Taiwan Tech Arena breaks two new records at CES 2020, MOST says

This year, Taiwan Tech Arena (TTA) led a delegation of 82 startup teams to the annual tech show CES in Las Vegas in an effort to showcase the innovation born in Taiwan to the international audience collectively in a national pavilion.

As in the previous two years, it’s been a fruitful experience for TTA, said Chen Liang-Gee, Minister for the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST). With him at the helm, the government agency opened TTA for startups in 2018 with the goal to build the best tech startup ecosystem in Asia.

The number of Innovation Award winners among TTA-led startups grows, from 8 to 13, said Hsu Yu-Chin, Deputy Minister of MOST. He believes this shows that Taiwan’s strength in tech innovation has been internationally recognized, making the country an ideal place for startups to develop their products.

The 13 award-winning companies include Lulupet (AI-powered litter box for cats), Ible (wearable air purifier), and Happy Island Tech (headset-free audio tracker for swimmers). Most of them leverage AI technology to address real-life issues for a specific group of customers, according to CTimes.

What’s more, the Taiwan pavilion drew great attention from international venture capitalists and corporations, enabling the exhibitors to secure business opportunities worth more than $226M (NT$7B) in total, MOST said. The valuation is based on the influx of cash that the startups can potentially bring to Taiwan with the purchase orders they’ve received and partnerships they’ve built during the show.

Startups that have contributed to this whopping number include Yallvend, who is offering its upgrade kits for vending machines to Japanese distributors prior to the Olympic Games in Tokyo, and Yokai Express, who will soon serve hot bowls of ramen from its vending machines at the airport of San Francisco.

〔Original :Meet Startup @ TW〕
https://meet.bnext.com.tw/intl/articles/view/45996