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AppWorks' next ten years: Interview with AppWorks partner Jessica Liu
AppWorks foresaw the development of the internet industry in Taiwan ten years ago and is reaping the rewards today. What does AppWorks foresee for the next ten years? The partner Jessica Liu answered: AI, Blockchain, Southeast Asia, and the founders' ecosystem.
Founded in 2009 by Jamie Lin, who is known as a pioneer in the Taiwan internet industry, AppWorks aimed at investing in internet and software startups from day one. Most people had doubts about the Taiwan startup ecosystem then; some even persuaded Jamin to give up. It couldn't shatter Jamin's faith in Taiwan's internet startups. Ten years later, Appworks has grown to be one of the largest venture capital firms in Asia with USD $212M assets under management and has expanded the team members to over 20 people.
Entering its 12th year, AppWorks is no longer just a VC firm, they are forming a community and ecosystem. There are now 414 active startups and 1,396 founders in the community. Furthermore, both the total funds raised and valuation have more than tripled in the last year, and the collaboration between Accelerator and Fund plays an important role in the success of the community.
Joined AppWorks when there were only three people in the office
Believing Jamin's vision as early as 8 years ago, Jessica Liu, the digital marketing manager at Standard Chartered Bank, decided to leave the job and joined AppWorks to help manage the Accelerator. "I noticed the potential of digital marketing when I was working at Standard Chartered Bank, and I knew this was the trend I had to participate in," said Jessica.
At that time, Standard Chartered Bank was an early adopter and a big buyer for digital ads; they would even buy the ad position on Yahoo's main page. Yahoo, which used to be an internet giant, housed a sought-after spot on their website for marketing. But banking is a highly regulated industry, so it is hard to unleash the full potential of digital marketing in the bank. "Although when I first stepped into the AppWorks office, there were only 3 people. To witness the rise of digital power, I still decided to accept AppWorks' offer," said Jessica.
In AppWorks, the Accelerator and Funds are always collaborating closely. At first, Jessica joined to be responsible for the operation of Accelerator, but soon she also helped with some investment projects. She first invested in e-commerce travel platform startup KKday. Meeting over 500 startups in the Accelerator, Jessica observed how founders face different challenges, and it shaped Jessica's investment philosophy, in which she valued the characteristics of the founders over their businesses. "KKday founder Chen MingMing is a successful serial entrepreneur and has deep understanding toward the travel business, and I felt his passion for the travel business," said Jessica.
This kind of investment philosophy is what AppWorks is famous for. "AppWorks' investment philosophy focuses on 3H: Heart, Head, and Hand. In other words, we value the founders' determination to start new ventures, how they deal with the challenges, and their executive efficiency," said Jessica. "To learn more about the characteristics of founders, we always try to get to know founders’ growth environment and how it shapes the founders. Lots of founders told us they want to change the world, but we would always ask what drives their motivation? Furthermore, once they meet the goals, what would be their next steps?"
USD$150 Million Fund III to target new disrupting tech and the emerging region
Earlier this month, AppWorks closed Fund III with USD $150M. Fund III delivered AppWorks investing topics the past few years and has backed several blockchains and NFT startups including Blocto, Dapper Labs/Flow, XREX, and Animoca Brands. Among them, Dapper Labs/Flow and Animoca Brands crossed the unicorn threshold, showing that people can no longer ignore this technology.
According to a report from NonFungible.com, NFT sales topped USD$ 2 billion in Q1 2021, an increase of 2,100 percent compared to Q4 2020.
"With a dozen years of strong growth, mobile internet is becoming a mature sector. I believe blockchain is the next disrupting technology and I have strong faith in Taiwanese blockchain startups," said Jessica.
Through the Accelerator and Fund, AppWorks has been facilitating blockchain startups. For example, they connected Dapper Labs and Blocto together to launch NBA Top Shot, which continues to sell like hotcakes. “NFT is re-defining the products. Including cups, pens, and laptops, every consumer product will be re-defined by NFT like Amazon re-defined retails," said Jessica.
Jessica stated, "I have faith in the blockchain ecosystem in Taiwan. Taiwan already has a strong presence in the blockchain. AppWorks has been facilitating this area these years, and I have met several young blockchain founders, it is amazing that they all show the determination to be a global team from day one."
Impressed by the vigorous environment from a field trip, Fund III has backed several Southeast Asia startups
Aside from investing in disrupting technology, it is surprising that AppWorks would also focus on investing in a region. Since 2015, AppWorks Accelerator has been receiving applications from Southeast Asia, which made AppWorks start to notice this market.
In 2017, Jessica joined a field trip to Indonesia and was fascinated by the vigorous environment. "Gojek and Grab were everywhere, everyone was looking at their smartphones, and there were lots of advertisements in the street. Apparently, the market is growing at full speed," said Jessica. For now, AppWorks Fund III has invested in several startups from Southeast Asia including Carousell, Docosan, yummy kitchen, Infra Digital, Beam, and HarukaEDU.
The AppWorks community welcome founders from everywhere and encourage collaboration
People from Taiwan and Southeast Asia speak different languages and have different cultures, how do all these founders get together in AppWorks? "AppWorks is not only just a venture capitalist. By collaboration between Accelerator, Fund, and AppWorks school, we are trying to build a community for founders. Everyone in this community is enthusiastic to help others," Jessica said, "For example, in our community, there were people asking for advice to establish an office in Indonesia, and they got help immediately."
As AppWorks becomes famous in Southeast Asia, some local governments are trying to persuade them to set up the accelerator branch locally. "When our teams keep growing, it might be a possibility," said Jessica.
Furthermore, to perfect the community, AppWorks has hired a "master team" with professionals including legal, accounting finance, public relationship, and investor relationship. They would always be there to provide help to startups.
Besides asking for professional advice, the startups in the community are teaming up together frequently, and it always creates more fascinating services and products.
A recent case is food tech startup Tsaitung Agriculture(batch#15) partner with Line Taxi, which was previously called Taxi Go(batch#11), and they launched NextDoorFresh during the Covid pandemic. The product stormed the food supply chain market and became a trending word.
"It takes time to build a community and an ecosystem, and AppWorks has been putting effort into it for over 10 years," said Jessica. With the mature startup community and clear focus, it can be expected that AppWorks will thrive in the next ten years.
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