The AI Tool Helping Companies Discover Breakthrough Ideas
In today’s fast-moving tech world, staying ahead means constantly discovering new innovations. In the past, this involved digging through academic papers and industry reports, a process that took a lot of time.
Manual searches not only take too long, but they also risk missing key emerging technologies. That's where former MediaTek employees Hanson Chou and Abel Chen come in. They founded Deeli AI with a simple goal: to build a platform that makes finding new tech easier. Using AI, Deeli AI scans multiple sources and gives each technology a "recommendation score" and a "maturity rating," helping companies save time and gain better insights.
Abel Chen (left) and Hanson Chou (right), co-founders of Deeli AI. Image Credits: Deeli AI
Why Did Two MediaTek Experts Bet Everything on Deeli AI?
Hanson Chou, CEO of Deeli AI, started his entrepreneurial journey working on IoT products in his twenties. In 2017, while at MediaTek, Hanson met Abel Chen, who handled back-end and cloud infrastructure. They left MediaTek to start Deeli AI together.
For Abel Chen, the CTO of Deeli AI, this was his first experience with entrepreneurship. "I later decided to start a business with him because I also wanted to try entrepreneurship and create something more meaningful. Salary is definitely important to me, but what's even more important is feeling a sense of accomplishment, which a regular job just couldn't gve me." Abel says.
Hanson Chou adds, "At MediaTek, we were always working on internal projects and serving internal clients. We hoped that more people could see our work and that it could grow, but it was tough to make it visible to the world with internal-only projects."
Deeli AI Fixes the Fragmented Tech Search Problem
"There’s no integrated or systematic way to discover new technologies in the market," Hanson Chou explains. At MediaTek, their team spent hours searching papers, attending conferences, and building global connections—an inefficient process. "We realized there was a huge problem—there was no tool to efficiently help us find the latest tech."
Image Credits: Deeli AI
Deeli AI aims to help companies discover new technologies faster than their competitors. Hanson Chou notes that many companies miss out on about one-third of new tech each year, and 90% fail to connect with early-stage innovators in time. This gap in innovation can be critical for companies aiming for long-term success. As Hanson Chou puts it, "If you want to be world-class, you need to solve world-class problems."
Why Do Small Firms Struggle to Access Crucial Tech Data?
The hardest part, according to Hanson Chou, is accessing the right data. "While big companies have access, smaller firms struggle to consolidate the information they need. Technology often starts in university labs and incubators, but gathering this data is difficult."
Image Credits: Deeli AI
To solve this, Deeli AI partnered with Skydeck, a U.S.-based accelerator, to access non-public data. "In Europe, for instance, there’s no single site that gathers all the information in one place," Hanson Chou explains. This partnership gives Deeli AI a unique advantage.
Image Credits: Deeli AI
"We’re one of the few teams in Taiwan to partner with a U.S. accelerator like Skydeck, and that gives us a first-mover advantage," Hanson Chou says. Deeli AI’s platform helps companies track new tech and discover promising startups.
Using a subscription model, with fees ranging from USD $20,000 to USD $200,000 annually, Deeli AI has attracted clients such as large R&D teams, government think tanks, and semiconductor companies since its launch in February 2024. The platform is currently being tested by 10 to 15 customers in the U.S. and Taiwan, with investors like Pegatron, Cisco.
Deeli AI plans to raise more funds in October to continue improving and expanding the platform, helping even more companies discover new technologies in the future.