partners Group, reportedly the largest in Asia’s diagnostic tech sector since 2019. The milestone took time. “I came back to Hong Kong eight years ago and, since then, my primary job has been looking for funding for the company,” Chiu says. He attributes the successful round partly to his sharpened business acumen and partly to the evolving investment landscape post-Covid. “In Hong Kong, venture capitalists tend to expect a return from each company they invest in within a year,” he says. Yet tech companies require time for scientific research, product development and market adoption at scale. “The momentum is changing: investors now understand that the world trend is moving towards deep tech.”

The new capital will fuel Chiu’s broader vision of “healthcare 2.0”, a future where individuals take proactive ownership of their health, supported by accessible diagnostics. “With technological advancements, everyone should have access to better healthcare and be able to manage their own health data, and understand their physical situation before it escalates into something critical,” he says. Using cancer as an example, he imagines a world where early, affordable detection transforms the disease from a fatal condition into a manageable chronic one. His goal is ambitious yet simple: to make everyone healthy.

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Here, we ask Chiu a round of quick-fire questions to get to know the scientist behind Phase Scientific.

If you weren’t building your start-up today, what would you be doing instead?
Ricky Chiu (RC): I can’t think of anything else I would do. I guess I’d go into teaching because my whole family is in education.

You mentioned that you read a lot of books when you were a kid. What is one book you would recommend?
RC: The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins really opened my mind. It’s an inspiring book for anyone interested in biology.

What’s one factor that can make or break a start-up?
RC: The founder’s mindset. You need to be open-minded, optimistic and always learning. You never have all the information or knowledge, so you must keep improving continuously.

What’s one quality you absolutely look for in an investor?
RC: We need to share a similar vision. We can’t really be partners if they’re just chasing revenue or short-term results.

If you ask basketball players like LeBron James, they’ll say that if you only focus on the stats, you won’t become great. But if you become great, the stats will follow naturally.

It’s the same for us: if you focus on the patient and create a product everyone needs, business success will come anyway. Stay true to what you set out to do.

Now, meet other Gen.T Leaders of Tomorrow shaping the future of Asia. 

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