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Foresaw startups’ global blooming 10 years ago: Interview with Cofounder of 500 Global Christine Tsai
Entering the third year of collaborating with the Taiwan Tech Arena(TTA) and Taiwan’s accelerating program, 500 Global has invested in over 30 Taiwanese startups and helped to accelerate over 40 Taiwanese startups going-global during these three years.
On July 6th, Christine Tsai flew to Taiwan to attend Founder Spring event held by the 500 Global Taiwan team. As the speaker at the event, Tsai shared her views on the current state of venture capital and the future of the Taiwan innovation ecosystem. Meanwhile, 500 Global Taiwan is about to kick off the 500 Global Taiwan Startup Program with TTA 2023. All these activities show that 500 Global has put more and more emphasis on Taiwan’s startup scene.
We sat down with Christine Tsai to talk about how she helped grew 500 Global to an international venture capital firm and their next step in Taiwan.
“I love Taiwan’s food, especially traditional breakfasts like Youtiao(油條), Fantuan(飯糰), Shaobing(燒餅)” speaks the food’s name with fluent Chinese pronunciation, Tsai has been to Taiwan several times and is very familiar with Taiwan’s startup ecosystem.
Actually, 500 Global noticed Taiwan’s startups as early as 12 years ago. Dating back to 2011, they made their first Taiwanese startup investment in PicCollage, a Taiwan-based startup that helps users create unique collages with photos and has over 200 million downloads for their app.
This year 500 Global kicked off the Taiwan Startup Program with TTA 2023, welcoming 20 local and international startups to one-week-long in-person bootcamp in Taipei. Led by 500 Global's world-class mentors, the bootcamp is designed to grow tech startups through hands-on workshops and mentoring sessions. They selected startups that have developed prototypes with early traction and also who want to tap into the Taiwanese market. For the post-bootcamp, there is an opportunity for startups to be selected to receive 12-week tailored support from 500 Global.
“We see lots of momentum in Taiwan since we first started to invest in it. There is lots of support from the Taiwanese government, and I think Covid also pushed Taiwan to the global stage. For example, during the early days of pandemic, Taiwan handled Covid so well that they launched the Gold Card visa to attract global talents,” said Tsai.
Tsai emphasized that Taiwan has a long history of hardware and is very good at infrastructure and B2B business. An abundant number of engineering talents is also an advantage for Taiwan. In 2021, 500 Global invested in Taiwanese cybersecurity startup CYBAVO which was later acquired by fintech unicorn Circle. “I think CYBAVO acquired by Circle shows a good signal that Taiwanese startup is able to build a global solution,” said Tsai, believing that more Taiwan-based startups will go global.
Starting investments in startups outside the U.S. when no one ever did
Growing up in Silicon Valley, Tsai was surrounded by the most advanced technology and trends. She joined Google in 2003 as a product marketing manager. During 2003 and 2010, a lot of big platforms and tech trends: Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, mobile computing, and cloud computing are emerging. “For me, it feels like a privilege to sit in the front row because of working with these new technologies,” said Tsai.
Thanks to the new technologies, the cost of establishing a startup was decreasing, which also inspire her and Dave McClure to establish a venture capital firm that invests in early stage startups globally. “Usually long time ago you need several millions of dollars just for paying the servers, but because of things like AWS, cloud hosting, and all these online tools, the barrier of establishing startups become lower,” said Tsai.
Tsai realized what startup founders need is a different type of venture investor. In 2010, they launched 500 Startup, a seed accelerator and global venture capital firm, which now is renamed 500 Global. They successfully betted on unicorns like Singapore’s Grab, Indonesia’s Bukalapak, and Brazil’s Olist.
They foresaw the great potential of startups worldwide and invest in lots of early stage startups from day one. “Our first Taiwanese startup investment is in 2011. I just came back from Japan yesterday which reminds me that our first Japanese startup investment is in 2010,” said Tsai.
Tsai mentioned that early stage startups needed not just a check but also an ecosystem of investors, corporates, founders, and accelerators to support them. As a result, 500 Global has created a network of mentors and operators from more than 20 countries. “Lots of people didn’t believe that it is wise to invest in startups outside Silicon Valley 13 years ago,” Tsai said. “And now I don’t think anyone would say that.”
After 13 years of growing, now 500 Global has $2.5B in assets under management and has backed over 5000 founders representing more than 2,800 companies operating in 80+ countries. The 190+ team members of 500 Global will keep fostering startup ecosystem around the world and Taiwan is also included.
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