The Eye on Taiwan news staff

A total of 388 startups from 21 countries will take part in this year’s InnoVEX, one of the major exhibits of COMPUTEX TAIPEI  focusing startups and showcasing innovative ideas, technological marvels, and investment exchanges.

Two more sessions (“Workshop” and “Startup Tour”) will be added to InnoVEX to bring more momentum from local and global startups in addition to the existing elements of “Display”, “Demo”, “Pitch” and “Forum,” organizers of COMPUTEX TAIPEI said.

“According to Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2018, global venture capital investment in startups hit a decade high in 2017 with over US$140 billion invested in startups,” said Walter Yeh, president and CEO of Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), a major organizer of COMPUTEX TAIPEI, in a news conference held on Tuesday.

“To achieve and build the vision of a smart ecosystem for startups, COMPUTEX incorporates ‘Innovations & Startups’ into its themes this year,” Yeh said, adding: “We integrate highly resilient elements and forms into the exhibition, creating a dynamic arena for their innovations.”

Representatives from Audi, La France à Taiwan (Business France), the Epoch Foundation’s Garage+, Health2Sync, the Korea Trade Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), and the Netherlands Trade and Investment Office (NTIO) attended the news conference on Tuesday.

According to the organizers, InnoVEX will feature six highlights this year:

• Display

The number of country pavilions will be four times higher than last year, with a total of 13 countries— including Belgium, Canada, EU, France, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Poland, Singapore and Spain.

One-third of the startup exhibitors from abroad are AI related, including CTA (Poland), H3O (Hong Kong), Incubit (Japan), Talentum (Spain), Silexica (Germany) and westwell lab (China).

Other exhibitors include Taiwan’s Garage+, CDIB Capital Innovation Accelerator, Hong Kong-based Zeroth.AI, and MaGIC from Malaysia. World-renowned accelerators and startups, such as Alibaba’s Bitmark and Health25ync, Amazon, CCIA, Deloitte, Fenox Venture Capital, Intel, JAFCO, Telefónica, WI Harper Group and Zhongguancun, will also show up to look for investment targets as the event seeks to facilitate circulation of resources for globalization.

●   Demo

French and Polish startups will present demonstrations on June 6. On the same day (from 11:00 am – 12:00 noon), world-renowned accelerators and startups like Audi, Amazon Launchpad and Samsung NEXT will share their global initiatives and cross-industry matching strategies at the Taipei World Trade Center Hall 3.

With the goal to connect solutions and services for the very early stage of startup operation to commercialization, these demos can strengthen the startup community’s potential and create a win-win situation.

• Forum

This year’s InnoVEX forum and keynote speeches will be closely linked to industry trends. With themes focusing on AI, IoT, blockchain, women entrepreneurship, global startup ecosystems, and cross-industry application such as digital streaming connecting with audio and video entertainment showcasing the diversity and human development in the startup community.

●  Pitch

The semi-final and final of InnoVEX PITCH Contest 2018 will take place on June 7^th and 8^th, respectively. With cash prizes totaling US$350,000, the contest aims to integrate efforts of COMPUTEX and the private sector in building an international battlefield for unicorn companies and incubating new stars for the industry.

• Workshop

This newly added session will take place on the evening of June 7^th, where startup ecosystems in  Catalonia, France, Korea, Malaysia, Murcia, and Poland will be introduced with an aim to facilitate collaboration among international teams, helping local startups better confront challenges in the industry as well as connecting to global resources like markets, talents, technologies, systems, and laws.

It also aims to introduce global niches and policy-making process to local startups and to enable multinational collaboration more innovatively at the same time.

Meanwhile, SparkAmplify, one of the startup exhibitors from the U.S., will work with organizers and apply its AI-enabled big data core technology to find a new way for startups to solve higher marketing cost in the early stage of operation.

A workshop on precision marketing will also be held before the exhibition, so startups can exchange experience and learn how they can complement each other in the community.

●  Startup tour

International exhibitors of InnoVEX are welcome to sign up for a June 9^th tour to well-known local accelerators such as CDIB, Garage+ and Taiwan Tech Arena, according to TAITRA.

In partnership with the Taiwan Rapid Innovation Prototyping League for Entrepreneurs (TRIPLE), organizers will bring participants to key manufacturers at the Hsinchu Science Park and National Tsing Hua University’s Center of Innovative Incubator where global startups can share their experience and feel the energy of local startups, it said.

In addition to a series of InnoVEX activities at the Taipei World Trade Center Hall 3 from June 6^th to 8^th, Garage+ and Audi will also host events and demos at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center and the Taipei International Conference Center, respectively, TAITRA said.

With such diversified, highly interactive matchmaking platform, it is certain that the innovative momentum of Taiwan’s ICT sector will be revealed at COMPUTEX, and at the same time prompt local and global startups to brainstorm and find a new technology blue ocean, TAITRA said.