Hello, welcome to Gateway to Taiwan. Thank you so much for coming today.
My name is Brian. I'll be your host. I am the Accelerator Program Manager of AppWorks.
My colleague will give an introduction to AppWorks later.
But before we begin, let's have an intro from Joseph Hwang, who is a partner at Headline Asia.
Hi guys. Thank you guys so much for coming.
Thank you all for the Taiwan people that come over to Japan.
We've been doing this for the last 19 years.
We did one time in 2018 in Taipei, and then we kept on going from there.
And I really appreciate the turnout.
We have a great panel.
These guys that I've seen grow up from getting their first jobs in the space,
and then now actually hosting and running these things.
So I'm very excited about this.
Alan, Brian, Kyle.
Thank you guys so much for putting this on.
We're actually very excited about the startups that are going to be pitching.
Hopefully we'll excite you guys. Thank you.
Thanks, Joe.
All right. So we have some very exciting pitches from innovative Taiwanese startups today.
Before we begin, I just want to quickly invite each partner from Taiwan.
There's four of us total here to just give a brief introduction on what we do in Taiwan.
So if you ever need any resources within Taiwan, you can come reach out.
We have a pavilion over there. Welcome to come grab some cool swag.
So first and foremost, let me invite Alan John, director at Startup Island Taiwan.
Thank you, Brian. How are you doing?
Good afternoon, everyone. How are you doing?
I'll wait for the slides to come up, but there we go.
As Brian mentioned, representing Startup Island Taiwan and working with other partners here today
and also IVS and Headline Asia.
But at the same time, as you can see, a lot of the companies around
that come here are from Taiwan, but also have a lot of operations here in Japan.
So for us at Startup Island Taiwan, representing the startup ecosystem,
we are supported by the National Development Council of Taiwan.
And the National Development Council is a forward planning agency
similar to JETRO and METI here in Japan.
And so for us, we support outbound and inbound programs
for international companies to come to Taiwan
or for Taiwan companies to go overseas, such as markets here in Japan.
What we do are a few items, but I tell you,
I'm going to share a little bit about the innovation
and why Taiwan is a place for Japanese startups to focus on in the future
if you ever have overseas ambitions.
At the same time, Taiwan has a lot of innovative,
I guess you say powerhouse industries,
but I think AI, semiconductors and research and development
is what the highlights are.
At the same time, many corporations do aim for Taiwan to be their market.
So just as some of the Fortune 500 you see on the stage are doing it,
we do have a lot that we like to share.
These are a couple of examples, but going forward,
I can share why they chose it.
And the reason they chose Taiwan
is because there's a lot of work-life balance,
IP protection, health care, innovativeness,
but also the talent pool in Taiwan is quite high.
In that respect, Taiwan's education system
ranks one highest for STEM activities and research.
So with that, we like to share a couple of reasons.
These main reasons are why we choose Taiwan.
You can choose your own, but IP rights are kind of the highlight.
Going forward, Startup Island Taiwan,
along with the other agencies,
this information from Taiwan Institute of Economic Research
does highlight the growth in Taiwan startup ecosystem.
As you can see, from 2015 to 2023,
there was a great increase of startup and also unicorns.
The investment amounts has grown,
and due to a lot of the inputs of resources,
those inputs of resources have shown
the growth of Taiwan startup ecosystem.
Now, the activities that Taiwan startups do go to,
and this does work with economic affairs
and science and technology
who operate Taiwan Tech Arena and Startup Paris.
Those activities do go to the U.S.
throughout Asia and Europe,
but at the same time,
we work with all those agencies,
the same companies such as CES,
Texas, IBS, including Web Summit and Collision,
some major conferences including Sushi Tech also.
Now, for Japan in total, though,
we do have a lot of activities
which I'll highlight going forward.
Since 2022 to currently,
we've had a host of activities.
Mostly we've attended IBS since 2017.
I believe Brian over there attended
first IBS in Kanazawa,
and he was over there,
but at the same time,
myself have participated in IBS
the last two to three years in Taipei for Beta,
but also here in Kyoto the last two years.
But in addition,
we do participate at Sushi Tech.
We do host our own activities in Japan, Tokyo,
but we also participate in Fukuoka
and also Hokkaido
and also throughout Osaka.
So our engagement with Japan is quite high,
and here's just a quick timeline.
Come join us.
My partners will share some items with you
for Japan Taiwan Summit September.
Reach out.
God bless everyone.
Happy September or July 4th yesterday.
I'm done.
Let's do it.
Come on, guys.
Thank you, Alan,
for that awesome intro on Startup Island Taiwan.
in early-stage startups across Taiwan,
Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia.
And our limited partners include
LINE, Guangdao Computer,
Advantech, and Pfizer Telecom.
And we also manage
Alibaba Taiwan Entrepreneur Fund as well.
And this partnership enables us to offer
valuable corporate resources
to our portfolio companies.
And from this investment experience,
we've learned that the key
to succeed for startups
is not only product,
not only operation skills,
but market selection.
A report from PWC highlights
that Japan is an ideal first-state country
for Taiwanese startups aiming to go global,
especially because its market size,
friendliness, and overall
cultural similarities.
On the other hand,
we also see more and more Japanese companies
exploring to other Asian markets.
So that's the reason why
we established our Tokyo Innovation Hub
in Shinjuku.
And we believe by this approach,
we can build a solid ecosystem
in the coming years.
And here are some photos from our event.
We regularly invite entrepreneurs,
venture capital, and community leaders
to share with their industrial insights.
And we also offer a series of
entrepreneurial lessons to our startups.
And the topics cover from
how to pitch to Japanese VC,
how to set up a business in Japan,
and how to hire locally.
And we recognize that
the hands-on experience are really crucial
and valuable for entrepreneurs.
So we regularly invite entrepreneurs
to our hub
to share with their incredible journey
from zero to one.
And this year,
we are raising a new fund,
CDIB Innovation Cross-Border Fund.
And it's mainly targeting
at Taiwanese, Southeast Asia,
and Japanese companies.
We focus on three high-growth sectors,
including mobile commerce,
and AI blockchain,
and digital transformation.
And it could be seen everywhere
in this generation.
On the other hand,
we partner with a lot of parties
like incubators, communities,
and some financial providers.
We aim to be a global startup
innovation platform.
And we believe by all of this
holistic approach,
we can help startups weather the storm
when they are going to other countries.
And here is our introduction.
If you are interested in doing
cross-border business,
if you have any questions,
please contact us later.
Thank you.
All right, awesome.
Thank you, Nick.
Next, we have the leading startup media
and also the organizer
of the biggest startup festival
in Taiwan, MEET.
Kyle.
Thank you.
Thank you, Brian.
And thanks for IVS to have us here,
especially give Taiwanese startups
this kind of opportunity
to explore and introduce themselves.
This is Kyle from MEET.
MEET is a startup community
and service platform supported by
Taiwanese leading tech media business.
Next, what do we do?
First thing, we do startup media
with three different kind of languages.
In the beginning,
we only have Chinese version
and English version.
And since last year,
we started to do the Japanese startup news media.
Actually, we are not very good at Japanese,
but thanks to AI and CGPT,
so we made it.
Not only the media business,
we also organize some events
or programs for startups.
For example,
we have startup global program
for Taiwanese startups to go abroad.
Just like this time,
there are eight outstanding Taiwanese startups
coming with us to Tokyo and to IVS.
We are happy to share our network of VC and corporates
or startup supporting services to them
and help them to knock on the first door
to the Japanese market.
And we also organize big exhibitions in Taiwan
like MEET Taipei and MEET Great South.
And for example,
our exhibition also welcomes
global startups to participate.
For example, last year's MEET Taipei,
we have at least 100 global startups
of the total 500 vendors of the show.
So we will provide booth activities
and also some tours about
Taiwanese startup ecosystems for global startups.
And it's all free.
And we also create a MEET online startup database
on our website.
So it's built in Chinese and English.
It's easier for you guys
if you want to explore and find some Taiwanese startups
with potential to work with,
you can check on this website.
So this is us.
Feel free to reach out to us
at our booth nearby the entrance.
Thanks.
Thank you, Kyle.
And next up,
I want to introduce my colleague, Anne,
the Director of Investor Relations at Appworks
to share a little more about Appworks.
Thanks, Brian.
I've done this so many times
to our prospective LPs,
but I just realized I haven't done this
to the general public before.
So thanks for coming here.
We're Appworks.
So we're original venture capital
and also accelerator in Taiwan.
And so our mission started very simple.
We started to support the founders in Taiwan
and then within this region
to help them disrupt the world.
So today, we were founded in 2009
and then after 16 years passed,
we have grown into original VC.
So not just only in Taiwan,
but also in Southeast Asia
and gradually we're becoming more present
in also north part of Asia.
We've seen a lot of our founders
starting to grow interest in Japan.
So that's why also this time
we're bringing here them in Japan today.
So after 16 years,
actually built the Asia's largest
founder ecosystem here.
So with more than 500 active startups
and more than 1,700 founders
within this network.
So essentially we have become
a comprehensive platform
to empower founders
with our accelerator community.
And we also have VC funds
to provide them with funding support
and also with talent support
that we created with our school initiatives.
So that has enabled our VC fund to track
and also access the most promising founders
within this region.
So in a nutshell,
what AppForex does.
So essentially we have established
into a comprehensive platform
to help the founders.
So we started as an accelerator in Taiwan
and now we still do it every half year.
So every half year,
we've taken around 30 startups
to our equity-free
and also fee-free accelerator.
And now we are doing our batch 29
in the following year.
So now it has established
into a very tightly-knitted ecosystem.
And then we later also started our VC funds.
So in 2012,
we started to raise our first VC funds.
And now with four funds raised
and more than 350 million US dollars
under our management.
Later in 2016,
our founders also told us
that it's very hard for them
to find quality software engineer talent.
So that's when we decided
to also do a software engineer boot camp.
So from 2016 till nowadays,
we have trained more than 1,000 software engineers
and then supplied these talents
to the founders within our ecosystem.
And then finally,
instead of viewing the partners
with the competitive relationship
with other VC funds,
we actually partnered with them.
So we have now more than 25 VC funds
in our partnerships.
We invested them as a GPLP relationship
and then we partnered with them
to syndicate, to source deals
and then most importantly,
to co-create value for the founders
within this region.
So in a nutshell,
whatever founders need,
we provide for them.
When they need community,
we have Accelerator.
They need funding,
we have VC funds.
And then when they need talent support,
we also have our school
to provide them
with the whole total solution support.
And it has turned out
to be quite magnificent.
So now within our ecosystem,
there are more than 563 startups within Active
and then more than 1,700 founders
co-creating more than 23,000 job opportunities
and also co-creating annual revenue
at 17 billion
and then total value at 33 billion.
So we're very happy to be here
and then today we'll be bringing
five of our portfolios
and also Accelerator alumni
to showcase them at this event.
And they'll be at the Gateway to Taiwan booth.
So come to talk to us
if you want to know more about Taiwan
and also AdWords.
I'll hand over the mic back to Ryan.
Thanks.
All right.
Intro's done.
Now the fun part,
why you guys are all here,
the startup pitches.
So today we have 15 Taiwan startups
doing 90-second pitches.
So they'll be pitching very quick in succession.
And then if you're interested in chatting with any of them,
you can come to the Taiwan booth
in the middle over there later.
And then after the pitching session,
we have a panel of three startups
that have done some business in Japan
to share more about the challenges,
the learning experiences
as a Taiwanese startup coming to Japan.
So without further ado,
I'm going to hand it off to our first founder.
Hi. Good morning, everyone.
I'm Tom from Ubitis.
Ubitis was founded in 2012
by a Taiwanese entrepreneur, Wesley Kuo.
We headquartered in Tokyo
and we operate R&D center in Taipei.
We started to provide
cloud gaming solution to Nintendo
and we built our own data center in Japan
equipped with over 10,000 NVIDIA GPUs.
And in 2022,
we started leverage our computing power
to develop the AI solutions.
And March this year,
we have received the investment from NVIDIA.
Here's our business domains.
Here's our partners across the globe.
And in cloud gaming,
we developed the patented technology
to stream rich content.
And now over 1,000 AAA games
are used in our solutions.
In AI, we are developing
multimodal AI model
and we offer four solutions at this point.
UV-GBT, that's a large language model
specialized in Asian languages.
UV-1, it's an interactive AI virtual character.
UV-ART, that is an image generation tool.
And UV-Anchor, it's an AI broadcaster
that can broadcast the news 24-7.
So if you guys are interested,
please let us know.
And otherwise, thank you very much.
And you have a great rest of the day at the event.
みなさん、おはようございます。
私はCasperです。
会社です。
Hi, everyone. I'm Casper from DENO.
I'm a dentist.
I'm a CEO and founder of DENO.
We are the software provider
for dental support organization, DSO,
from Taiwan to the world.
We aim to address the five aspects
of the dental industry,
like patient data or operation
or dental material, education and insurance.
For patient data and clinic management,
we provide our cloud-based DENO.
It's a practice management system.
And we also provide a generative AI,
DENO.AI can generate the treatment plan
for dentists in only three minutes.
And for the dental material,
we already launched the biggest e-commerce platform
for dentists in Taiwan.
And for education,
we provide online and offline training center
in Taipei, Taiwan.
And for insurance,
we provide our AI solution.
With our AI,
our AI can determine the severity of dental disease
for dentists, for patients,
and for insurance company.
We can provide a total solution
for insurance company
from the beginning, the application stage
and the medical service stage
and the final stage is claim stage.