Featuring 26 Taiwanese and international teams, AW#27 demonstrated the potential of startups in Greater Southeast Asia to build products for global audiences.
TAIPEI, TAIWAN, DECEMBER 13, 2023—AppWorks Accelerator today held its 27th demo day for batch #27 (AW#27) in tandem with Wistron Accelerator #5. The event featured 26 Taiwanese and international startups, including over 40% of teams led by serial founders, and 10 teams from Southeast Asia.
AW#27 includes startups led by 19 different nationalities, including founders from Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand, the United States, Japan, and South Korea. The batch featured startups building solutions for AI digital marketing, the creator economy, ESG, Web3, and legal-tech. The event highlighted the attractiveness of the Taiwan market for international startups, with many teams hiring local Taiwanese engineers and digital economy experts to fuel their growth.
As Greater Southeast Asia’s largest accelerator programs, AppWorks holds its Demo Day twice a year, welcoming investors and business leaders seeking partnerships with carefully selected digital innovators from across the region and around the world. With the addition of AW#27, there are now 532 active startups and 1,662 founders in the community. The AppWorks community now accounts for US$16.2 billion in annual revenues, creating over 23,000 high quality jobs for the digital economy. Companies in the AppWorks ecosystem have raised a cumulative US$5.8 billion with a collective valuation of US$32.4 billion.
“With the inclusion of AW#27, the AppWorks ecosystem continues to grow and permeate outwards. Starting with our base in Taiwan and into the Greater Southeast Asia region, we are seeing the global relevance of startups founded in the region for markets around the world. Taiwan offers a strong pool of resources and talent for startups in Southeast Asia as well as mature markets to tap into advanced technology and niche talent,” said Jamie Lin, Chairman, AppWorks. “We are proud of the accomplishments of all AW#27 companies, demonstrating that companies can utilize Taiwan to build for the world.”
Accelerating Creativity Through Technology
AW#27 featured a number of companies utilizing technology to transform digital marketing and build brands for the creator economy. This includes SoMin.ai, founded by Dr. Aleks Farseev, who is utilizing AI to improve the accuracy of targeting advertising campaigns, with major customers such as Audi, P&G, and Dentsu Japan; and Storipress, a Taiwan-based all-in-one publishing platform that provides a unified workflow, automatic site updates, and AI assistance to help teams write in a coherent style. This platform helps businesses create articles 42% faster, with IDEO being one of its major customers.
As brands build for the digital era, the creator economy has taken center stage, with influencer marketing becoming an important tool for brands to engage with consumers in a more natural and organic way. CreatorDB, the brainchild of Clayton Jacob, is a one-stop platform for influencer marketing, helping brands discover and engage with influencers, conduct data analysis, and facilitate advertising placement. CreatorDB has helped many well-known global brands engage with influencers in the Asia market—including Surfshark, Notion, and Acer. Meanwhile, Taiwan-based VGV Media Asia is a creator economy platform that enables brands to co-create content with influencers. VGV has cooperated with over 600,000 influencers throughout Asia, coordinating campaigns on behalf of major brands like UNIQLO, Tripadvisor, and Pinkoi.
Driving Sustainability in the Digital Economy
Addressing the large carbon footprints of e-commerce activity, there are significant opportunities for companies creating solutions for the circular economy to reduce waste and improve environmental impact. PackAge+ develops reusable packaging made from recycled plastic bottles and glass materials for e-commerce and technology customers, and has courted one of the largest semiconductor manufacturer in Taiwan and Family Mart as long-term customers, helping them reduce carbon emissions and support their sustainability efforts with a goal to replace 35% of disposable consumables within the next three years.
Building Superior Infrastructure for the Metaverse
Vietnam’s Mimiland has skyrocketed as one of the world’s most dynamic Web3 projects in the Metaverse—with more than 120,000 monthly active users. Mimiland is the world’s first Metaverse product to support more than 10,000 simultaneously online users, while protecting more than two million NFT assets for major brands like Sapporo, demonstrating unrivaled scalability. Mimiland assists developers integrate multiple applications, ensuring compatibility across devices and operating systems.
AW#27 Featured the Following Companies:
- CreatorDB (Taiwan): Analytics-based influencer discovery
- Groundup.ai (Singapore): Industrial AI solutions for machine maintenance and workplace safety
- Storipress (Taiwan): Workflow platform for content marketing
- VGV Media Asia (Taiwan): One-stop influencer marketing solutions
- SoMin.ai (Singapore): AI-powered performance marketing and analytics platform
- OnMic (Vietnam): Social audio content platform
- PackAge+ (Taiwan): Circular packaging and ESG solution for enterprises
- Oda (Vietnam): SaaS and financing platform for F&B
- OrbitNext (Taiwan): Knowledge and financing platform for content creators
- Walless (Vietnam): Personalized web3 wallet and digital asset management solution
- FLH (Taiwan): Universal IoT smart home platform
- Mimiland (Vietnam): The ultimate identity platform for gamers
- Lawplayer (Taiwan): Law legislation platform
- Flowclass (Hong Kong): No-code cloud-based application for educators
- DataXquad (Taiwan): Marketplace for AI models
- Jurist AI (Philippines): AI-powered research platform for legal professionals
- Loudio (Vietnam): Interactive Jukebox app for social venue goers
- Tricuss (Taiwan): AI-powered personal assistant on LINE and WhatsApp
- Potioneer (Thailand): Booking management platform for private chefs
Wistron Accelerator #5 Features 5G Chips, Smart Factories, Environmentally-friendly Materials
Wistron Accelerator welcomed its fifth batch of innovative startups, demonstrating the powerful potential of cross-regional integration of hardware and the core advantages of Taiwan as a springboard to global markets. To date, Wistron Accelerator has featured 31 teams across AI, IoT, Cloud, Information Security, Education, and Healthtech. Founders have received personal mentorship from Wistron Group senior leadership, providing targeted resources to help companies grow and significantly reduce trial and error costs.
Wistron Accelerator Welcomed Seven Companies for its Fifth Batch:
- MetAI (Taiwan): Digital twin and synthetic data for AI smart manufacturing
- SkyREC (Taiwan): AI search engine for security video
- Thermalytica (Japan): TIISA Superinsulation Materials for energy efficiency
- ViewMagine (South Korea): VODA, AI asset quality and management solution
- Ranictek (Taiwan): 5G/6G base station and satellite communication chips
- Solano Energy (Vietnam): Asset-light renewable-power company
- Touché Solutions (Taiwan): Robotic tactile sensing technology for manufacturing
AppWorks
Founded in 2009, AppWorks is a leading startup community and venture capital firm built by founders, for founders. We are committed to backing the next generation of entrepreneurs in Greater Southeast Asia (ASEAN+Taiwan) and helping them facilitate the region’s transition into the digital age. Just as how mobile and the internet completely transformed the status quo, we believe the current era of technology is currently being defined by major three paradigm shifts: AI, Blockchain, and Southeast Asia (ABS).
As such, whether it’s mentorship, investment, or talent, AppWorks has established a one-stop-shop for ambitious founders willing to bet against the consensus and drive a change they want to see in the world. We help startups build disruptive businesses from even an inkling of an idea into world-class enterprises through our three primary lines of service: Accelerator, Funds, and School.
More information: appworks.tw
AppWorks Accelerator
AppWorks Accelerator is a launchpad for bold and ambitious entrepreneurs targeting Greater Southeast Asia (GSEA). Every six months, we take in startups with strong potential, equipping founders spanning all walks of life with the necessary resources, mentorship, and guidance to get their ventures off the ground.
There are now a total of 532 active startups and 1,662 founders in the AppWorks ecosystem. Collectively, all companies in the ecosystem generate annual revenue totaling US$16.2 billion, and have created 23,490 jobs (+0.4% YoY). Altogether, the ecosystem raised a total of US$5.8 billion (+8% YoY), with an aggregate valuation reaching US$32.4 billion (+3% YoY). The AppWorks web3 ecosystem now has 129 startups and 305 founders. AppWorks web3 companies generated revenue totaling US$865 million, and raised US$1 billion (+7% YoY), with an aggregate valuation of US$13.2 billion (+3% YoY).
More information: appworks.tw/accelerator
AppWorks Funds
AppWorks manages four venture capital funds totaling US$350 million, collaborating with investors who share our vision, including leading enterprises in sectors spanning technology manufacturing, finance, and media and telecom. We invest in startups ranging from Seed Round to Series C and fund around 20 to 30 deals a year, now with 100 names in our portfolio, including leading startups in several verticals such as Lalamove, Dapper Labs/Flow, Animoca Brands, 91APP, Figment, Carousell, ShopBack, Tiki, 17LIVE, and KKday, while having produced five IPOs (Uber, GameSparcs, Kuobrothers, Pcone, 91APP), four IEOs, one hectocorn, two decacorns, and five unicorns.
More information: appworks.tw/investments
AppWorks School
Established in 2016, AppWorks School has strived to cultivate a pipeline of skilled engineers to help our community meet the technical demands of tomorrow. Quality talent has always served as the bedrock of innovation, yet shortages still remain the foremost challenge that tech companies in GSEA face today.
AppWorks School has trained over 900 aspiring software engineers; 90% of these graduates went on to pursue successful software development careers in prominent companies such as Taiwan Mobile, momo, 91APP, KKBOX, WeMo Scooter, and Gogoro. AppWorks School currently provides Coding Bootcamp, Campus Program, Upskill Program, and Corporate Training Program with courses in several domains: Android, iOS, Front-End, Back-End, Data Engineering, Automation Test, System Design, and Blockchain.
More information: school.appworks.tw
For general inquiries
Email: [email protected]
Event Coordinator: Angie Jeng | +886-982-005-566 | mailto: [email protected]
