Taiwan – whose territories encompass the islands of Formosa, Pescadores, Quemoy and Matsu, among others – ranked fourth among the most innovative economies in 2019, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitive Report, after Germany, the US and Switzerland and ahead of Sweden, South Korea, Japan, the UK, France and the Netherlands.
Although Taiwan is not part of the World Health Organisation (WHO) due to its intricate relationship with China, it has been largely unaffected by the ongoing covid-19 pandemic. The main island is about 160 kilometres off the southeast coast of China, where the outbreak first emerged but, at the time of writing, the country’s Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Centres for Disease Control has recorded seven deaths and 55 locally transmitted cases in a population of nearly 24 million.
As early as December 2019, before the WHO had confirmed human-to-human transmission, Taiwan implemented strategies to trace and contain cases and later introduced big data analytics to identify possible contingencies.
The Taiwanese government nationalised surgical and N95 mask production and distribution, and by March 2020, more than 135 apps and software programs were developed for real-time mask stock availability and ordering systems and for providing transparent information to the citizenry.
The tech-enabled democracy has produced hacktivism and other forms of civic participation, according to software producer Microsoft executives Jaron Lanier and Glen Weyl, who told Foreign Affairs: “These tools showed where masks were available, but they did more than that. Citizens were able to reallocate rations through intertemporal trades and donations to those who most needed them, which helped prevent the rise of a black market.”
The Taiwan Venture Capital Association has roughly 200 member funds. Yu-Chin Hsu, deputy minister of Taiwan’s Ministry of Science and Technology, told Startup Genome: “Taiwan has played a vital role in the global high-tech ecosystem for the past 30 years.
“We have elite startups from a range of verticals including artificial intelligence (AI), smart technologies and healthcare. We help our startups connect to the global tech ecosystem in all key markets and applications.”
The country is home to specialists in hardware, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, laptop and smartphone makers Asus, Acer and Quanta Computer, as well as contract manufacturer Foxconn, which produces chips for US-based technology companies Apple and Alphabet, among others.
Taiwan’s corporate venturing scene is relatively small, having reached its peak in 2017 in terms of volume, recording $412m across 11 deals. Last year, Taiwan-based corporates made 12 investments with a total deal value of $165m.
Of the top 10 corporate venturers in the Taiwanese ecosystem, MediaTek Ventures, President International Development, Center Ventures, SinoPac Financial Holdings Company and YFY Biotech Management Company are backed by local corporates: fabless semiconductor maker MediaTek, food conglomerate Uni-President Enterprises Corporation, biopharmaceutical company Center Laboratories Group, financial services firm Bank SinoPac and National Securities, and diversified conglomerate YFY Group respectively. Multimedia software producer CyberLink fills out the list.
Prolific corporate venturers based outside Taiwan hail from China, the US and Japan. China-headquartered e-commerce group Alibaba is the most active investor, having conducted two direct investments and 20 deals through its Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund, and it is followed by US-based semiconductor and data technology provider Intel’s corporate venturing subsidiary, Intel Capital, with nine deals under its belt.
Japan’s mobile network operator NTT Docomo, internet company CyberAgent, cybersecurity technology producer Trend Micro and messaging platform developer Line, which is a subsidiary of South Korea-headquartered internet company Naver, are also active in Taiwan, through their corporate venturing vehicles: NTT Docomo Ventures, CyberAgent Capital, Trend Forward Capital and Line Ventures.
Top corporate venture capital (CVC) deals in Taiwan’s innovation ecosystem include those for electric scooter provider Gogoro, enterprise software tool supplier Appier, blockchain technology startup ThunderCore, live streaming portal 17 Media, and cancer therapy developers JHL Biotech and ACT Genomics.
Perfect Corporation, the owner of an AI-infused social fashion and beauty app; CoolBitX, which is developing a cryptocurrency wallet dubbed CoolWallet; and Ubitus, a provider of online gaming services, are among the Taiwanese companies that have received corporate backing, as are social media company SNSplus, experience travel booking platform KKDay and LandMark Optoelectronics, which produces epitaxial wafers for optical communication.
Telecoms firms Taiwan Star Telecom Corporation (formerly Vibo Telecom) and Tecom exited mobile network technology developer VMAX Telecom, which was acquired by peer Vee Time Corp, while healthcare technology companies Medeon Biodesign (backed by Center Ventures), TaiGen Biotechnology (backed by corporates YFY, Taiwan Sugar, China Steel and Cathay Life Insurance, among others) and Taiwan Liposome (backed by YFY Biotech) went public.
