With the increasing awareness of depression and other psychological disorders across the developed world—not to mention growing rates of stress, pressure and burnout—accurate screening methods have become a critical unmet need within the medical community.
Hong Kong start-up AniTech aims to fill this gap by pioneering an AI-driven depression screening solution. Using advanced analysis of brain scan data, the technology rapidly identifies people with latent (undiagnosed) depression, enabling early intervention and treatment.
In recognition of this breakthrough, the company was named one of the winners of the 2025 Start-up Express programme organised by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC). The start-up also won the My Favourite Start-up Award based on audience votes at the final pitching event.
Closing the diagnostic gap
Founded in 2021, the company’s first major innovation was a drug screening platform that combined advanced brain scanning (electroencephalogram or EEG) analytics with pre-clinical animal studies to predict drug toxicity, efficacy and safety as an early stage. This bespoke solution significantly reduced reliance on traditional animal testing and substantially decreased the use of laboratory animals in drug development.
Based on this initial success, the company established a research base at the Cyberport technology park in 2024. The lab builds upon over 20 years of research by Professor Ma Chi-him, Director of the Laboratory Animal Research Centre and Professor of Neuroscience at City University of Hong Kong, alongside his partners. Professor Ma completed his PhD in Neuroscience at the University of Oxford before undertaking postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School.
From this promising start, the firm turned its attention to depression screening in response to some alarming research findings: individuals with depression face a mortality risk twice that of non-depressed individuals and their likelihood of suicide is almost ten times higher. However, timely access to effective treatment can dramatically improve survival rates.
Beginning in 2023, the company focused its research efforts on depression and collected brain scan data from 430 patients diagnosed with depression aged between 14 and 65 across multiple regions, including the United States, Canada, Iran and the Chinese Mainland.
AniTech Chief Executive Officer Liu Baozhen explained that data from 390 patients was used to train the AI system, while the remaining 40 was deployed in testing and validation. Remarkably, the system achieved a screening accuracy of 90%, she noted.
Ms Liu further explained that current methods for diagnosing and screening depression rely mainly on lengthy interview questionnaires, often running to nearly a hundred pages. This approach is not only time-consuming but also vulnerable to inaccuracies based on the interviewer’s subjective impressions.
In contrast, AniTech’s AI screening platform only requires brain scan data to classify depression within 10 minutes, enabling greater precision in triaging and assisting clinicians to formulate appropriate treatment plans.
“In using brain scan data instead of patient self-reporting, the system provides objective and credible measures. The team is now expanding its research by collecting brainwave data from 1,000 patients aged between 8 and 12 years who have been diagnosed with depression. The brain signal characteristics of this age group have distinct features, which can be further researched and modelled to enhance the application and accuracy of the screening model for younger patients.”
Raising capital for expansion
Looking ahead, the company plans to raise US$1 million (HK$7.78 million) to fund the development and launch of its AI-MDD product. In the next phase, it aims to secure US$4 million (HK$31 million) to establish a Good Laboratory Practice (GLP)-compliant laboratory with the overall aim of enhancing research capability and efficiency.
Depression screening is only the beginning according to Ms Liu. Future applications of brain scan analysis could encompass detecting other disorders such as epilepsy, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, opening up a wide range of potential use cases.
At present, the company is already conducting clinical trials with partners in Hong Kong and the mainland. The start-up plans to leverage HKTDC’s global network of 51 branch offices to expand operations into the Chinese Mainland within 1 year, and to the EU, US and the Middle East within 2 years, seeking collaborations with global healthcare partners to drive continued innovation and progress.
Launched in 2017, HKTDC’s Start-up Express assists young enterprises in exploring new markets, building partnerships and increasing brand awareness through training workshops, mentoring, marketing activities, promotional exposure and networking opportunities.