Singapore-based tech startup Tuple Technologies has successfully applied its AI-based facial recognition technology to create brand-new logistics of unmanned store, allowing many consumers to simultaneously enter the store but leave one by one after settling accounts.Tuple's chief marketing officer and AI system team leader Santhosh Nagaiah said that to access unmanned stores, consumers must first download a specific app, take a selfie of their facial features and have their credit cards linked for online payment.Consumers pick their commodities - all of which carry FRID (frequency radio ID) labels - and then pass through face recognition cameras and FRID sensor gateways. The system can automatically identify the commodities they purchase and the cloud backend will automatically charge their purchases from their credit cards, according to Nagaiah.Besides the face recognition service, Tuple also applies AI technologies for big data analysis, social networking management, enterprise marketing, logistics control, market prediction, smart retail, and robot dialogues, according to the firm's CEO Raymond Lim.Lim said that Tuple now offers internal data analysis mainly for the banking, insurance, and logistics sectors, and its sub-brand Frolic Innovation provides virtual platforms to support smart retail sales and will incorporate blockchain technology to break through international and foreign exchanges hurdles.As to social networking management, SP Lim, the firm's manager in charge of the business, said that Tuple's AI system can collect data concerning users and their living habits and then provide useful information to better cater to user needs. For instance, users usually tend to source information concerning hotels and car rental service at 8:00pm-9:00 pm after dinner, and Tuple will offer more related information on social networks.

Taiwan tech startup FootPrintKu (FPK) has newly released an AI-based EDA cloud management platform seeking to build universal standard design specs for electronics parts by leveraging intelligent automation and digitization services as well as innovative EDA library technologies.FPK co-founder YC Hwang said that the new platform can accelerate the advancement of the EDA industry, helping IT and semiconductor players develop electronics design and production process, upgrade electronic components data management and promote common standards for electronic parts and components.Hwang disclosed that FPK has secured a preemptive presence in the EDA and cloud service platform space, with Intel and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturers Company (TSMC) among its target customers. The company is also actively seeking to work with leading EMS and ODM service providers such as Foxconn, Quanta Computer and Compal Electronics, according to Hwang.Along with the increasing complexity of process technologies and electronic components designs, EDA has become the core of electronics technologies, not only thoroughly revamping electronic design systems but also bringing unprecedented developments for the semiconductor industry, Hwang indicated.But the lack of common standards has made the establishment of local electronics parts and components databases a costly and time-consuming job, posing a great challenge for makers in the face of increasingly short product life cycles, he continued.To counter, Hwang revealed, FPK announced at the Design Automation Conference held in late June 2018 the first cloud-based SaaS (software as a service) platform allowing design teams to launch products faster and more easily by utilizing their automation intelligence engines.At the conference, the company also launched FPK Studio to serve design engineers. Users can easily upload electronic parts requests to the FPK Studio, and the system will work out PCB footprints, schematic symbols and 3D models needed by the users within 24 hours and compatible with major EDA software tools.Another new product FPK Vault, designed to meet the needs of librarians, allows users to securely store, preview, edit and search their design library from anywhere using advanced search parameters. All files are kept in the cloud, and file changes and updates are kept current and accurate through version control, with no additional tools or licenses required.FootPrintKu founder YC Hwang (second left)Photo: Monica Chen, Digitimes, September 2018

Having started three businesses, two of which successfully went public, founder of Vivo Capital Frank Kung set foot in the biotech sector in the 1970s. Thanks to Kung's decades of experiences in investing in biotech firms in the US and Greater China, Vivo Capital has made itself the largest biotech venture capital fund in Chinese communities worldwide, managing over US$1.7 billion in capital including the Taiwan Silicon Valley Technology Fund. Furthermore, Kung often attends the Taiwanese government's Bio Taiwan Committee meetings and offers advice for the development of Taiwan's biotech industry.Know the difference between healthcare products and consumer productsAccording to Kung, biotech products include healthcare products and consumer products. Investors must have a clear understanding on the difference between the two to avoid making blind bets. Many investors don't have the slightest idea about the nature of business of the biotech firm they invest in. They are merely betting on the assumption that it will be acquired by a big enterprise later on. Such wishful thinking can be problematic. A major difference between healthcare products and consumer products is the former have to undergo a series of tests and obtain approval from government authorities, such USFDA or Taiwan FDA, in order to go to market while the latter, such as dietary supplements and facial masks, have to overcome challenges in marketing and product differentiation. Both the investors and the entrepreneur need to have a clear objective as to whether the startup they are funding or founding is selling a product or technology. If it is selling a product, they must know whether it is a healthcare product or consumer product. Only by having a clear picture can investors further assess the potential and market value of the startup.In talking about healthcare products, Kung pointed out Taiwan's current conditions are rather unfavorable for startups endeavoring on healthcare product development. There are three elements to startup success - technology, talent and capital. Taiwan must be able to eliminate obstacles with respect to these three elements in order to foster a flourishing biotech industry. First of all, in terms of technology, Taiwan has very few firms specializing in making innovative healthcare products. Many pharmaceutical firms only produce generic drugs or new forms of old drugs. Strictly speaking, they are not working on biotechnology applications, let alone making innovations. As such, for a Taiwan biotech startup to succeed, it must have unique technology to be able to establish market presence.With respect to talent, Taiwan lacks the human resources to develop healthcare products. In fact, Taiwan has plenty of professionals doing medical research but few of them have the capability to commercialize research results. Rather than recruiting medical scientists from abroad to do product research, Taiwan should seek specialists in commercializing healthcare products. This will be more helpful in pushing the development of Taiwan's biotech industry, suggested Kung.As to capital, it is not easy for biotech startups to obtain funding in Taiwan. Taiwan's venture capital funds mostly invest in mature companies and impose more stringent requirements on startups. Furthermore, having accumulated more than a decade of experiences in funding biotech businesses, investors have gained a more in-depth understanding on the industry but the capital funneled into biotech firms is still insufficient. As investors are still drawn to pour fund into firms with promising technology, Series A funding is generally not a problem. However, despite lower technological risks in Series B funding, startups face the challenge as to how to enhance their market value and find experienced professional investors to support them. What's worse is that regulatory restrictions have deterred foreign investments in Taiwan's biotech businesses. As a result, the third and fourth rounds of financing become even more challenging, which also makes investors more conservative during earlier-stage funding.The development of healthcare products is a long and risky process. It's time consuming and capital hungry. For example, it took TaiMed Biologics 10 years to have its new drug Trogarzo approved by FDA for the treatment of multidrug resistant HIV-1 infection.Taiwan should create a healthy investment climate and relax regulatory controlTake Vivo Capital for example. The biotech firms that Vivo Capital invests in mostly already have their new treatments in clinical trial with human experiment data and case studies available so they can better spur investor interests. Although there are many medical centers and medical professors leading research projects in Taiwan, without a good judge of talent, these projects mostly end up as papers in academic journals and have no chance of being assessed for their commercialization potential. Kung advises that entrepreneurs aspiring to biotech development should take some time to study market needs so that they are able to come up with the best startup idea.The supply of talent is a big challenge to biotech industry development. Although many biotech research organizations have instituted technology transfer programs, most of them are just following the trend without extensive know-how. The lack of talent specializing in commercializing healthcare products is Taiwan's greatest weakness in its endeavors to promote biotech industry development, reiterated Kung.In terms of technology, it will be a long way to go for Taiwan-based firms to develop new biotech products from scratch. It may be a better idea to bring in validated technologies from abroad. However, the basic consideration is still whether there is a favorable environment and incentive fostering biotech development. What the government can do is to relax regulatory control and create a healthy investment climate, rather than using state funding to support a few biotech firms, which can only generate short-term benefits but not sustainable long-term growth for the industry.Nevertheless, the outlook for the Taiwan biotech industry is not all bleak. Taiwan-based firms still have opportunities in consumer biotech products. For example, Fitbit took the market by surprise with its success at wearable devices for healthcare purposes. It is even leading the competition by a widening distance. If Taiwan-based firms set a goal to develop consumer biotech products, they must have innovative ideas, know the competition well and realize what it takes to penetrate into the market. They also need to overcome technological barriers so that their products can cater to consumer preferences. Kung emphasized entrepreneurs endeavoring on biotech development need to stay on top of market conditions and establish a clear market position. Only by doing so can they minimize the risks when starting a new business.(Editor's note: This is part of a series of interviews focusing on the problems and opportunities that Taiwan-based startups face. The interviewees are venture capitalists and angel investors from Silicon Valley and Taiwan.)Frank Kung, founder of Vivo CapitalPhoto: Frank Kung

Co-founder of Translink Capital Jackie Yang has accumulated 21 years of experience in venture capitalism since he first set foot in the field in 1996. Having witnessed the rise and fall of Taiwan industries and changes in technologies, Yang thinks although the PC and semiconductor industries that have fueled Taiwan's economic growth are experiencing market saturation and maturity, startups still have a good chance at success if they are able to capture opportunities. He gives some pointers and suggestions to Taiwan's entrepreneurs based on his experiences in funding successful startups.Five things to focus on for startups looking to bring innovations to people's livesOver the past decade or so, venture capital funds in Silicon Valley mostly invested in startups endeavoring on innovative hardware devices. This is called the "Hard Tech" sector including network equipment, optical communication and semiconductor firms. However, these businesses have begun to face market saturation since 2000. Not a lot of startups were emerging and new companies were mostly spin-offs from large enterprises or founded by people originally working for large enterprises. Venture capital funds today mainly invest in startups that bring creative changes to people's lives, such as Uber, AirBnB and e-commerce firms. Yang offers five suggestions to Taiwan startups that wish to venture into lifestyle innovations or consumer devices.Get familiar with the local cultureLifestyle innovations have to be largely based on how local people live. For example, if you live in San Francisco, you'll know that not only is it difficult to hail a taxi on the street but it is also expensive to take one, not to mention the fact that taxi service there leaves a lot to be desired. Then, you can understand how Uber could quickly rise up in San Francisco. However, for Taiwan startups looking to work on lifestyle innovations, the local market is too small. If they target the China market instead, they need to have someone familiar with the China market to join the team and they also need to work as aggressively as young people in China to be able to compete in the China local market.Target niche market segmentsCamera drone maker DJI and action camera maker GoPro both chose to target a specific group of users. DJI focused on developing drones for professional users right from the beginning. This group of users come from all over the world and form an online community, where they engage in communication and help DJI build up a strong brand reputation. The success of GoPro is a good example demonstrating the effectiveness of word-of-mouth marketing. Among the slew of camera suppliers, GoPro was the first to make cameras for extreme sports and put the captured video footages on YouTube, which served as powerful advertising. Taiwan-based MSI, specializing in gaming PC, is another successful firm that focuses efforts on a niche segment.Creative sales approach: direct marketingOne thing GoPro and smart wristband maker Fitbit have in common is their direct approach to product sales, which is not often adopted by Taiwan-based firms. Besides GoPro and Fitbit, Xiaomi also makes use of such a creative sales strategy and actually saved a large sum of marketing costs in its early-stage expansion. In addition to selling products directly to users, Fitbit is able to achieve great success also because it chose to add network communication capability to its pedometer early in the development stage, which is a critical feature to consumer devices and enables data sharing with smartphones.Differentiating featuresThe success of Fitbit has spurred a slew of followers making smart wristbands. However, startups should not make me-too products and instead must come up with differentiating features. Despite being a follower also making smart wristbands, Misfit did a survey before they entered the market and found the biggest complaint from users is battery life, so it came up with wristbands requiring no charging, allowing it to successfully penetrate into the market.It is not easy for startups to develop differentiating technologies, especially in the case of mature industries that hold a high technological barrier. On the other hand, in the case of emerging technologies, there may be fewer people with specialized expertise to compete against but this also means it is more difficult to get help when you encounter a bottleneck. Taiwan-based startup Appier, focusing on AI technology, is among the few firms that possess its own R&D strength. It provides AI-based big data analytics to help enterprises with advertisement placement and digital marketing. Having accumulated a myriad of successful use cases, Appier generates impressive revenues, half of which are contributed by overseas clients.User base is the keyAside from consumer devices and AI-based application services, Translink Capital also invests in social media. According to Yang, as long as a social media site gains a sufficient user base, its profitability is just a matter of time and the business model is usually not a real concern. The key point is whether it can operate across borders and not be limited to a single region.The automotive industry is undergoing revolutionary changesAs a venture capitalist, Yang is often asked which industry he is currently taking an interest in. In response to the question, Yang said among traditional industries, the automotive sector is the one faced with the biggest challenges in recent years. All automakers are bracing themselves for impact. "C.A.S.E" – each of these has the power to turn the automotive industry upside down. "C" (connected) means cars, like smart wristbands and watches, must have network communication capability to become connected cars. "A" (autonomous) refers to autonomous driving backed by a multitude of sensor, software and AI technologies. "S" represents "smart city" or "sharing" which includes the innovative services, such as Uber, and even Zipcar car sharing, changing how people choose means of transportation. "E" refers to electric car, which is undergoing flourishing developments in China.Self-driving cars combined with ride sharing or car sharing services will bring radical changes to user habits. For example, consumer demand for vehicles may go down or it is more precise to say that consumers may no longer be those making car purchases. Automakers are acting prudently to cope with future changes and many of them have begun to invest in or expand into ride sharing services.Amid rapid technology advances and market changes today, not only do startups need to capture opportunities but large enterprises also sustain significant impact. When the market becomes saturated, how can large enterprises maintain growth by fostering innovations? Yang suggests that every firm should allocate at least 0.5-1% of its budget for startup investment. Startups can serve as a unit doing advanced R&D for large enterprises, especially when their internal R&D units have problem keeping up with new trends and are falling behind schedule. Samsung, wishing to take a different approach from the competition, makes active efforts to work with startups and has a well-developed policy in this respect. Among Taiwan-based businesses, Foxconn is the most aggressive in startup investments.Japan's second largest property insurance firm has recently funneled investment into Translink Capital in hopes of gaining an understanding on innovative technologies through Translink Capital. In doing so, the Japanese firm not only seeks partnership opportunities but also looks to prevent emerging FinTech services from grabbing its market share.(Editor's note: This is part of a series of interviews focusing on the problems and opportunities that Taiwan-based startups face. The interviewees are venture capitalists and angel investors from Silicon Valley and Taiwan.)Jackie Yang, co-founder of Translink CapitalPhoto: Joseph Tsai, Digitimes, May 2018

To promote precision sports, ITRI, SEMI, Chang Gung University (CGU), and National Taiwan Sport University (NTSU) have signed an agreement to jointly develop flexible hybrid electronics and to formulate a developmental blueprint for related industrial technology.Precision sport science can provide more efficient training that will boost the chances of winning in competitions, they said.The joint efforts will focus on smart wearable products that will assist the athletic community in collecting and analyzing data. This will help to identify athletes with potential and provide reference for coaches' tactical decisions. Local and global companies will work together to establish an independent flexible hybrid electronics industry in Taiwan, paving the way to tap into the enormous market for sports technology, they said.Chih-I Wu, ITRI's vice president and general director of Electronic and Optoelectronic System Research Laboratories, remarked that flexible hybrid electronics make it possible to effectively attach the devices to specific areas of the body and thereby enhance the comfort level in wearing them and accuracy in measuring physiological signals. ITRI's Flexible Hybrid Electronics Precision Motion Detection System utilizes wireless transmission technology to transfer myoelectric signals from the wearer of the device to a computer, and then uses algorithms to interpret muscle strength and fatigue. Integrated knowledge in various aspects of athletic training, the results can then be used in the course of training athletes or assisting in coaches' tactical decisions. This cooperation, he said, will take advantage of ITRI's excellence in information and communications and integrate the expertise of the industrial, academic, and research communities.SEMI Taiwan president Terry Tsao stated that Taiwan has a comprehensive and highly vertical microelectronics industry supply chain and an impressive ability in integration, which yields key advantages in developing enormous business opportunities in flexible hybrid electronics. In collaboration with ITRI, FlexTech, a SEMI strategic partner for flexible hybrid electronics, on October 3 will formally establish the Taiwan FlexTech Steering Committee with the hope of assembling the academic, industrial, and research communities to jointly establish Taiwan's flexible hybrid electronics industry supply chain. Committee members will focus on smart wearables for precision athletics and fitness, assist in laying out a developmental blueprint for flexible hybrid electronics technology, and jointly promote international standards. The SEMI-FlexTech global platform will enable local and global companies to engage in greater cooperation, while the Flexible Electronics Conference and Exhibition (FLEX Taiwan) will continue to play a vital role in enhancing the technological strengths of Taiwan's flexible hybrid electronics and boosting the industry's international visibility, Tsao said.CGU president Chia Chu Pao remarked that his university has already yielded successful integration of physiological signal and biomarker sensing, with practical applications in smart clothing, cardiac mapping, and the development of ultrasonic brain drug delivery systems.NTSU indicated that developing sensors that can be used in sport contests has become an urgent topic in the development of competitive sports science in Taiwan. The sensors must be easily attached and comfortable, accurately collect the necessary training details in various sports, and comply with game rules. They could record all training and the course of competition, and then transmit data to a cloud database for analysis and real-time feedback. The team from NTSU hopes to take advantage of its participation in this project to be on the frontline in integrating the needs of coaches and athletes.In the future, the four parties will develop technology and products driven by the needs of trainers and athletes, and will focus on five topics: precision selection of potential athletes; precision training and monitoring; precision prediction of readiness; precision regulation of the competition process; and precision collection of analytical data.In the long run, the technological applications they will have developed will be extended to the textile industry to assist in the development of smart clothing technology and help the industry move into high added-value markets.ITRI, SEMI, CGU and NTSU team up for sports sciencePhoto: ITRI

Acer ITS has installed in-house-developed smart parking meters along a road section in Taipei, with operation kicking off on September 6, according to the company.The Acer subsidiary is undertaking a pilot project of smart roadside parking management commissioned by the city government.The parking meters can detect cars moving into roadside parking spaces and recognize their license plates. When cars leave, the meters will immediately transfer information on available parking spaces to a cloud computing-based platform established by Acer ITS. The information is available to users of a company-developed smartphone app.The smart meters have higher efficiency in parking management, providing real-time information on vacant parking spaces, Acer ITS indicated.The 13 smart meters recently installed in Taipei are expected to handle 5,000 times of parking a month, and the data collected by the meters can help the city government understand parking behavior in the area at different times.Acer ITS has also obtained two roadside smart parking meter projects from Tainan and Kaohsiung, both in southern Taiwan.Smart parking meters installed along a road in Taipei Photo: Acer ITS

Sending shockwaves through the manufacturing sector, the virus infection incident seen in early August at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has fueled great concerns among manufacturers over how to tackle information security (InfoSec) problems when entering the IIoT (industrial Internet of Things) manufacturing environment.TSMC has indicated that the virus infection incident was mainly caused by human errors seen in the process of software installation at new fab equipment, leading to the spread of the variant virus of WannaCry to part of its fab tools and computer systems.The incident has indicated that even TSMC, a paragon manufacturer long noted for stringent computer security management, can hardly 100% stall virus infection, not to mention small- to medium-size enterprises usually short of information security resources to counter malware invasions or hacker attacks.For enterprises operating in the IIoT environment, information security protection is no longer just a job for IT engineers, and it requires concerted efforts from all the departments including production management, information management, marketing, financial and even general affairs. Enterprises must enhance their information management, inject an accurate IIoT InfoSec concept into employees and work out standard operating procedures (SOP) for employees to follow, so as to effectively block InfoSec loopholes and possible threats from any channel. Gartner has predicted that there will be as many as 20.4 billion IoT devices in use by 2020, with total hardware expenses estimated to hit US$3 trillion. GSMA has also estimated the global production value associated with IIoT applications at manufacturing plants to reach US$3.7 trillion by 2025, with 4.1 billion IIoT networks to be seen in the Greater China region - about one third of the global total.Heavy global spending on InfoSec protectionWith growing IIoT applications, enterprises are investing heavily on IIoT InfoSec protection. Gartner's latest statistics show that annual global spending on InfoSeC products and services is estimated to reach US$114 billion in 2018, up 12.4% from 2017, and to surge 8.7% on year to US$124 billion in 2019.Nevertheless, many companies already incorporating IIoT applications have not actualized their InfoSec protection strategies, as the discrepancies between the standard protocols for OT (operation technology) and IT (information technology) have made OT-IT integration difficult to achieve. In the IIoT era, more devices used in offices and factories, as well as personal devices will have their own IP addresses with network connection capability. In the office, for instance, PC, smartphones, network printers, network phones and cameras, and even illumination systems or punch clocks are all possible entry points for hacking attacksIn building IIoT InfoSec protection system, enterprises must manage to achieve perfect connections between manufacturing and information systems, focusing their efforts on four major aspects: conducting a clear check on all the equipment assets; establishing modes of possible security threats; making constant updates to InfoSec systems, modes of security threats and SOPs; and maintaining close contacts with related institutes, such as Critical Intelligence, Infragard, IoTSF, ISAXC, OWASP and SCADAHacker, so as to get the latest InfoSec information and solutions.

China is moving at full throttles to develop its own tech innovation capabilities seeking to compete well with the US, Japan and advanced Europe countries and become a "super" strong manufacturer by 2035 after advancing to a strong one by 2025.Based on the "Made in China 2025" project, the country aims to build its sown industrial software technology standards and ecosystems by 2020, when its share of the markets for lower-end tech products is estimated to reach 30% along with a 40% penetration rate for in-house developed cloud and terminal industry big data platforms in major industries.China is expected to achieve breakthroughs for some core technologies by 2025, when its in-house developed software products is estimated to command a market share of over 50%, compared to a penetration rate of over 60% for Internet+ and smart industry cloud systems in major industries.At the moment, China still lags far behind advanced countries in independent tech innovation capabilities, relying heavily on imports or foreign-invested firms in the country to supply crucial equipment, core components and infrastructure software.For instance, China has to count on overseas sources for the supply of automation design, precision equipment, industrial-control chips, precision electrical engineering, high-end spindles and diverse high-caliber materials, as well as related software programs for IIoT or industrial robots.

Taiwan's government-sponsored Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Aerospace Industrial Development (AIDC) and Mirle Automation have cooperated in developing high-precision robotic arms specifically for manufacturing aerospace components.Aerospace components makers have usually used 5-axis machine tools in their production, but because such tools are very expensive, they are seeking to use robotic arms to reduce equipment cost by 60%, ITRI said.Currently, aerospace components makers have employed robotic arms in around-cutting, drilling, grinding, polishing and assembly of aircraft skin, ITRI noted. However, there is a technological bottleneck in using robotic arms in manufacturing aerospace components: precision positioning is difficult to meet the required level of ±0.25mm, ITRI said, adding currently, precision of robotic arms with high payloads generally ranges between ±1mm and ±10mm.To solve the problem, ITRI has developed EtherCAT-Motion Intelligence Orchestration (eMIO), a robot controller platform capable of reducing deviation in positioning to a precision level of ±0.23mm. Production cost for Taiwan-made robotic arms equipped with eMIO is estimated to be 50% lower than those with the same precision offered by international vendors, ITRI indicated.ITRI, AIDC, Mirle jointly exhibited an eMIO robotic arm at the recently concluded Tawian Automation Intelligence and Robot Show in Taipei.An eMIO robotic armPhoto: Chloe Liao, Digitimes, September 2018

Taiwan-headquartered Ucarer, which helps connect Chinese seniors who need in-home care with homecare professionals, is seeking series B funding as it begins to expand business to Silicon Valley.With its recent launch in Silicon Valley, Ucarer has become the first homecare service platform that specializes in serving the Chinese community in the US.Tech startups are raciing to gain foothold in the homecare space where demand for high-quality and personalized in-home care is growing. Ucarer cited Aging in Place Technology Watch as indicating that tech-enabled homecare startups have received more than US$400 million of funding as of 2018. Chinese in-home care market is underserved largely because of cultural elements and yet Chinese homecare players are currently still in an infancy stage.Ucarer said it has raised US$1.5 million in series A round, led by Taiwan-based family funds in 2017. The company started in 2015 in Taiwan by co-founders Hung-yi Chen, David Lin, and Wilson Liu. The founding members each have two decades of experiences in ecommerce operations, software development, and caregivers management under their belts.Prior to Ucarer, Chen, now Ucarer's chairman, started his career in CRM (customer relationship management) product development management at Oracle, and later came to manage products in different lines of business within Oracle. Then he was CIO and VP of Monday Tech Taiwan, an ecommerce company which was later acquired by Yahoo. Throughout his work and living experiences in Silicon Valley, Taiwan and China, Chen said he understands the homecare needs of the Chinese community."In addition to Taiwan, the Chinese American market in Silicon Valley is the market we're aiming for," said Chen. "There are over seven millions of Chinese immigrants in the US and Canada, and 10% of that population is living in San Francisco Bay Area. The SF Bay Area market demand is around US$250 million annually," he said.Chen also explained that the plan is to use the new capital to further penetrate the Taiwan market and to develop business in the US market. The company chose to land in Plug and Play Tech Center in Sunnyvale with the initial focus on the Chinese market in Silicon Valley.Jessica Su, Ucarer's caregiver support director who is in charge of the management of caregivers, said "caregivers who want to offer their services via the platform are thoroughly interviewed and qualified by Ucarer before their detailed information can be added to the portal. Through the know-hows in screening processes, we can deploy the caregivers quickly and carefully."Ucarer started in Taiwan and plans to expand the service to Chinese population all over the world. In Taiwan, the platform offers its customers different care service providers, ranging from certified caregivers, nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists, and creative arts therapists."We're not simply taking the business model from Taiwan to apply in the US," said Chen. "We want to build Ucarer as a household brand name in the US with expanded service to include massages and acupuncture therapists," he added. After launching in Silicon Valley, the company plans to expand to southern California next and eventually all over the US.Ucarer co-founder and chairman Hung-yi Chen (left), and team member Adam Lin at Plug and Play Tech Center in Sunnyvale. Photo: Company