TAIPEI, Nov. 17, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — To attract international startups and foster collaboration with local businesses, Taipei City is promoting the Taipei Entrepreneurs Hub (TEH) as the brand for the city’s international startup community. Today, on the 10th, TEH hosted the"2023 Global Health Tech Connects Taipei" at t.Hub, with the theme of Greater Health. Six selected international startup teams, along with six Taipei startups, including Taipei Biotech Award-winning teams, have been invited to participate in this grand event. The teams will present their pitches to potential investors, increasing their exposure and collaboration opportunities. Mayor Chiang Wan-an will especially attend the afternoon "Demo Day Showcase" to welcome this year’s participating startup teams in Taipei.
Mayor Chiang Wan-an, during his address, highlighted his personal experience as a lawyer who once assisted startup teams in Silicon Valley. This experience has given him profound insights into the challenges that startups encounter, including fundraising, talent recruitment, market expansion, scaling, and internationalization. In response to these challenges, the city government has implemented new startup policies, such as "investment funding," "talent attraction," and "facilitating transactions." Their objective is to reshape Taipei into a more startup-friendly city that provides support to both domestic and international startups, fostering a wide range of possibilities. Moreover, the mayor is enthusiastic about organizing international talent exchange activities to facilitate interaction and collaboration between international startup talent and Taipei’s industries, thereby expanding opportunities for retaining international talent and promoting industry cooperation.
In addition to welcoming the selected international teams to Taipei for this exchange, Mayor Chiang expressed his special gratitude to the attending industry leaders. He mentioned that the Taipei City Government will continue to support various international startup initiatives. They hope that through collaborative efforts with businesses and startup partners, they can jointly explore international markets and strengthen the connections between Taipei and the world.
During this year’s TEH Global HealthTech Connects Taipei event, five experts from the Greater Health industry, representing various countries, were invited to Taiwan to share their valuable insights. The distinguished experts included Dr. Ali Asgar Saleem Bhagat, the Director of the Singapore Health Technologies Consortium; Jingming Chew, co-founder of the Singapore-based biotech company Auristone; Sheng-Hung Lee, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) AgeLab; Dr. Yoshihiro Takemoto, a professor at Japan’s University of Tsukuba; and Dr. Akira Taniguchi, a professor at Nara Medical University. Their discussions spanned topics such as health industry resources in different countries, Taipei’s startup resources, and emerging trends in digital health. The primary goal of this exchange was to provide participants with a deeper understanding of Taipei’s future developments in the healthcare industry and the directions that health tech startups are taking. Ultimately, this exchange aimed to create opportunities for collaboration between the parties involved.
They shared insights on healthcare resource investment in their respective countries and discussed trends in healthcare, smart medicine, and innovation in Taipei City. This exchange of knowledge helped conference attendees understand the future development of the healthcare industry in Taipei and the goals of emerging bio-tech startups, fostering opportunities for collaboration.
During the afternoon Demo Day Showcase, international teams seized the opportunity to showcase their research and development accomplishments. This platform allowed investors to gain insights into the milestones each team intends to achieve within their respective developmental stages. For instance, Iflowtech from Singapore presented their ambitious plan for a potential public listing between 2028 and 2030, underscoring their commitment to sustainable growth. Furthermore, the Taipei Veterans General Hospital’s Medical Research Department, honored with the Taipei Biotech Award’s Cross-Domain Excellence Award this year, demonstrated Taiwan’s expertise in semiconductor biomedicine chips and automation technology for stem cells. Their presentation highlighted advancements in regenerative medicine and personalized healthcare applications.
The Taipei City Government’s Department of Economic Development has stressed the significance of attracting international startup teams possessing key technologies and research and development capabilities. This focus on supporting local industry technology cooperation and transformation is a major priority for the city government. In its pursuit of harnessing innovative entrepreneurial energy as a driving force for Taipei’s city diplomacy, the Taipei City Government established the "Taipei Entrepreneurs Hub" (TEH) as the official brand for the startup community in 2021. Actively fostering connections with global startup ecosystem resources, TEH has organized diverse field exchange activities spanning various industries and time zones. Its mission is to offer the most comprehensive guidance and abundant resources to the entrepreneurial community. As of September 2022, a total of 126 international startup teams from 39 countries have been selected to participate in this initiative, with 16 of them choosing to establish a presence in Taipei. Furthermore, during this year’s event, the city government hosted the Taipei International Startup Festival in collaboration with private organizations. This included a series of entrepreneurial activities and exhibitions designed to welcome startup teams and encourage them to explore diverse opportunities within Taipei.
In the future, the Taipei City Government will continue to collaborate with startup partners and businesses to explore potential future collaborations. TEH will persist in resource integration, offering essential information for international entrepreneurs looking to develop in Taipei. For more information on upcoming events, please follow the official Facebook fan page or LinkedIn page.