Taipei-based accelerator AppWorks recently held its biannual Demo Day, where 25 local and international startups pitched their latest inventions involving cutting-edge AI and Blockchain technologies.
Over 1200 investors attended the event on Nov. 9 and ten of the 25 competing teams were from foreign nations ranging from Malaysia to the U.S., Appworks said.
It was the first time for the eight-year-old accelerator to hold a Demo Day focused purely on Blockchain and AI.
Jamie Lin, founding partner of AppWorks, in opening remarks said the reason why he thought participating startups mainly came from Taiwan and Southeast Asia was because he had a firm belief that these two regions could mutually improve their startup ecosystems if they merged, pooling talents and resources.
“Taiwan’s startup ecosystem should be connected to Southeast Asia, the world’s emerging and fastest-growing market,” Lin said previously in a Business Next report.
Aniwear, a Hong Kong-based startup, has developed a mobile heart monitoring and analytics platform, enabling portable ECG recordings for animals and rapid and accurate AI-assisted interpretations, which support veterinarians.
The startup has expanded its business reach to Thailand and Taiwan. Earlier this year, Aniwear also won a competition at Startup Go! Go! in Japan.
RelaJet, another participating Hong Kong company, has been focusing on developing software technology that can distinguish different voices when several people are speaking at once.
Blue Chen, founder of RelaJet, was born with a hearing impairment, which inspired him to create his startup.
Chen said his hearing problems were particularly severe when two or more people were talking at the same time with their voice frequencies and volumes nearly at the same levels.
“That’s the big reason for me to start solving the problem,” said Chen on the demo stage.
“In multi-speaker scenarios, users can teach the device to only respond to the voice of a certain person,” the company’s official website said.
After staying active for some time, RelaJet is able to also recognize and enhance certain sounds. The device can also work as an alert for users who need to be warned if an irregular sound occurs.
OxygenAI, a Thailand-based startup, is dedicated to transforming organizations or helping them to operate more efficiently with AI-powered solutions that include facial recognition technologies and intruder detection systems.
OxygenAI combines big data, both structured and unstructured, with cutting-edge technologies involving deep learning, computer vision and data science.
Its team of AI researchers, data scientists and software engineers are currently working with multiple industries, including those involved in transportation, media, and finance. One of its partners is Nvidia.
〔Original :meet@Tw〕