Taiwan's government-backed Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) is carrying out a special project to invite selected international youth startups engaged in IoT to visit Taiwan to better learn the country's supply chains and locate optimal cooperation partners, according to government sources.
Under the project, dubbed Taiwan Innovation & Technology Arena (TITAN), a total of 10 youth IoT startups selected from the US, Belgium, Canada, Finland, Mexico, Singapore and Spain will join six counterparts from Taiwan to attend incubation courses provided by private and government-sponsored incubation centers in Taiwan.
Government officials said that many of the invited startups have quite good product or service ideas and have attracted abundant development funds, but they have had big problems rolling out commercially, as they have run into issues implementing product features or erroneously estimating production cost, leading to a catastrophic effects on their development.
Granting a helping hand
Taiwan's manufacturers may grant a helping hand in this regard, due mainly to their robust prowess in handling small-volume and large-variety production. This has inspired the government to invite international startups to come to Taiwan with their IoT products and services, seeking to bridge cooperation between startups and local hardware manufacturers, the officials said.
The invited startups will each be granted a subsidy of NT$600,000, and their members will be allowed to stay in Taiwan for six months, so that they can make good contacts with Taiwan's manufacturing partners, the officials disclosed, adding that many local hardware makers hope to find potential partners and customers from among the startups and offer them assistance as needed.
Chen Liang-gee, Taiwan's minister of science and technology, said that the TITAN project will be centered on cultivating international talent and introducing innovation startups into the country, aiming to systematically build linkages between Taiwan's startup ecosystem and international funds and talent, and accelerate the development of next-generation IoT technologies and applications.
Article translated by Willis Ke
