Yesterday, STARTBOARD was honored to join the meeting between Startup Terrace and TAcc+ with the Assistant Vice President of Invest India Mr. Antony Aju. In the meeting, we had the opportunity to show Mr. Antony what we have done to help startups not only from India but also from SEA countries, as well as the connections we have built. We also got to learn more about Invest India, the investment climate and prominent initiatives that have been establised to promote India and encourage more oversea businesses to grow in this market. It is undoubted that now India has vast business potential and is attracting lots of investors, developers, manufacturers and many more.
As the National Investment Promotion and Facilitation Agency of India, it is believed that Invest India can play a huge role in linking foreign companies and the local resources, accompany them in the journey of development in India. And STARTBOARD is happy to connect with Invest India and help entrepreneurs on both sides with a more complete network. We look forward to our future cooperation and contribution to the growth of Taiwan – India friendship.
Last week was an amazing week! We met with many amazing people at different amazing events! And one of the events is Make in India – Seminar and Interaction with Investors and Business at Shangri-La Hotel. Here, we have a chance to meet with:
1. Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Ministry of Commerce, and Industry Ms. Sumita Dawra.
2. TAITRA Chairman Mr. James C.F. Huang
3. India-Taipei Association Figure
4. Invest India Association figure
Other than that, we also met with many government figures, businesses, and investors from India.
Here we discuss the possibility of a Taiwan-India partnership in a few key sectors such as:
1. Food Processing
2. Electric Vehicles
3. Renewable Energy (Solar, PV, Green Energy)
4. Machinery, Tools, and Capital Goods
We discuss the possible sector growth, sub-sectors, recent policies, clusters, export potential, domestic demand, etc.
We are very humbled to be invited and hopefully, we can have future collaboration with you!
Last Friday, we were invited to the Networking Reception of the Friends of Thailand, held by the Thailand Trade and Economic Office – TTEO. At the event, we had the opportunity to meet the diplomats from TTEO as well as honored guests from Taiwanese government agencies and outstanding entrepreneurs from both Taiwan and Thailand. It is a celebration of the friendship between two countries and also a great networking opportunity, strengthening the connections and empowering Taiwanese friends who wish to expand in Thailand. We were also served with a buffet of amazing cultured cuisine and had a great time conversing with everyone!
As an incubator focusing on SEA region, STARTBOARD hopes to assist TTEO and contribute our best to the relationship between two countries. We look forward to more amazing events from TTEO and opportunities to help Thai entrepreneurs in Taiwan.
In the era of information explosion, the data is all there as long as you type keywords on search engine. However, it is challenging to collect needed information rapidly and correctly. The emergence of matching platform is like serving as a bridge between Bole and Maxima. It not only makes demand sides find the most suitable talent in the fastest situation, but also allows supply sides to have a platform to show themselves.
The Value of Every Citizens of The Planet Deserves To Be Seen
ArtzyPlanet, which gathers creators in the field of design, music, and film, is a co-creation media community founded in 2019. The platform is capable of meeting both the “displaying and exchanging works” on the supply side and “search for suitable talent” on the demand side at the same time. As of 2020, it had accumulated more than 6,000 creators. ArtzyPlanet lets members put their work on the platform, build their own portfolios, and connect with others to get inspired. Moreover, because talents in three fields are putting together, it can efficiently assist in matching suitable talents for entrepreneur or company to decrease the costs of labor and time.
ArtzyPlanet establishes “Planet Lab”, which has a variety of materials that creators can download safely. On the works left by the predecessors, a new creation is mixed and matched through their own skillful hands. In addition, it establishes “Planet Exhibition Hall”, which held competitions or solicitations for papers in cooperation with enterprises from time to time. Not only do help company to find creative works, but also inspire creators and break through themselves.
Create Your Own Family Gym
AcXport is a professional app and a sporty platform with a wealth of sports. Serving as a bridge between coach and consumers, it can help you to find suitable and professional sport service and coach after you choose the sport you want to train. Moreover, the platform not only teaches sports, but also promotes sports. Their official website provides different subject of articles, such as recommended sport places, personal interview of coach, health management, and so on.
In recent years, there are more restrictions on going out to exercise or going to the gym because of the impact of COVID-19. However, the service of AcXport is committed to transfer multi-sport experiences to entertainment that is easy for the public to start. Not only do allow you to find the fittest sport method to you by easy way, but also create your own gym without expensive expense.
The Advantages and Position of Matching Platform
The matching platform integrates scattered data, and allows users to get complete information by it and connects with others. Like ArtzyPlanet and AcXport above, they act as a bridge between supply and demand side, integrating huge amounts of data and to output the most effective information to entrepreneurs or consumers. With the expansion of the digital economy era, STARTBOARD, which matchs start-up team and enterprise, believes that the mechanism of this platform economy will become a trend in the future. Whether it is the Yourator talent matching platform or the Airbnb transactional platform, it can not only improve the efficiency of market matching, but also reduce the time cost spent in the past.
In 2022 Taiwan’s startup community is experiencing constant growth. The startup industry in the nation has been successful in luring venture capital firms and international attention in recent years, despite experiencing various obstacles in the past. With increasing government support and help from many laws that foster innovation, Taiwan is on the route to becoming a new startup hub in Asia as technology and electronics startups are growing there. Since we support this positive growth for many young and brilliant people out there, we will do our best to support and provide our services to them that will be the positive disruptor for our future with their robust innovation and creation. Hence we present the 2022 DEMO DAY that was held on July 26 with the purpose to let investors and startups know about the industry and market potential in Taiwan.
As the usual rule, 9 chosen teams, with each team given a 10-minute pitch time.
By 2035, the value of the mobile ecosystem’s goods and services would reach $13.2 trillion, which predicts that 5G will open up the ecosystem to new businesses. Yesterday TMYTEK discussed the uses of 5G technology and its future applications including agriculture, healthcare, the energy sector, smart cities, and driverless vehicles. He added that two key infrastructures, communication, and energy are crucial if digitization is to be realized in the future.
Uniigym developed an interactive sports technology platform using AI technology. This is quite unique since most of the gyms now are using the traditional method with any digital technology even AI. The reason why Uniigym decides to open a branch in Taiwan is that Taiwan tend to be more accepting of new ideas and seek out more practical ways to live, but they still value close relationships with one another. Additionally, Uniigym collaborates with the Taiwan gym and even tries to reach the home gym market, assisting it in reaching the Chinese market.
Sounds Great that create a robust innovation that involved special technology and microchip which able to create a powerful and immersive sound through their conductor special speaker which enables any item to pretty much become a high-quality speaker.
Tidyman is a company that magically changes your room from messy into a tidy, clean, nice-looking room that makes you want to stay in your room all day. Although this project sounds very simple, there are so much value and future growth for this company. In yesterday’s presentation, the founder also explains many aspects of their business, such as their business model, target market, their expectation, and company projection.
Ark Wisdom is the first company in Taiwan that focuses on 3D modeling and is committed to building the museum’s scanned cultural relics that can be seen through mobile phones or tablets. They also aim to create an AI robot that can guide tours in the future so that museums can open 24 hours and be accessed around the globe hence creating a new commercial value.
Pumpkin VR is a company that focuses on virtual reality content development and system integration. They support many of the previous VR games such as QUANTAAR with their system integration and technology.
WillStudy is a company that helps students solve their doubt and stress before studying abroad. They help students by solving and bridging the gap between students and the studying abroad information. They also provide consulting services for students to help them choose their subject and university based on their preference of the student and help them by giving important information related to their studies.
Space Capsule is a robust company that tries to combine textile with technology. By using the non-sensing clothes for motion detection, they can gain data that will benefit medical applications, human behavior, movement, leisure, or even entertainment. Their material can also be used as one of the Metaverse hybrid technology that we can own in real life.
Space Capsule
RobinsTech is a company that uses digital technology to find the right insurance for you. It has the advantages of digital insurance policies, damage prevention, and even quick claims settlement. In this way, the insurance process can be faster and safer for people to use.
🧠 There are many insights from yesterday’s event and contact information were exchanged! we hope we can keep continuing supporting many people that want to start their businesses no matter what stage their businesses are. Our main power and expertise are in company guidance and creation, we also have many connections that can help your business grow & strive even more! We also going to keep continue doing this meaningful and insightful event and we hope to see you guys soon in the future!🔥
👏[Special thanks to supporting us]👏
Startup Terrace- Providing offices, housing, co-working space, an exhibition center, and other state-of-the-art facilities that make it the ideal place for startups to grow and develop.
LOTES- LOTES has been designing and manufacturing precision #electronic interconnect components and hardware, supplying quality products at competitive prices to the worldwide industry which creates and develops state-of-the-art electronic products, instruments, and systems.
XRSpace Founder & Yushan Home Director – Mr. Peter ChouLOTES
Thank you to all the participants and attendees, we hope through this event you get valuable insight, connection, and even funding! Cheers!
The Republic Day of India, the date on which the Constitution of India came into effect on 26, January 1950, replaced the Government of India Act (1935) as the governing document of India and thus, turning the nation into a newly formed republic. We gathered together to celebrate the Republic Day of India and invited Indian experts from different backgrounds to share information about the market & investment in India at the celebration tea party. After the peak of the epidemic in 2021, the vaccination penetration rate in India has increased, and the government has also sprung into action to promote monetary and fiscal policies to strengthen the economy. With China cracking down on the technology industry, international investors are looking to India as an emerging market for investment, which leads to an IPO boom of technology startups in India in 2021. Moreover, the growth of tech startups and the electric vehicle industry is expected to continue growing substantially in 2022.
Prior to the main sharing session from the speakers, we belted out the national anthem of India to celebrate this special day. Throughout these years, we’ve nurtured more than 40 startup teams to pursue their dreams and have seen booming Indian startup power in Taiwan. In addition to introducing STARTBOARD’s Indian teams, Dr. Dinesh Kumar launched his new product – DAILYGUDS, a trade automation platform that aims to automate the goods redistribution process of a country starting in Taiwan.
DAILYGUDS – product launch
India & Taiwan: A Synergic Collaboration for a Better Tomorrow
Ms. Arpita Dutta as the Senior Legal Consultant of Louis International Patent Office gave a detailed overview of India & Taiwan’s synergic collaboration. Based on both countries’ policies, talent resources, import & export categories, Taiwan is now facing a talents shortage and India’s young & high-tech talent pool is an important resource. Also, the trading categories of both countries seem to have complementary advantages. She also analyzed the startup environment and emphasized the importance of IP support, legal & pre-investment consultation, and company registration when developing the business into a new market.
Senior Legal Consultant of Louis International Patent Office – Ms. Arpita Dutta
The Investment Environment and Preferential Policies of Indian Market
Dr. Dinesh Kumar as the Regional Chairman-Asia of Indo-Foreign Business Council(IFBC) shared the information of India’s market and investment opportunities. In FY 2020-21, FDI inflows (including equity, re-invested earnings, and capital) reached the amount of US$81.72 billion, 10 percent higher than the previous year. Utilities, financial services, and healthcare ranked highest amongst industries likely to make new investments in India. There are also more and more international investors looking to invest in India, like Japan, the UK, Singapore, and the USA.
Regional Chairman-Asia, Indo-Foreign Business Council(IFBC), India. – Dr. Dinesh Kumar
How I Became a Serial Entrepreneur in Taiwan
Dr. Nikhil Pathak as the Founder of Sohum Foods shared his stories and experiences of being a serial entrepreneur in Taiwan. In 2018 he founded GoEco, producing bio-based, disposable eat-ware products. After several unsuccessful experiences, he combined those and founded Sohum Foods – an Indian vegan restaurant & cloud kitchen. He not only shared his failure but mentioned the important mindset of being an entrepreneur. Besides, he gave a brief introduction of Taiwan’s startup environment and its main strengths – convenience, speed & reliability, events & interactions.
Founder of Sohum Foods – Dr. Nikhil Pathak
We were happy to see the audience asking questions and networking with all the speakers after the speeches, building connections with the Indian community in Taiwan. And that’s STARTBOARD’s mission from day 1, providing enterprises interested in the ASEAN market with firsthand information, and encouraging more ASEAN talents to build their business in Taiwan. We celebrated Republic Day and hope for the continued prosperity of India.
Launched by the Thai government in 2016, the new economic transformation strategy – ‘Thailand 4.0’ aims to accelerate industrial transformation and to promote innovation, creativity, and advanced technology. Thailand has made remarkable economic development to further its strategy as Asia’s business center for multinational companies looking to penetrate into the Asian consumer market. Even though there are some challenges remaining due to political factors and the COVID-19 pandemic, many innovative business models have been created to accelerate the digitalization of the companies’ services and recent startups specializing in fintech, e-commerce, online trading, and SaaS have become more trending. Major steps have been taken to create ecosystems for startup incubation as it follows the ‘Thailand 4.0’ policies to support startup development at all stages. The steps include financial support and risk management, capacity-building for Thai and international startups, and increased connectivity with the regional and global communities. And so, STARTBOARD held the Thailand Theme Night on November 19th, 2021 in hope to encourage more entrepreneurs nor investors who are interested in the Thailand market to have a better understanding of the startup environment.
Prior to the main sharing session from the speakers, we received a few welcoming speeches from our special guests at the event. Firstly, Acting Executive Director of Thailand Trade and Economic Office (TTEO) Mr. Sunh Arunrugstichai briefly explained Thailand’s development as a country. Despite the COVID situation, the bilateral trade and investment between Taiwan and Thailand are still sailing smoothly. In terms of ease of doing business in Thailand, it recently has shown more opportunities, especially to young entrepreneurs, due to increased internet access and access to mobile banking. Moreover, he also mentioned how the Thai government has been initiating an Eastern Economic Corridor project (EEC) to prepare the zone for the digital era by emphasizing in the 12 industries that are considered as important drivers for the country’s sustainable development.
Mr. Sunh Arunrugstichai – Acting Executive Director of Thailand Trade and Economic Office (TTEO)
Assistance Investment Promotion Officer of Thailand Board of Investment (BOI) in Taipei Office Mr. Kittipong Thapanapaha talked about ‘Thailand Investment Opportunity for Digital Industry’ and briefly explained why chose Thailand as a place to invest. Thailand is considered as the Crossroads of ASEAN due to the country being surrounded by the world’s economic powerhouses which can provide more opportunities for startups and investors to not just focus on Thailand, but also on the surrounding neighboring countries. The country has also been recognized to be a manufacturing-based industry for decades but it’s time to move forward with the Thai government strategy called ‘Thailand 4.0’ so as to enhance efficiency in the production process and increase competitiveness. He also briefly introduced the BOI promotion incentive package and the digital promotable activities.
Mr. Kittipong Thapanapaha – Assistance Investment Promotion Officer of Thailand Board of Investment (BOI) in Taipei Office
Director of Thai Trade Office in Taipei Ms. Kallaya Leewongcharoen briefly introduced the Department of International Trade Promotion (DITP) with its mission to help Thai entrepreneurs to be competitive on the global stage by providing consultation and facilitating them through various service channels. It is also DITP’s mission to increase business opportunities for Thai products and services through international trade shows while also continually increasing the quality of their services.
Ms. Kallaya Leewongcharoen – Director of Thai Trade Office in Taipei
Representative of Thai Student Association in Taiwan (TSAT) Ms. Natwara Lohapraditakon briefly introduced TSAT which is an online community where Thai students gather together to share information about life and education in Taiwan. TSAT has done collaboration and receives funding from the TTEO for the events and gatherings they hold each year.
Vice President of NTUST Thai Student Association Mr. Chairat Mooksri briefly introduced the NTUST Thai Student Association in hopes that through this event the Thai students from NTUST can get more opportunities in the future such as special seminars, workshops, collaboration from organizations, or sponsorships.
In the video, President of Taiwanese Student Association in Thailand Mr. Nicolas briefly introduced the Taiwanese Student Association in Thailand which is officially the first Taiwanese student organization in Southeast Asia. Their organization’s main emphasis is to strengthen the relationship between full-time and exchange students that are living in Thailand. They also want to advocate the interchange of culture and education between Taiwanese and Thai people, especially the students.
By moving on to the main topics of the event, STARTBOARD has also invited wonderful speakers from different companies to share their experiences in building or expanding their business into Taiwan or Thailand.
The Business Opportunities between Thailand and Taiwan in a Post-pandemic Future
Ms. Woranath Khemasiri as the PwC Thai Accountant (Thai Expert of NETA) shared about the PwC launched the yearly Taiwan CEO Survey by interviewing CEOs of Taiwanese businesses who are listed in the Taiwan stock market and also the private sector. Based on this year’s Taiwan CEO survey, the CEOs’ view towards the post-pandemic future is positive as they expect the business to continuously expand and grow abroad. They also see the potential of Thailand, Korea, and Malaysia to be the biggest markets in the next few years. Due to the pandemic and the rise of conflict between the U.S. and China, it pushed the Taiwanese CEOs to consider risk management of their business and determine the possibility of which country to expand into. Then, she moves on to explain a few things to know about Thailand’s recent economic challenges and prospects for recovery. The tourism sector around the world undoubtedly got affected the most during the pandemic which led people to find places that are safe to travel to. For the country to change into a post-pandemic future, they need to upgrade the automatic sector as they are still traditionally doing business. And as for foreign investment in Thailand, business owners would still encounter some restrictions so they need to make sure that their business complies with the law while also managing to get tax incentives from the government.
Ms. Woranath Khemasiri – PwC Thai Accountant
Connect the Future by mmWave Technologies
Mr. Su-Wei Chang as the Founder and CEO of TMYTEK mentioned that two important things to remember when moving towards digitalization are energy as in power to the future and communication. The company’s mission is to improve life quality with mmWave bandwidth as the 5G spectrum will keep growing bigger into the future. Then he moved on to talk a little bit about Metaverse which is about connecting the virtual world with reality. With a lot of bandwidth like mmWave, it can support the foundation of Metaverse and also achieve a future where all smart cities are connected. As a startup, he wants the company to be able to solve any problems related to mmWave. And so, the first product they made is BBox which currently has delivered 100 sets of it to companies including KDDI, SoftBank, Fujitsu, several Fortune 500 companies, and research institutions. Furthermore, the company recently announced the world’s 1st 5G mmWave Developer Kit for Academics and Research while also wanting to support mmWave talent incubation. Lastly, the reason Mr. Su-Wei Chang chose to enter the Thailand market other than having good connections with many Thai friends, it’s currently not easy for the business to go back to Europe and the U.S., especially with the recent global economic situation. He concluded that Thailand is considered to be a good place to build businesses for many reasons such as the population being very open to it.
Mr. Su-Wei Chang – Founder and CEO of TMYTEK
KOL Marketing in Thailand
Ms. Thelma Lin as the Director of Taiwan to South Association talked about how some of the social media are utilized in Thailand. During the pandemic, few of the internet eConomy sectors were on the rise, especially the online media sector. Firstly, Facebook is still widely used by Thai people even with its complex algorithm to reach the target audience. She emphasizes the importance of knowing how the algorithm works and to try an advertisement mix to analyze what kind of content will attract the right audience. Then for marketing through Instagram, picture quality matters because it can attract more followers if the quality of content is good. Last but not least, Youtube is all about putting more emphasis on long-tail SEO, especially in how frequently you update with quality content. In addition to those social media platforms, LINE is also considered to be very popular in Thailand. According to Ms. Thelma Lin, Thailand has the second most LINE users, coming behind Japan as the number one LINE users in the world.
Ms. Thelma Lin – Director of Taiwan to South Association
The e-commerce market and industry in thailand
Ms. Bow as the Thailand Marketing Specialist of GDT briefly mentioned the company’s services such as e-commerce, influencer, and payment & fulfillment. In terms of e-commerce solutions, GDT would always recommend building an official website as it’s the best way to build first impressions and gather brand-based memberships. Moreover, nearly 98% of users browse websites via portable devices so owning an application is also useful to save marketing budget and enhance the relationship between customers and brands.
GDT can also provide OMO (Online Merge Offline) solutions and fulfillment solutions; which is about building the company’s very own warehouse. With their solutions, the GDT team is capable of providing the most thoughtful service with effectiveness in cost and time, plus OMO opportunities. Lastly, when Ms. Bow was being asked about the differences in marketing strategies in ASEAN countries, she mentioned some countries such as Vietnam and Indonesia would have their own social media platforms so it may be harder for business owners to penetrate into those markets. However, in the case of Thailand, it has more international platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LINE, etc. The other problem that should be taken into consideration when applying the marketing strategy in other countries such as ASEAN would be the language barrier.
Ms. Bow – Thailand Marketing Specialist of GDT
Smart Fitness Solution and Business Model
Ms. Frances Huang as the Business Development Manager of Uniigym introduced the company as a platform that consists of people who love sports and builds solutions for people who love exercise without worrying about time and space. Furthermore, they help to enhance the fitness experience by the use of AR trainers (AI interactive fitness service). The service not only benefits the families but also the trainers who want to build their personal brand. The technology will track the movement for its accuracy and also record exercise history and health data tracking. Lastly, the reason why she chose Thailand for expanding Uniigym services is that the people in Thailand are very open-minded to new things and are looking for convenient ways to connect with each other. So due to already having connections in Thailand, she easily managed to hire trainers, employees and influencers.
Ms. Frances Huang – Business Development Manager of Uniigym
After the speeches, we also arranged time for the audience to ask questions and to network with all the speakers. Many Thai students and talents in Taiwan came to build connections with Taiwanese companies and startups. And connecting the entrepreneurial ecosystems of Taiwan and ASEAN countries is always our mission. STARTBOARD will consistently fulfill our vision and we toasted for the continued prosperity of Thailand and the everlasting friendship between our countries.
Meeting with Invest India
Last Friday, we were invited to the Networking Reception of the Friends of Thailand, held by the 
