Taiwan Adventurous Startup Fleet Explores Israel’s Innovative DNA

According to The Global Competitiveness Report 2018 by the World Economic Forum (WEF) of Switzerland, Taiwan ranked 13^th in the world and is regarded as a “super-innovative country” alongside Germany, the U.S., and Switzerland. Taiwan’s powerful manufacturing industry represents a strong foundation for cultivating startups. To strengthen the energy of innovation, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council arranged its second tour of the Startup Scouting-Taiwan VC delegation to Israel in September 2019. The 10 of 33 selected startups are all from well-developed industries in Taiwan and operate in the fields of AI, Industry 4.0, Biotechnology. The national-level VC firm, Taiwania Capital, along with the Asia Silicon Valley Development Agency and Taiwan Tech Arena (TTA) also participated in the delegation, whose participants represented a small “Taiwan Startup Ecosystem”.

The delegation visited accelerators, including IBM Alpha Zone, Hi-Tech Faculty Startup Accelerator, TAU Ventures established by Tel Aviv University, and Volkswagen Innovation Authority. The Taiwan startups also took the opportunity to learn the “Chutzpah” spirit of Israel – bravely challenging authority and having no invention boundaries.

The startup team also took part in the “DLD Tel Aviv Innovation Festival” from September 18 to 19, a must-join event for startups in Israel. The event attracts hundreds of startups, VCs, angel investors and large international companies from around the world. During the festival, the "Taiwan Excellence Networking Event", hosted by the Bureau of Foreign Trade (BOFT) and implemented by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), linked Taiwan’s competitive enterprises and startups to have the Pitch in this innovative city – Tel Aviv.

The pioneer USB Inventor - Mr. Dov Moran, along with Advantech, Asus, Taiwania Capital, Taiwan Tech Arena (TTA), and Asia Silicon Valley Development Agency (ASVDA) presented the topic: Taiwan Startup Investment and Taiwan IoT Smart Technology environment. The event attracted participation by 138 international enterprises, angel investors and VCs.

In the second half of 2019, TAITRA will continue to lead startup teams to explore more opportunities to expand markets. From November 27 to 30, the TAITRA-KOTRA Startup Conference 2019 will be held in Korea. Startups from the AI, IoT, Biometric, Smart City, Martech and Gaming industries are all welcome to join us.