What happened?
- Singapore Week of Innovation & Technology was launched in Singapore at the end of October this year. National Development Council (NDC), Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE), and the Ministry of Economic Affairs' Startup Terrace led 27 Taiwanese potential startups to participate in the exhibition. The Taiwan Pavilion was set up by the national startup brand, Startup Island TAIWAN, to show Taiwan's strong strengths.
- Four Taiwanese teams made it to the Top 50 in SWITCH's startup competition SLINGSHOT with 4,700 entries worldwide—namely AP PLASMA, Avalanche Computing, Cooby, and Taichimetal Material Technology. AP Plasma even made it to the top 10.
- NDC selected four other teams as NEXT BIG Stars of Tomorrow, namely FunNow, Gogolook, CyCraft, and Tron Future Tech, which are expected to become unicorns in the future due to their outstanding performance in innovation, market potential, and industry insights.
- It's the first time Taiwan set up the Taiwan Pavilion at SWITCH, featuring Digital Transformation Solutions, Enterprise Enabling Technologies, and Social Impact Tech, which attracted enterprises and investment organizations from Singapore, Vietnam, the United States, Japan, Korea, India, Australia, and Saudi Arabia.
What are the tangible benefits of the Taiwan Pavilion at SWITCH?
- Connecting with overseas investors:
- Jmem Technology Circuit Design Engineer Jeffrey Wu shared that he met several VCs focusing on software and semiconductors, and the response was quite good. Due to the limited time of the exhibition, they all had an appointment to talk again later, and some even started to review their investment plans.
- Oeo Yu, co-founder of 3Drens, explained that during the conversation with VCs, he found that both are the future trends in digital transformation, whether software solutions or software plus IoT hardware solutions. He has successfully made appointments with a few VCs for follow-up discussions.
- Cooperate with overseas suppliers and system integrators:
- Shen Sheng-Yao, Chief Data Officer of iAMBITION TECHNOLOGY, said that he had met many partners of the same ecosystem at the exhibition, such as suppliers of radar chips and technology suppliers that assisted in image retrieval.
- IsCoolLab application engineer Chen Jing-Rong pointed out that the number of SI factories came to negotiate higher than expected, not only the technical director of the door to understand, Singapore has a similar need for numerous system vendors, and will be followed by further meetings.
- Find overseas partners and potential customers:
- Chen Zi-Yu, Growth Manager of AIPLUX, mentioned that not only Singaporean academic and research units A*STAR and AI Singapore have taken the initiative to negotiate, but also Indonesian software suppliers want to establish a cooperative relationship, Fukuoka, the base for new ventures, has invited them to land in Japan. IPOS International also wants to import its products.
- Yang Yu-Ching, Sales Manager of OwlTing, observed that as its target customers are Singaporean enterprises with cross-border remittance needs, it has reached out to many customers at the fair, including logistics companies, the semiconductor industry, the education industry, etc.
- Jammy Yu observed that as there happened to be a logistics exhibition underneath the exhibition, many manufacturers with logistics needs and assisting SMEs in digital transformation came to the exhibition and received highly positive feedback on their products.
What are the advantages and special features of SWITCH?
- Daniel Hsu, Sales Manager of TAC Dynamics, analyzed that SWITCH is a smaller venue than other exhibitions. However, the flow of people and investment is very high, so the company can grasp many market opportunities and encounter many potential customers.
- Shen Sheng-Yao, Chief Data Officer of iAMBITION TECHNOLOGY, also emphasized that SWITCH attracts many international attendees, and the team knows how to promote the brand in international exhibitions in the future, as they have successfully access Singapore's startup ecosystem.
- Linda Lee, co-facilitator of Startup Terrace, explained that the theme of SWITCH is innovation. Although the content of SWITCH is comprehensive, some startups in specific fields, such as IC design and the logistics industry, find it hard to engage in the exhibition. They are less likely to find customers or partners of the exact nature in the exhibition hall. However, the effect of exposure in the international arena still needs to be considered.
- The design of the exhibition area is not only for exhibitions of various countries. Multiple forums are also happening in the corners simultaneously so that interested people can participate at any time. Only the open space is prone to noise, but the flaws do not cover-up.
What's the future?
- Tung Chen-Yuan, Representative of Taipei Representative Office in Singapore, called on the Taiwan government, which has invested a lot of resources and time in building up the startups ecosystem in recent years, nurturing more than 7,400 companies, more than 70 accelerators, and more than 90 startups, to encourage global partners to establish more collaborations with Taiwan's startups.
- As the strongest backer of Taiwan's startups, NDC will do its best to assist the team's development, including cooperation among startups' program, and the National Development Fund has also been working with international venture capital to continue to use policy tools to promote the global influence of Taiwan's startups.
Under the trend of intelligent transformation, digital manufacturing, and net-zero carbon emissions, flexible new ventures are taking to the stage, using advanced technology to propose solutions and optimize work efficiency. To help startups enter the international arena, NDC set up the Taiwan Pavilion this year. What are the tangible benefits of this exhibition? Please read the in-depth Salon Talk between Sunrise Medium and the exhibitors of the Taiwan Pavilion.
