Taiwan has made a reputation for itself as one of the most renown tech hubs in the world. Known for its high quality tech hardware, with recognisable brands such as MSI, Asus, and Foxconn; Taiwan is near unrivalled when it comes to innovative technology development and production.
However, the country is lagging behind in the area of startups. Despite being ranked 4th in the globe in innovation capability by the World Economic Forum and having a much stronger intellectual property rights than China, startup hubs such as Beijing and Singapore are leaving Taiwan in the dust.
Thus, Taipei needs to make up for lost ground against regional heavyweights in terms of spurring a more vibrant local tech startup scene and drawing foreign startups to further innovate the nascent ecosystem.
In response, Asia-Pacific Telecom Group (APTG) and startup ecosystem connector AsiaIOA have opened its maiden APTG 5G Accelerator Programme up to Southeast Asian startups to alleviate this issue. This is being done with the support of the Small and Medium Administration under Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs.
The accelerator programme aims to accelerate Taiwan’s startup tech scene with a focus on 5G-related disciplines, including: ICT, Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Cloud, and Big Data.
Some of the goals of the programme include strengthening startup acceleration and partnership with enterprises, assisting startups for international partnership and market expansion, product and solution roadmaps, sales and marketing developments, and many more.
Each startup will be assigned a Taiwanese industry mentor. During the six month period of the programme, mentors and APTG programme managers will organise bi-weekly business diagnosis meetings to help discover new business models and opportunities, build growth strategies and solutions, and scale-up sales opportunities and partnerships.
The six-month programme will include lectures by mentors, one-on-one interactive discussions between mentors and startups for business diagnoses, as well as preparation for official investment opportunities and meetings with potential investors.
