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Understanding Taiwan’s tech and innovation fortes in 5 episodes of Startup Island TAIWAN
Taiwan is a small country that looks like a sweet potato. People might stare at it on the map and think “what does this small island has to offer?” In 2022, a record-breaking year for Taiwan as its startups and technologies shined on the global stage, and who even knows this tiny country possesses the capability to shake the world’s economy and help the globe address climate issues?
An outstanding vegan-fat startup, Lypid went to COP27 to introduce how their alternative protein technology, PhytoFat can contribute to solving the global climate crisis. It shattered how plant-based meat’s usual taste for audiences, Lypid amazed people around the world with its juicy and meaty vegan meat.
Following the significant achievement in food tech, there were 10 Taiwanese startups ranging from AI to digital healthcare granted the CES 2023 Innovation Award. The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is one of the most influential technology exhibitions in the world, which was held in Las Vegas compromised more than 3200 exhibitors from worldwide showing cutting-edge technologies and disruptive innovations. Highlighting another special award, Human Security for All (HS4A) which only has 7 honorees in the world, a Taiwanese startup, Mbran Filtra occupied one of them in terms of its innovative water filter. Producing its filter material can reduce up to 50% to 70% of carbon emissions, compared to the traditional method.
The milestones above demonstrate Taiwan as a small country can also make massive impacts on the globe, but what are the secret sauces hiding on this island? There are 5 Podcasts introducing Taiwanese startups and technologies picked from Startup Island TAIWAN Podcast explain to you.
1. How does LA's Top VC William Hsu Look at Entrepreneurs and Taiwan's Startup Environment
William Hsu is the co-founder and partner of Mucker Capital, a Los Angeles-based venture capital firm. He talked about what are the strengths that Taiwanese startups hold but lacking in LA as he witnessed LA becoming one of the essential technology centers in the world in 10 years from a land that no one would associate with startups. Looking back to Hsu’s entrepreneurial journey, “I was actually a pretty terrible student in Taiwan” said, Hsu as he reminds his educational journey in Taiwan and how the experience at Stanford had influenced his career and built up his entrepreneurship.
As a venture capitalist, Hsu shed the light on how to win VCs’ favor through storytelling, how he coaches Taiwanese entrepreneurs, and the crucial to-do lists for Taiwanese entrepreneurs to achieve.
2. TSMC and Taiwan's semiconductor industry, all started 40 years ago at a soy milk restaurant
TSMC, the world’s biggest semiconductor company, dominates about 70% of the world’s chip manufacturing. It even made the world’s headlines by attracting billionaire Warren Buffett to buy more than $4.1 billion of stock in TSMC, in 2022. In the podcast, Tim Koay, a technology historian, and podcast host is running Asianometry, a tech YouTube channel with 423k followers. They discuss the history of TSMC, who took part in prompting its success, and the semiconductor industry in Taiwan.
TSMC was founded in 1987, by Morris Chang, collaborating with the government-funded Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI). Koay and Asianometry will lead you to explore how did the Taiwanese government lay out the plans for the semiconductor industry to develop Taiwan’s economy and end up building a chips maker that can drive the world’s economy. The magical story needs to trace back to 40 years ago when a seemingly ordinary breakfast meeting took place in a soymilk restaurant.
3. How Ubiik Revolutionizes the Smart Grid Technology and Won 40+ Million Dollars Orders
Ubiik is a Taiwan-based and fast-developing international startup that aims at developing smart energy and creating a sustainable future with its IoT solutions. With winning 2018, 2019, and 2020 tenders from Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) consecutively, Ubiik stands firmly on the global market and has expanded its business to Japan, India, Europe, and the US.
In this podcast episode, Clément Dieudonné, the vice president of global product marketing and EMEA sales in Ubiik, explained how Ubiik built up its IoT domain as a small company that only with 20 employees at the beginning, and now has about 100 employees. Moreover, he spotted the challenges for IoT in domains ranging from engineering and technology to structure and pointed out the advantages of developing its products in Taiwan.
4. Acquired by Google, Taiwanese-founded AI startup aims to create software everyone needs to use it
From a researcher to the founder of a startup acquired by Google. Chen-Ping Yu, the founder of Phiar was a Harvard postdoc AI researcher, who often lost in Boston, which provoke him to start a business and create a novel and better navigation experience system.
Phiar integrated the Spatial-AI engine and the Mobility AR Engine to bring perception and intelligence to automotive navigation, its solution enables vehicles to see the surroundings clearer in real-time for intelligent navigation, smart parking, HD mapping, vision-based live road detections, and traffic conditions. Phiar’s disruptive technology and innovative products earned its breakthrough of acquisition by Google in 2022.
But before the acquisition, how does Phiar overcome the challenges of building the products? Moreover, Phiar got into Y Combinator, the most well-known accelerator in the world just a year since it was founded, what was the experience like and what did Yu learn? Let’s find out in this episode.
5. Acquired by Stablecoin Fintech Unicorn, How Taiwan’s CYBAVO Protect Everyone’s Digital Assets
It might create anxiousness and uncertainty among people about cryptocurrency after one of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges, FTX collapsed. What is more, once your “private key” is gone, all of the digital assets in your account will be gone and will never be recovered. It underscores how insecure cryptocurrency can be despite many people being crazy about it.
Taiwanese startup, Cybavo discovered the gap and developed a digital asset management system to protect users’ digital assets. Its products gain the interest of the U.S. fintech unicorn Circle, which acquired Cybavo in 2022. In this podcast episode, Jordan Forssman, the COO of Cybavo talked about how Cybavo contributes to safeguarding cryptocurrency security and what is the role of Taiwan in the Web 3 ecosystem.
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