In view of the fact that academic research has always been a key force driving national economic development, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) commissioned the Center of Industry Accelerator and Patent Strategy (IAPS), National Chiao Tung University to carry out the Integrated Cross-campus Accelerator Network (iCAN) program in 2016 and further established the Taiwan Tech Arena (TTA) in 2018 for the purpose of commercializing research results and promoting academia-industry collaborations. To demonstrate the strength of the startup teams that MOST has fostered, 2020 iCAN X TTA Batch#2 Demo Day was held on December 1, 2020 at TTA and was attended by venture capital fund managers and corporate executives as well as iCAN startup teams.Not only was the event aimed to enable partnership opportunities between startups and enterprises, but intended to recognize the startup teams that performed outstandingly during the second half of 2020.Chun-Yi Tu, deputy director-general, Department of Academia-Industry Collaboration and Science Park Affairs (DAICSPA), MOST, remarked in her speech that the cabinet and all the ministries exert active efforts to drive changes to Taiwan's startup incubation policies in hopes of building a healthy environment that can foster a flourishing startup scene. To this end, MOST has launched programs that aim to guide startup teams across different stages of development by providing them counseling, accelerator services, or global partnership match-making. Gathering a myriad of outstanding startups, the event is proof that the policy goal is gradually becoming a reality. MOST will keep investing resources to optimize Taiwan's startup ecosystem.Creating an ideal startup incubation environmentCommenting on iCAN's achievements in 2020, IAPS managing director Hank Huang noted that the program aims to commercialize academic research results and thereby fulfill MOST's goal to perfect Taiwan's startup ecosystem, drive a burgeoning startup scene, promote cross-campus collaboration and communication, boost foreign investments in Taiwan and accelerate industry development. Since July 2016, iCAN's efforts in promoting partnerships with business corporations and communication with international startup communities have successfully helped Taiwan's startups secure NT$450 million (US$15.94 million) worth of investments and orders from foreign and domestic enterprises. Specifically, in terms of partnerships with business corporations, iCAN brings in industry resources and provides tailored guidance every step of the way to enable startup teams to maximize their value while spurring the growth of existing corporations.Huang added that operating on the core concept of refined guidance and targeted investment, iCAN implements a three-step process when incubating a startup. The first step is guided by industry mentors, wherein a number of CXOs and professional mentors with 20 to 30 years of experience working for publicly listed companies as well as four leading accounting firms provide one-on-one counseling to help assess the startup's technology, finance, operation and marketing strength. The second step is meeting with angel investors, wherein the startup team will meet with close to 100 angel investors, venture capitalists and corporate investors one by one, who with insight into specific industries will offer suggestions on the adjustments the startup team should make. The third step is president investment, wherein the startup team will present directly to the corporate presidents at iCAN events to gain partnership opportunities in the form of strategic investments, product R&D collaborations and/or precise sales channel development. Thirteen such events have been held over the past four years.The biggest difference between what iCAN has been doing in 2020 and the past is that it is strengthening practical implementations such as collaborations with corporations, field testing and capital investments to accelerate startup growth. This part of iCAN's efforts further includes three aspects - engaging foreign investments, accelerating startup training and commercialization guidance. As of the end of November 2020, iCAN has held more than 500 refined counseling sessions, which were all planned with startup needs in mind. In each of these sessions, a group of corporate CXOs or professionals were selected based on an initial assessment of the startup team's needs. The selected mentors then provided suggestions from a wide range of perspectives including business operation strategies, analysis of market needs, core values, scaling growth, business and technology partnership matchmaking, multi-national finance planning and patent portfolio planning.Aside from the tailor-made refined counseling sessions, iCAN has also organized more than 25 training series and 100 investment matchmaking events to connect startups with corporations, helping startups precisely target a market segment and accelerate growth by tapping industry resources, working with enterprises and following market mechanism. Through its four and a half years of efforts, iCAN's cross-campus program has incubated 99 startup teams from 53 participating universities, successfully bringing in nearly NT$400 million worth of third-party investment and NT$50 million worth of business partnership. According to Huang, iCAN has created a business environment that fosters startup growth in the most practical way. Feedbacks and evaluations from the group of close to 100 startups have been positive across the board. The response rate from the 2020 survey reached 77.7% and the overall average satisfaction rating was 4.4 stars.Taiwan's vibrant startup sceneRecognized for their corporate health, market orientation, business progress, appeal to foreign and domestic corporations as well as potential as an investment target, six startup teams were awarded at the event. Among them, Sounds Great and CytoArm received the Most Promising Elite Award; Micro PC received the Fast Progress Award; YILI Railway Technology received the Domestic Firms' Favorite Award; Rovilus received the Foreign Firms' Favorite Award; and RedEye Biomedical received the Rising Star Investment Target Award. To encourage the teams to strengthen their product offerings and boost their operation efficiency, each of the awarded startups will have a chance to engage in a close partnership with a corporation.The event also included product presentations by eight teams with promising potential selected from biomedical and healthcare, artificial intelligence (AI), IoT, green energy and smart machinery sectors. Their products demonstrate practicality and creativity. For example, LuminX has developed a one-stop cellular pharmacokinetics test platform for pre-clinical cellular pharmacokinetics evaluation of cell therapies. DeepMentor provides the DeepLog miniaturized electronics design automation tool that can shorten the time it takes to deploy edge devices for cloud-based AI systems. Moldintel proposes a cutting-edge cloud-based molding solution.A total of 13 startup teams including the eight that gave presentations exhibited their products at the event and communicated with participating corporate executives and venture capitalists. Combining technology with field know-how, these teams have come up with products showing promising commercialization potential. For example, Lockists' scooter sharing platform allows members to share their motorcycles with other members without any intrusive modification. Neopower Technologies provides highly customized single-source or hybrid power system controllers which not only engage in real-time communication with subsystems and modules but also operate on self-developed algorithms to deliver benefits in performance and cost-effectiveness. NetFay's devices and services for smartphone backup and home surveillance ensure privacy protection while enabling optimal user experience.Chun-Yi Tu, deputy director-general of DAICSPA (front, third from right) and IAPS managing director Hank Huang (front, third from left) at 2020 iCAN X TTA Batch#2 Demo DayPhoto:Digitimes, December, 2020

Taiwan-based semiconductor makers such as Unimicron and Kinsus are expected to see their orders for 5G handsets to pick up significantly in 2021 as demand for 5G phones is expected to be brisk. Meanwhile, UMC will also see its capacity utilization rates stay in high gear in the first half of 2021 because of strong orders for wafer services. Taiwanese panel component suppliers are also enjoying China-based AMOLED panel makers' orders as they kicked off the operation of its AMOLED lines.Unimicron, Kinsus to embrace 5G handset sales boom in 2021: Taiwan's IC substrate makers Unimicron Technology and Kinsus Interconnect are poised to benefit significantly from 5G handset sales boom expected in 2021 as they reportedly have secured orders for BT-based FCCSP substrates from both Qualcomm and MediaTek for processing their latest 5G mobile SoCs, according to industry sources.UMC on track to post 20% revenue growth in 2020: Pure-play foundry United Microelectronics (UMC) is on track to post a 20% revenue increase in 2020, and is expected to enjoy a strong first half of 2021 thanks to full capacity utilization rates at its wafer fabs, according to industry sources.China makers kick off new AMOLED panel production lines: Several Taiwan-based panel component suppliers have started to log in orders for AMOLED panels from Chinese makers who kicked off their new AMOLED lines recently.

AMD is posing a strong challenge to Intel in the server processor market, with its share in the segment standing a good chance of reaching 20% in 2021. In the memory sector, supply constraints in speciality DRAM and NOR flash are sending spot market prices up. The carmaking industry is also seeing disruption to production thanks to shortages of MCUs and other ICs.AMD to further grow server market share in 2021: AMD is on track to see its share of the global server processor market reach 10% by the end of this year, with the share likely to reach 20% by the end of 2021, according to industry sources.Specialty DRAM, NOR flash prices rise in spot market: Spot market prices for specialty DRAM and NOR flash memory have begun to rise recently to reflect rising manufacturing costs, with the price rally set to persist through the second quarter of 2020, according to industry sources.Car vendors see production disrupted by IC shortages: Automotive OEMs, as well as first-tier suppliers, have seen their production disrupted by shortages of MCUs and other related ICs, according to industry sources.

E-paper solution provider E Ink Holdings (EIH) has managed to solicit more partners to join its e-paper application ecosystem, with an aim to jointly promote further adoption of e-paper solutions in hospitals, factories and retail stores, according to Digitimes Research.EIH had strong sales during the second and third quarter of 2020, with operating profits growing 331% annually for the first three quarters of year.Revenues generated from its electronic shelf labels (ESL) alone surged 78% in the January-September period of 2020 from the same period of a year earlier.With the penetration rate of ESLs in the global retail market still staying below 5% currently, the company is poised for robust growth in the segment in the future, Digitimes Research believes.Using EIH's e-paper solutions, Japan's Toppan Printing has rolled out RFID ESLs for smart factory applications, and Japanese vendor Bic Camera has already installed more than 3.6 million ESLs in total at its 45 chain stores.

Taiwan-based makers of medical devices and materials currently are technologically 2-3 years ahead of their Chinese competitors although the latter have a huge domestic market, said Harry Yang, vice president for Qisda's Medical Device and Product GroupQisda expects sales from medical products and services in 2020 to reach NT$15 billion (US$519 million), increasing 30% on year and taking up about 6% of 2020 consolidated revenues, Yang noted, adding it aims to increase the segment's revenues to NT$20 billion in 2021, of which NT$5 billion will come from hemodialyzers.Qisda currently produces hemodialyzers in Tawian for both the domestic and overseas markets including China, Yang said. For the Chinese market, Qisda has established a joint venture in China - BenQ Biotech (Shanghai) - with Shanghai Kunxin Medical Technology for making hemodialyzers, with production to begin in early 2022, Yang noted.BenQ Biotech will have annual production capacity of 40-50 million hemodialyzers, while the production capacity in Taiwan will be expanded to 2.2 million units, Yang indicated.Taiwan HealthCare+ Expo 2020Photo: Michael Lee, Digitimes, December 2020

Apple's adopting LiDAR based on dToF (direct time of flight) for iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12 Pro Max and iPad (2020) is expected to prompt Android smartphone vendors to follow suit, likely to replace indirect ToF (iToF) to become the mainstream 3D depth-sensing technology in 2021.While major Android phone vendors have integrated less expensive iToF technology with rear cameras, applications have been limited without significantly enhancing user experience. Since dToF can offer significant AR effects, phone vendors are expected to adopt it in place of iToF for their flagship smartphones beginning 2021, Digitimes Research believes.dToF features low power consumption, resistance to ambient ligh interference, capability to cope with complicated scenarios and accurate ranging, but its technological barriers and production costs are higher.iToF has higher resolution for 3D depth sensing and is supported by a mature supply chain for lower production cost but consumes more power.

Foundry supply has been tight, but it may not be easy for foundry houses to expand capacity, with a lack of funding being one of the difficulties. PSMC's solution is an "open foundry" business model, letting clients shoulder the investments in equipment that will be reserved for their exclusive use. The full impact of the outage at one of Micron's fabs in Taiwan is yet to be known, and memory module makers reportedly have stopped taking new orders, as they assess the supply-demand situation. Meanwhile, Digitimes Research forecasts that global server shipments will continue to grow in 2021 amid the lingering pandemic.PSMC in talks for new orders from panel vendor: Pure-play foundry Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing (PSMC) is in talks to rent new 12-inch fab equipment from a panel customer who intends to secure sufficient production capacity for display driver ICs in the long term, according to sources familiar with the matter.Memory module firms wary of Micron fab outage: Supply-side uncertainty arising from a recent power outage at Micron Technology's DRAM fab in Taiwan is prompting memory module houses to stop taking new orders and adopt a wait-and-see attitude, according to industry sources.Global server shipments to rise 5.6% on year in 2021, says Digitimes Research: Global server shipments will resume on-year growth in 2020, driven by rising demand for cloud computing services and work-from-home solutions amid the coronavirus pandemic. Related demand will continue rising in 2021 due to the lingering of the pandemic, drikving up shipments by another 5.6% on year next year, according to Digitimes Research's latest figures from its Server Tracker.

Global server shipments will resume on-year growth in 2020, driven by rising demand for cloud computing services and work-from-home solutions amid the coronavirus pandemic. Related demand will continue rising in 2021 due to the lingering of the pandemic, drikving up shipments by another 5.6% on year next year, according to Digitimes Research's latest figures from its Server Tracker.Server shipments were seriously disrupted in the first quarter of 2020 due to lockdowns in China that stalled the upstream supply chain. The supply chain was back on track in the second quarter, with clients' robust orders pushing shipments to the peak of 2020.Although server shipments have decelerated during the second half of the year, the global volumes are still expected to pick up 7% on year to surpass 16 million units in 2020 due to first-tier cloud computing service providers' keen order pull-ins, Chinese server brands' brisk shipments in response to the government's policies of expanding local cloud computing infrastructure, and a low comparison base in 2019.The lingering pandemic is likely to continue undermining the global economy, and enterprises' spending on procurement of equipment such as servers is expected to weaken in 2021. However, as remote work and online shopping have become a new normal for consumers, demand for cloud computing services will continue to pick up in 2021.With Intel and AMD set to make mass deployments of their new-generation CPUs in the first half of 2021, Digitimes Research expects a small wave of server replacement trend to take place, helping the global server shipments to achieve an annual growth of nearly 6% in 2021.

Production at one of Micron's fabs in Taiwan was disrupted by a power outage on December 3, but the company has maintained that operation of facilities has returned to normal. But how the Micron prodution disruption may be impacting memory supply remains to be seen. Memory may not be be short supply at the moment, but shortages of some other ICs have been troubling many sectors. HannStar Display has warned that driver IC shortages will cripple its fourth-quarter 2020 shipments of panels for wearable applications. Demand for driver ICs is expected to stay strong in 2021, and backend house Chipbond Technology is expanding testing capacity for the segment, along with RF and FA devices.Power outage at Micron Taiwan fab may impact global DRAM supply: A recent power outage at Micron Technology's wafer fab in Taoyuan, northern Taiwan may constrain the global DRAM bit supply, particularly to the server segment, according to industry sources.HannStar wearable panel shipments affected by driver IC shortages: HannStar Display has revealed that its panel shipments for wearable applications will be affected in the fourth quarter of 2020 by the fact that it has been only able to secure about 70-80% of driver ICs it needs due to tight production capacity at 8-inch foundry houses.Chipbond to expand backend capacity for RF, PA devices, driver ICs: Taiwan's backend house Chipbond Technology has disclosed plans to build additional testing capacity to satisfy robust demand for display driver ICs, RF and PA components.

COVID-19 has been hammering the world, with many companies facing tremendous challenges amidst risks and uncertainties beyond their control. But many startup teams demonstrating their prowess at the recent Demo Day held by SparkLabs Taipei have seen double-digit growths.Edgar Chiu, founder and managing partner of SparkLabs, explained what it takes to overcome the adversities of the pandemic and how mature companies can remain open-minded and create the best ways to work with new businesses.Q: At SparkLabs Taipei Demo Day, you mentioned that 2020 is a year when many startups will be severely impacted by the pandemic. But the teams at the event stage have had brilliant results and rapid growths. How did they make it?A: For entrepreneurs, the unknown is an everyday occurrence, but during an epidemic, it is double uncertainty, and some entrepreneurs may be blaming bad luck, as they were ready to soar, only to be hit by an epidemic. I tell them the same thing: Be patient, keep your feet on the ground, and reexamine what your users need. Has it become a different form? Has it translated into more demand? For example, our investment in teams working on cloud kitchen, online education and Internet of Things (IoT) devices around year-end 2019 and early 2020 have all seen rapid growths because of the pandemic.The best example is the cloud kitchen team Just Kitchen. In early 2020 it was a team of only only 10 people but has now expanded to 70, opened eight satellite kitchens, and expanded to Taichung (central Taiwan). It will enter Hong Kong in the first quarter of 2021. Few would understand what cloud kitchen was in later 2019, but the pandemic has sparked strong needs for food delivery.Innovation teams should not only see whether there is demand in the market, but also whether their services and products deserve the money that people pay for them. Innovation is not just about satisfying demand, but also about establishing loyalty among customers would want to use them again and again, as if a habit.In addition, FunNow, which announced in late October its acquisition of Malaysian restaurant reservation startup TableApp, was supposed to be a company that would solve the problem of consumers making last-minute decisions to book hotels and local leisure trips for overseas travels. The pandemic has completely shut the door on cross-border travels, so FunNow has turned its business focus to domestic travel, and moved all of its overseas team members to Taiwan. In second-quarter 2020, FunNow's sales grew 60% year-over-year.Q: We saw a very mature team, Kneron, on Demo Day. Why would such a successful team need the help of an accelerator? When training such a mature team, what are the goals you want to help them achieve?A: Most of the SparkLabs teams are in fundraising rounds of Series A or Pre-A. It is worth noting that the definition of fundraising rounds in the US is that Series A is when the team has readied the app, wants to expand or has already entered one to three countries, and wants to become the market leader. Series B is for teams that are market leaders in more countries and want to raise funds to widen the gap with competitors those in second place. However, many startup teams in Taiwan are not adhering to the definition, and they move up one notch in the fundraising rounds every time they raise funds.Back to the essentials, these seemingly mature teams are actually at a stage where they are either expanding rapidly into international markets, or want to expand even more so. SparkLabs can help at that stage, and some of the partners have had experience in expanding internationally from the time when they started their own businesses. The biggest challenge in expanding internationally is how to modularize and replicate your products and services in other markets. The challenges of international recruiting, business development, and fundraising are new to the Taiwanese teams, but they are critical to the success of the expansion.How can we help new startups? Once we decide to invest in a new venture, we go back to the basics and do a 2-3 hour interview to find out what the biggest bottlenecks are for the new venture. Then it's a matter of prioritizing these challenges, looking at what needs to be accomplished in the next 3 months, and then setting for the schedule weekly progress accordingly. You need to do weekly reviews and tailor support and assistance to individual teams.But the hardest part is corporate culture. People are the heart and soul of a company, but many companies seldom think about how to build a sustainable culture and spirit. How do you design an incentive program that motivates your employees to be proactive and take action to achieve these goals? And while business founders take this for granted, they should also examine whether their actions are consistent with their words. So we have a lesson in corporate culture for these new entrepreneurs to figure out where they want to take their companies and how to implement the corporate culture.As an accelerator, we help companies get back to basics - setting goals and implementing user feedback surveys. Next, we continually tweak the products, release updates in between, and then work on growth in the third month.Mature entrepreneurs come here to reset, or unlearn, to go back to the basics, review their status and improve their products, and make a transformation before a breakthrough growth. Even though a startup may have already raised a lot of money, they often say that they are most afraid of sitting down with us to reformulate their business strategy, re-examine the needs of their customers, and push forward plans to expand their business to overseas markets. Because if you don't meet your goals and get the traffic you want, you won't be able to attend Demo Day.Our role is not only as investors, but also as coaches, mentors, and friends, following the process. What we often tell new entrepreneurs is that even if they encounter a major setback, it's better to encounter it now than later. The psychological quality of the founder can be seen in the two weeks before Demo Day, when he or she has to prepare the presentation in English and promote business growth.Q: There are more and more companies willing to work with startups. There have been many unsuccessful cases in the past. What advice would you give to CVCs?A: There are a variety of ways for companies to connect with new ventures and gain access to innovative energy. One of them is to create their own acceleratos, either by setting up a corporate venture capital to invest in external startups, or by setting up a special department to support them.However, there is a practice in the US that is worthy of reference for Taiwan, and not many Taiwanese companies have done so yet: investing in several venture capital funds at the same time to see if the solutions of the portfolio teams are suitable for their own company's problems, or even to combine the technologies of different teams to form new applications. They are constantly scouting for innovations and investing a portion of their R&D funds in venture funds.Many Taiwanese companies fall into the strategic trap of trying to find external partners when they want to innovate, that is, to build on existing products and technologies to improve product specifications and performance, or to drive down costs.These companies often start from a profit/loss (P/L) perspective, concerned about how much room for growth they can bring to their existing business, but rarely look for new applications in the "blue ocean" market to bring in new revenue streams; nor do they pay attention to whether there is new demand in the market, or even the next big trend.It is usually too late to invest in new ventures because there are more and more competitors, and then it is too late to chase after them or enter the new ecosystem. At present, Taiwanese companies are still thinking about this kind of cooperation, but they are still very single-minded, only looking for potential partners in Taiwan, when they should be also looking outside to see if there are suitable opportunities overseas.Before co-founding Whoscall with my partner, I worked as a consultant at IBM to help the manufacturing industry establish new business mechanisms. Why do so many large foreign companies come to Taiwan to work with SparkLabs? It is because Taiwan's technology capability is very strong. When more and more enterprises come seeking support for their needs, SparkLabs can help match them, and very often, Taiwan's technological innovation may be most suitable for foreign application.Q: How do you form partnerships with the foreign companies?A: There are several ways. The first is to come to our Demo Day, and then choose from our "menu," namely which projects or teams you're interested in. Companies in Northeast Asian countries have been unable to go to other countries to see new innovations or technologies because of the epidemic, so they are keen to communicate clearly what they want to achieve. These are overseas and foreign investors who have done their homework and have figured out how to work together before the conversation.The second way is to tell SparkLabs what their most important task for 2021 is, and see if SparkLabs can match a team to that. Most companies set their goals for the year in October or November each year.Some companies are very focused on their own field of business. For example, banks only look at FinTech, while manufacturing companies are much interested in AI-related solutions. Companies usually start with partnerships, investments, and acquisitions. Some companies will partner with SparkLabs directly, or their senior executives will become SparkLabs' mentors to foster rapport and synergy by coaching startups.Companies can also choose to invest in SparkLabs' startup fund. Because of this financial relationship, it is possible to see early on which teams SparkLabs has brought in, and to collaborate with them at an early stage of the new venture.SparkLabs Taipei founder Edgar ChiuPhoto: Judy Lin, November 2020