2016 IDEAS Show cooperate with APEC for the first time.32 promising startups joined the well-known competition from around the world.Addweup, AirPoPo, Inteliclinic, SkyRec, and Simgo named winners
Date: 2016/07/20
Caption: III IDEAS opens IDEAS Show today (July 20). The photo is a group photo of the guests, including (from the left) Executive Board Director Jen-Ran Chen of PIXNET, APEC Russia's Representative Viktor Glushkov, APEC Malaysia's Representative Loo Chuan Boon, APEC Vietnam's Representative Le Duc Anh, Senior Executive Officer Feng-Yuan Chang of MOEA DOC, III IDEAS Head Ren-Dar Yang, Director General May Lee of MOEA DOC, Vice Minister Mei-Hua Wang of MOEA, Executive Vice President Gary Gong of III, Counselor Zhong-Wei Li of MOFA, Director Xiaotai He of Monte Jade Science and Technology Association of Taiwan, APEC Malaysia's Representative Syaiful Azmen, APEC Peru's Representative Marilia Montesinos, APEC Vietnam's Representative Nguyen Dieu Huong, and III IDEAS Deputy Head Garfield Hung.
With the support of the Department of Commerce of the Minister of Economic Affairs, the III Innovative DigiTech-Enabled Applications & Services Institute (IDEAS) is hosting the IDEAS Show@APEC on July 20 and 21 for the purpose of encouraging Taiwan's outstanding startups to launch themselves quickly in the global market and boosting the commercial returns from startups. Unlike in the past, IDEAS Show is teaming up with the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) for the first time this year. The plan is to establish a direct link between the IDEAS Show, Taiwan's largest network service launch platform for startups, and the rest of the world. Therefore, promising startups selected by a panel of mentors and their talent can be presented to the worldwide.
The IDEAS Show opens today (July 20). The list of participants include nine APEC members, which are India, Hong Kong, South Korea, the Philippines, Israel, Singapore, the United States, Vietnam, and Japan, and 16 startups from around the world. More than a hundred entrepreneurs will be competing at 6-minute demo pitch demonstrating the hottest trends in IoT (Internet of Things) based businesses.
After fierce competition, five teams were selected from the fields of social media business, channel application technology, Fintech, Internet of Things, advertising technology, and AR/VR applications by 11 judges from international venture capital firms in APEC members. The winners received the highest honor, the IDEAS Show@APEC Award.
Two of Taiwan's startups brought home the honors, and they were Addweup, a developer of an online payment system for visitors to Taiwan to exchange for the local currency and for the operator to collect unused local currency, and SkyRec, a business intelligence analysis system for retailers with physical stores to use quantitative data captured by cameras and WiFi connections to get a better understanding of consumer shopping behaviors. Contestants from other countries also displayed amazing creativity. Inteliclinic from the U.S. has created Neuroon, a revolutionary wearable device that combines advanced brain wave and pulse measurement technology with a sleeping mask. It can be used to analyze the user's sleep patterns and improve sleep quality. iBeengo Asia Limited from Canada has created AirPoPo, a smart shuttle service system. The system calculates the best route based on the user's input, including pickup location, time, and traffic conditions, and provides comfortable door-to-door airport transportation. In addition, Simgo, a team consisting of Israeli and Singaporean talent, puts SIM cards on the cloud through a virtual SIM card management system, the Virtual SIM Management Platform. The platform minimizes the cost and effort of managing connectivity as well deployment and security for large fleets of connected devices. Simgo also received positive feedback from the panel and was named one of the winners this year.
Vice Minister Mei-Hua Wang of the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) emphasized again the MOEA's commitment to the development of startups in her speech today (July 20). This year, IDEAS Show sought to team up with APEC for the first time in an attempt to introduce Taiwan's startups and their advantages and capabilities more effectively to the rest of the world through the APEC platform. More importantly, the partnership would also help increase the teams' visibility and attract more attention to Taiwan's startups. Counselor Zhong-Wei Li of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said MOFA is constantly working to strengthen interaction between Taiwan and other countries and supports the partnership between the IDEAS Show and APEC. According to the counselor, such exchanges are beneficial to Taiwan's startups in engaging international talent and developing world class products and services in different fields.
Executive Vice President Gary Gong of the III also said the intangible strengths of Taiwan's startups should not be underestimated. It was the IDEAS' goal to transform the IDEAS Show into an international matchmaking platform by bringing startups from Taiwan and other countries under one roof. The event succeeded in introducing the startup culture into Taiwan with speed and in matching startups around the world and local startups to explore potential partnerships and new opportunities in international markets in Asia Pacific.
Caption: With the support of the Department of Commerce of the Minister of Economic Affairs, IDEAS Show, hosted by III IDEAS, opened today (July 20). The event was held in partnership with the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) for the first time. Vice Minister Mei-Hua Wang of the Ministry of Economic Affairs was invited to speak at the opening ceremony.
【Media Contact】
IDEAS(III):Samantha Han, Amanda Chang
Tel: 886-2-6607-2612、6607-2272
Planning & Evaluation Division(III):Meredith Chang, Joy Yen, Freesia Shen
Tel: 886-2-6631-8638、6631-8640、6631-8643