Founded in 2010 by Jamie Lin, AppWorks Accelerator is a startup community created by founders, for founders.
Every six months, we welcome a new batch of founders who are building on the edge of what’s possible – those pushing the boundaries of technology and creating what the world has yet to imagine. Through a three-month program, and a community that stays with them long after, we equip them with the resources, mentorship, and network to turn bold visions into lasting impact.
We know there are many considerations for founders when applying to an accelerator. That’s why we’ve created an FAQ page to help you decide whether or not AppWorks is the right fit for your startup.
As of November 9, 2026, AppWorks #34 is open for applications. You can find important information about the Accelerator experience on our main page.
The FAQs
1. What do I need to know before joining the accelerator? What is AppWorks doing to help founders make the most out of the accelerator?
We understand the unique needs and aspirations for founders, and we’re committed to providing an experience that’s both flexible and deeply supportive:
- Tailored Events for Founders: No two founder journeys are alike — whether you’re just getting started, actively scaling, based in Taiwan, or operating from anywhere in the world, we’ve designed a flexible accelerator that blends online and offline experiences. You’ll have access to the resources, mentorship, and connections that best fit your unique path, ensuring that you get what you need, when and where you need it.
- A Pan-Asia Founder Network: Our founder and investor network spans nine markets across Asia, so wherever you are, you’ll find peers, mentors, and partners who can share local insights and open doors to cross-border opportunities.
- Taiwan: Your Strategic Base for Innovation: Taiwan stands at the intersection of technology, manufacturing, and finance, making it an ideal base for founders building in AI, manufacturing, defense technology, on-chain banking, and post-quantum cryptography.
Its world-class engineering talent, reliable manufacturing partners, and robust supply chain give startups the speed and stability to develop and scale products efficiently. Combined with an open, innovation-friendly environment and strong digital infrastructure, Taiwan provides everything you need to move from prototype to market with confidence.
We encourage founders to join our in-person activities whenever possible. Face-to-face engagement within our community in Taiwan and across Asia builds deeper relationships, sharper insights, and opportunities that online meetings cannot fully replicate.
Your success is at the heart of what we do. We can’t wait to embark on this journey with you.
2. I already raised a Series A / I’m profitable, is AppWorks right for me?
The short answer is, yes!
The long answer is, reaching a funding goal can be a cause for celebration, but it’s also a relatively minor part of the founder journey. When we admit founders into the program, it is because we have carefully considered what they need as a founder, and how our resources and network across Asia can help them grow.
Joel Leong and Henry Chan at ShopBack had already built a business model and received seed funding in 2015 when they launched in Singapore before they came to AppWorks Accelerator #13 in 2016.
Joel told us that had the team known about Taiwan’s massive e-commerce market (online retail sales have since reached a record over US$20 billion, in 2025) and all the region-wide technical and tactical innovations that it would eventually yield, they would have made the move to Taiwan much sooner. Taiwan has since become one of ShopBack’s biggest markets and R&D centers. It demonstrates that funding rounds and business model maturity do not limit founders in learning something new.
As long as you think that AppWorks can help you in the entrepreneurial learning process, you should apply.
3. What is an RFS? What kind of support can AppWorks Accelerator provide for startups in AW#34 RFS#1: Manufacturing AI, RFS#2: Defense Tech, RFS#3: On-Chain Banking, and RFS#4: PQC?
A Request for Startups (RFS) highlights the specific problem spaces AppWorks is most focused on each batch – areas we believe have strong growth potential and for founders to make a meaningful impact.
An RFS is not a restriction; it’s a signal. It helps founders understand where AppWorks can provide the most value and resources in this batch. If you’re already building in one of these areas, we’d love to meet you. But even if not, as long as your startup aligns with our focus or could benefit from joining the AppWorks founder community strategically, you are very welcome to apply.
For AppWorks #34 (AW#34), we’re looking for founders building in Manufacturing AI, Defense Tech, On-Chain Banking, and PQC — four verticals that will redefine Asia’s industrial and economic foundation in the coming decade, and where Taiwan and the AppWorks community can provide a unique advantage.
AW#34 RFS#1: Manufacturing AI
Over the past two years, the rapid progress of AI has begun to fundamentally reshape manufacturing — from design and production to operation and maintenance. Now is the time for the industry to embrace intelligent transformation.
With Taiwan’s world-class manufacturing and supply chain ecosystem, AppWorks helps founders directly connect with leading OEMs, manufacturers, and cross-industry partners to co-develop and validate PoCs, as well as build AI-driven solutions for automation, quality inspection, and predictive maintenance.
Our community already includes startups deeply rooted in manufacturing innovation, such as Innowave Tech (AW#32), building semiconductor AI agents for automated defect inspection and yield optimization; Relajet (AW#17), which delivers advanced sound separation for smart acoustics; and Groundup.AI (AW#27), which enables predictive maintenance through acoustic monitoring.
Through collaboration, sales partnerships, and shared know-how within our network, AppWorks helps your solution validate faster, scale faster, and reach real-world impact.
AW#34 RFS#2: Defense Tech
In an era of geopolitical uncertainty and growing emphasis on supply chain and technological sovereignty, dual-use technologies such as unmanned systems, sensing, cybersecurity, AI models, and advanced materials are becoming critical to both national and industrial resilience. This shift is also creating unprecedented opportunities for startups innovating in high-barrier sectors.
AppWorks Accelerator, together with Wistron Accelerator, has long focused on hardware, AIoT, and deep tech, providing a full-scale environment for manufacturing, prototyping, and validation.
Our community already includes deep-tech startups delivering cutting-edge solutions across both defense and commercial domains — such as Aliena (AW#30), developing propulsion systems for small satellites; Aonic (AW#30), Southeast Asia’s largest industrial and agricultural drone operator; Mapxus (AW#30), offering precision mapping and geospatial intelligence; and Hyarks (AW#32), which deploys autonomous fleets of unmanned marine vessels and drones for ocean data, offshore, and defense operations.
Through this ecosystem, AppWorks helps founders connect with manufacturing and enterprise partners, develop and test PoCs, access investors and R&D talent, and accelerate both technological development and market adoption.
AW#34 RFS#3: On-Chain Banking
We believe the future of finance will be programmable, transparent, and borderless, and that the next generation of banks will be born on-chain.
Stablecoins are becoming core financial infrastructure: supply now exceeds US$300 billion, and businesses increasingly use them for cross-border payments and treasury. Regulation has arrived too: the US signed the GENIUS Act in July 2025, Hong Kong’s Stablecoins Ordinance took effect that August, and Taiwan passed its Virtual Asset Service Act in June 2026, giving stablecoin issuance a legal basis.
AppWorks is looking for founders bringing core banking services on-chain: stablecoin payments and cross-border settlement, on-chain accounts and lending, asset tokenization, and compliance and risk tools. With its dense cross-border trade and underserved SMEs, Asia is the best place to start.
Our community already includes on-chain finance pioneers such as StraitsX (AW#18), a MAS-licensed stablecoin infrastructure provider; XREX (AW#17), a blockchain-driven financial institution regulated in multiple markets; and Pendle (AW#20), which tokenizes and trades future yield.
Through deep collaborations with leading financial institutions, telecom operators, and exchanges in Taiwan, we help you run PoCs in a regulated environment, while our FinTech, LegalTech, and Web3 founders and mentors across nine Asian markets share first-hand experience on licensing and compliance. More than 300 tech companies in our community operate across markets and are real users of cross-border payments and business finance.
AW#34 RFS#4: PQC
The cryptographic foundations protecting the global digital economy are mathematically vulnerable to quantum computers, and the threat is closer than most assume.
Three signals point the same way. First, the bar for breaking today’s encryption keeps dropping: Google’s recent research has cut the number of qubits needed to break RSA and the elliptic-curve cryptography behind Bitcoin and Ethereum by roughly 20x, and Google itself has set 2029 as its internal PQC migration deadline. Second, regulators have set deadlines: NIST’s draft guidance would disallow RSA and ECC by 2035, and Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission is targeting full PQC migration for the financial sector by the same year. Third, the attacks have already started: “Harvest Now, Decrypt Later” attacks, where encrypted data is stolen today to be decrypted once quantum computers mature, are widely believed to be underway.
Taiwan is uniquely positioned to lead this transition. Taiwanese semiconductor companies are already producing PQC-hardened hardware at scale: Winbond announced it was the first memory vendor in the world to integrate PQC into its secure flash, now deployed across IoT, industrial, server, and critical infrastructure applications. AppWorks’ own community includes Chelpis Quantum (AW#10 / Wistron Accelerator #5), a PQC migration specialist working with the financial sector to drive PQC migration, and fellow migration player PQStation (AW#33), whose platform maps an organization’s cryptography, flags quantum-vulnerable assets, and plans the migration. On the hardware side, Qinvicta (AW#33) develops PQC silicon IP for quantum-resilient security chips.
The verticals where PQC is most urgently needed: finance, telecom, manufacturing, and defense — map precisely onto AppWorks’ LP base and ecosystem. For founders building the security layer that every other industry will depend on, there is no better time, and no better place to start, than Asia right now.
Whether you’re building the next-generation AI factory, advancing dual-use technologies, constructing the foundation of on-chain finance, or pioneering the quantum-safe security infrastructure of tomorrow, AppWorks is more than an accelerator — we’re your strategic partner for entering Taiwan and scaling across Asia. Helping you go from prototype to scale, from the lab to the real world.
4. How does AppWorks Accelerator help founders enter new markets?
Since 2010, AppWorks has made close connections within founder communities and throughout the venture capital ecosystem. When startup teams decide to enter a new market, we can quickly help them learn from local partners to tap into key resources and business models that are specifically tailored to different regions.
Today, the AppWorks community brings together over 650 active technology startups, of which more than 300 operate across multiple Asian markets. The network spans founders from Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan—ensuring that wherever you plan to expand, there’s already an AppWorks founder community on the ground ready to exchange insights, share local know-how, and open doors.
This community is supported by a strong layer of mentors, alumni founders, and seasoned operators, many of whom have built, scaled, or exited successful companies. Together, they form a trusted network that helps new founders navigate everything from product localization to cross-border partnerships.
Beyond the founder network, AppWorks actively invests in over 25 venture funds across AI and Web3, including AC Ventures, Golden Gate Ventures, Openspace Ventures, Digital Garage, Ascend Vietnam Ventures, Figment Capital, and Pantera Capital. This extended capital network gives founders exposure to top investors and potential follow-on funding partners throughout Asia.
AppWorks also partners with leading corporate LPs across manufacturing, finance, media, and telecommunications. Our funds are backed by institutions such as Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund and Korea’s government investment agencies, giving our founders privileged access to regional corporates, pilot opportunities, and distribution networks.
5. What does AppWorks look for in applications?
When AppWorks reviews applications submitted by founders, we pay special attention to a founder’s north star. Some questions that might help you think about whether AppWorks is a good fit for you:
- Why did you launch your startup?
- What problem do you want to solve and why?
- What do you believe fundamentally needs to exist in this world that doesn’t already?
- What kind of future do you want to create and how will you get there?
- What have you already done to demonstrate your commitment to tackling this problem?
AppWorks Accelerator’s online application covers about 30 topics related to team background, product/service, business model, market analysis, and more. It is very detailed and requires time to complete. It also includes a required one-minute self-intro from the founder (CEO) for us to know you better.
6. Does AppWorks Accelerator cost anything?
No. AppWorks Accelerator has always been free for founders. We will not charge rent or service fees, nor will we require any form of compensation, such as sweat equity, tokens, options, revenue, or profit-sharing. Our exclusive mission is to help founders.
7. We need funding now, can we get an investment by joining AppWorks?
The short answer is you will have much better access to us than non-AppWorks accelerated teams. We will discuss with you and help you figure out at this stage of your startup’s journey if capital can give your startup a significant edge and/or take it to the next level, or if there are other more burning issues, e.g., achieving stronger product-market fit, figuring out a working go-to-market strategy, recruiting a solid co-founder, etc.
Any AppWorks founder is welcome to start a discussion with us on fundraising anytime. We will do our best to advise and support you with US$ 386 million in total fund size behind us.
8. My service (or product) has not yet started to make money. Can I still apply?
Of course! There probably isn’t a better time to learn in an accelerator than as a founder just starting out. This period before a founder has built a startup into a scalable business model with Product-Market Fit is called the “seed stage.” During this period, founders always need more than funding; they need a variety of entrepreneurial-related insights, inspiration from other founders, and room for trial and error. AppWorks Accelerator, with over 16 years of experience, was built to provide these lessons and more.
9. I’m planning to expand my business into Taiwan, however, since I am not a Taiwanese citizen, can you help me obtain a proper visa?
International founders admitted to AppWorks Accelerator, according to your qualifications and needs, AppWorks can help with your application for the Gold Card, or Entrepreneur Visa in Taiwan. This enables founders from overseas to concentrate on work in Taiwan without traveling abroad to sort out troublesome visa issues. We can offer guidance on this process.
10. Do I have to set up a company to join AppWorks Accelerator?
Not necessarily, but we recommend founders to set up an office when entering a new market, especially those of you that are B2B facing. This may enable you to build relationships with business partners and make negotiating commercial agreements smoother in the future.
For the founders who are planning to land in Taiwan, AppWorks has professional accounting and legal specialists who can assist in managing the necessary procedures, making the process of setting up much easier and more efficient.
11. What is the difference between applying during the first round vs. the final round?
The application period is split into two intakes, with interviews and admissions facilitated on a rolling basis. Based on past experience, teams that submit their application earlier tend to have a higher chance of being admitted and are also immediately granted access to all the resources that AppWorks Accelerator has to offer. For AW#34, the first round closes on November 29, 2026, and the final round closes on December 27, 2026.
12. I have previously applied to AppWorks and have been rejected, can I apply again? Will it affect the chances of admission?
Reapplying represents the determination of the founder and is a positive signal for us. Therefore, we will re-evaluate all aspects, not only for the growth of the founder but also for the progress of the company. In the past, some entrepreneurs applied 2-3 times before being selected. In some cases, after unsuccessful applications, they continued to explore and eventually achieved more user growth and deeper insights. In other cases, they honestly faced the fact that there was no Product-Market Fit (PMF), changed their topic, found a scalable business model, and reapplied. These entrepreneurs have performed well after graduating from the accelerator.
We hope the above FAQ can help clarify your questions about AppWorks Accelerator. If you seek more clarity, please write to: [email protected], and we will try to answer your questions.
If you’re a founder creating what the world doesn’t know it needs yet, you’ve come to the right place! Applications for AppWorks #34 will be open until December 27, 2026.
