With resounding success and huge demands in Taiwan, TAIRA 2019 is designed to bring in global AI startups to grow and explore business opportunities with corporations in Southern Taiwan Science Park (STSP)

TAIRA 2019 is officially launched.

A programme dedicated to establishing STSP to become an international innovation ecosystem by partnering with global startups

TAIRA, which stands for Taiwan AI x Robotics Accelerator, is a joint programme co-curated by Southern Taiwan Science Park (STSP) and StarFab Accelerator. It is the most well-established corporate innovation accelerator in Taiwan, and it officially kickstarted at the TAIRA 2019 launch press conference in InnoVEX, the startup arm of Asia’s Iconic B2B exhibition, COMPUTEX TAIPEI.

Several ecosystem key players have been invited to partake in this grandeur launch and co-work together to provide more international resources to accelerate the growth of STSP startup ecosystem – representing Taiwanese corporations, technology platforms, and investors, The Allied Association for Science Park Industries, Cloud Computing & IoT Association in Taiwan, Taiwan ITRI New Venture Association, and other international startup builders like TNB Aura, FocusTech Ventures, Bangkok Bank InnoHub, ParticleX, Infinity Ventures (IVP), Sphere 5200.

What is TAIRA (Taiwan AI x Robotics Accelerator)?

The founding story behind TAIRA can be traced back to 2017, when STSP and StarFab started supporting and enabling corporation-startup matchmaking, helping startups to secure over US$110 million in funding and close to US$20 million deal tractions along the way.

Since then, STSP and StarFab saw the great potential and unfulfilled gap between corporations and startups, leading to the decision to pilot the TAIRA programme in 2018. The TAIRA programme intends to facilitate collaborations by partnering with corporations to combine domain expertise with new and innovative technologies.

With that said, in 2019, STSP and StarFab have committed to putting in more resources to connect international accelerators and venture capital with the southern Taiwan startup ecosystem. This includes test beds for corporate collaborations, technical platforms, and funds to further equip AI startups with business and fundraising opportunities to expand in the Taiwan market, increasing market shares and acquiring more clients.

Why TAIRA 2019 and how to apply

In the press conference, Amanda Liu, StarFab CEO, mentioned that building on the foundations of existing industries in southern Taiwan, TAIRA 2019 has invited numerous corporations from smart manufacturing, smart healthcare, smart banking, and smart agriculture sectors to come onboard.

The key role that TAIRA 2019 plays is to partner with corporations to come up with current corporate problem statements and provide a test bed, where they can work with startups to validate different innovative ideas and technologies. This will pave the way for STSP and StarFab to reach out and bring in overseas startups with relevant and qualified technology capabilities to co-work and transform the current industry.

This year, TAIRA 2019 programme will be inviting global startups with applied AI technologies/products to work with several world-class southern Taiwan tech corporations, including United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), Castec International, AllRing-Tech (ART), Chi Mei Hospital, Taiwan Stipendiary and King’s Town Bank.

The top shortlisted startups will have the chance to receive up to US$64,000 research & development grants and product/technology development support from IBM, AWS, GCP, NVIDIA, Advantech, Epistar, Himax, Chunghwa Telecom, and Mighty Net.

TAIRA 2019 calling for global startups NOW

“TAIRA 2018 acts as a stepping stone for us to fine-tune the accelerator programme, and make TAIRA 2019 more comprehensive,” highlighted Director-General Wei-Chen Lin of the Southern Taiwan Science Park in the press conference.

TAIRA is not just an accelerator programme, but a holistic online-to-offline innovation platform designed to support local Taiwan corporations to work hand-in-hand with global AI startups. The platform will enable participants to co-create and explore business opportunities based on corporate internal growing demands, to further advance the current industries.

If you are an AI startup, keen to work with Taiwan tech corporations and expand to Taiwan market, then you are the right fit! TAIRA 2019 will be accepting startup applications until June 30. For more information, please check out the TAIRA website here: http://www.tairax.com.tw/index.aspx.

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Joining Chiang Mai Smart Mobility Alliance Network, the initiative signed by Grab seeks to bring cleaner mobility solutions for Thais

Grab announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with partners from both government and private sector organisations to establish the Chiang Mai Smart Mobility Alliance Network. By doing so, Grab marked the launch of GrabTukTuk Electric, which the company claimed to be the first in Southeast Asia.

With GrabTukTuk, Grab will work to integrate electric vehicles into the Tuk Tuk network. The goal is to reduce pollution from private vehicles by 35 per cent, which is the part of the public-private partnership.

Users in Chiang Mai can start booking their GrabTukTuk Electric ride from the Grab app.

“Over the past year, we have improved the infrastructure in the Nimmanhaemin area under the ‘Smart Nimman’ project where the development of transportation has been our top priority so as to increase the efficiency of public transportation, reduce air pollution, elevate the quality of life for the people and move towards Smart Mobility.”

“The Chiang Mai Smart Mobility Alliance Network will thus be key to unlocking the full potential of both the public and private sectors to drive Chiang Mai forward and become one of the first smart cities in Thailand,” said Wirun Panthewee, Deputy Governor of Chiang Mai.

Based on statistics from the Energy Conservation Laboratory (EnConLab), KMUTT, one electric TukTuk is estimated to reduce the emission of greenhouse gas by up to 4.18 tons per year.

Also Read: How Solve Education wants to help a billion people

GrabTukTuk Electric also allows locals and tourists to easily book this transport through the Grab app. The new service is also expected to create better income-earning opportunities for GrabTukTuk Electric driver-partners as it allows them to save 80 per cent in fuel costs (costs only THB1,400 to charge an electric TukTuk compared to THB6,000 monthly fuel expenses).

GrabTukTuk Electric service is part of Grab’s long-term push into environmentally friendly transportation options such as electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles across Southeast Asia for a more sustainable mobility network. Grab claimed that it operates the largest network of eco-friendly vehicles in Southeast Asia and welcomes partnerships with city governments and industry partners to drive greater adoption of electric vehicles across the region.

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STP claims its platform allows for the transparent tokenisation of any asset, which will improve the way digital assets behave and how individuals interact with them

Standard Tokenization Protocol (STP), an open-source standard and decentralised network for the tokenisation and issuance of any asset, has announced that it in May closed a US$7M financing round with investors, including Singapore-based NEO Global Capital, Beijing-based fund BlockVC, and crypto-asset investment company Alphabit Fund.

Additionally, the Singapore-based company has announced it will be conducting its initial exchange offering (IEO) on Bittrex International, a digital assets trading platform. Interested and qualified users can participate in the STP IEO via Bittrex, starting at 10pm SGT on Tuesday, June 11th. The token sale will end at 10pm SGT on Tuesday, June 12th, or once the total supply is sold if earlier.

Also Read: Grab launches GrabTukTuk Electric in Chiang Mai for greener transportation

Mike Chen, Founder and CEO of STP, said: “We decided to go with Bittrex because their community, like ours, is global, and the platform allows users to purchase more tokens in comparison to other IEO platforms. With the help of Bittrex, we will be able to unlock trillions of dollars of value using the STP-Standard.”

STP was co-founded by Sinhae Lee and Richard Lee.

STP claims its platform allows for the compliant and transparent tokenisation of any asset, which will improve the way digital assets behave and how individuals interact with them. Tokenised assets in the STP ecosystem are enabled with new asset features that eliminate the hassle of manual and labour-intensive back-end processes.

STP helps lower the barrier to entry for accessing digitally native assets by allowing for fractional ownership, thereby removing illiquidity discounts and creating flexibility for the assets.

Use cases

Issuers can use STP to execute the tokenisation of their assets. STP’s on-chain Compliance Validator ensures global compliance at all times, giving issuers various financing options: the liquidity of an IPO, the speed and efficiency of an ICO, and the compliance assurances of a regulated offering.

Retail investors will be able to access new STP-Standard token offerings through the mobile app as well as wealth management tools for managing their STP-Standard token holdings. This single platform for all STP offerings will help individuals find and invest in the right projects for them, while helping projects reach the right audience and grow their communities.

The STP token also enables new financial tools such as onchain crowdfunding, where investors access new offerings by sending STP tokens directly to a smart contract which automatically returns the new STP-Standard token to the investor.

Photo by Storm on Unsplash

 

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Ever wonder how to get an MVP off the ground? This is a nice first-person account of the process

Hi, I’m Nicholas Lim, the Co-Founder of Outside — a community tasking app that makes it easier for people to help each other with their daily inconveniences.

The Outside team is made out of students and fresh graduates who are passionate about tech and the sharing economy. We have previously attempted several business ideas together and ultimately got back together to build Outside.

The Beginning

I met my co-founder and friend, Dion, back at a social entrepreneurship program in secondary school. After graduation, we decided to try starting up businesses together. Within a few years, we attempted 6 different ideas, ranging from tech enabled crowdsourcing, sustainability, gaming, to even contract jobs and events.

After testing out multiple concepts, we finally arrived at the idea of creating a platform that would make it easier for people to help each other. Thus, Outside was born.

Like most people who lack the ability to build an app themselves, we resorted to outsourcing. However, the experience was not the best. The constant check-ins with the outsourced developers were very time consuming and the development process took 3 months longer than what was planned.

Worst of all, the app did not perform as expected. The 6 months of designing and gathering feedback led to more functions, and building more functions led to a much bigger price tag.

The constant unexpected delays and changes were slowly diminishing our savings. Soon, we realised that we had to raise more money or drop the app.

As 20 year-olds, this was the toughest decision that we had to make. We considered borrowing money and even tried to apply for bank loans (the banks obviously rejected). Ultimately, with rising tensions and tighter finances, we had no choice but to let go of the app.

Leveling up

However, soon after, Dion and I felt that it was possible to pick up programming by ourselves to save the app.

After numerous research, as well as four-to-five months of tumbling around and attempting two different frameworks (Dartlang+Flutter and React Native), we finally created a Minimal Viable Product (MVP) that performed the basic function of tasking and task management.

The journey was not at all smooth. While building the app, we hit roadblocks such as learning the wrong language and had difficulty seeking help. We failed to hit our targets and the release for private beta was pushed back for nearly 3 months.

While rushing for the private beta release, we were constantly in the office up till the last available bus home. This routine of pushing ourselves only resulted in burning out and increased tensions within the team.

After realising the detrimental effects of our working style, we agreed on building a proper work schedule and system to better manage our work process ( You can learn more about it here ). With everything in place, we managed to launch our private beta in December 2018.

Also Read: Grab launches GrabTukTuk Electric in Chiang Mai for greener transportation

While we also initially intended for our public beta to launch in December, we received several crucial feedback and noted problems from our private beta testers. This led to us making the decision of doing a controlled scale test instead. Doing so allowed us to focus on understanding our current testers and helped us in better adding value to the app.

After fixing up issues and restructuring the app we successfully (and proudly) launched the public beta of Outside in February 2019.

Side note: we were very lucky and thankful that we were given the opportunity to both open our first booth and pitch for the finals at Unicon Arena 2019. We came in as runner up within 48 hours of our launch too yay!

Whats Next

Although we have already launched our public beta, we are still very much at The Start of our journey. We recently onboarded new members and are currently preparing for our demo day in mid April!

We are currently getting more beta testers so that we can collect more feedback to improve on the product. There are also several pretty interesting functions coming down the pipeline that we are very excited to share!

Also Read: Asset tokenisation platform STP Network raises US$7M; to launch IEO on Bittrex

We can’t wait to see how you guys react to them. In the meantime, keep an eye OUT for us!

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Photo by Pablo Heimplatz on Unsplash

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In a world of heightened stress and anxiety, make sure you’re creating a healthy work environment where everyone can thrive

The state of the world has been extremely turbulent, with people experiencing fires, war, earthquakes and other tragedies, in addition to an increasingly competitive working environment. Lately, people have been experiencing more stress and anxiety in their lives than ever before. Some people reach for meditation apps, go to yoga sessions or take breaks to travel internationally. Humanity appears to be constantly seeking peace in its heart.

Through my experience as a startup founder, I’ve realised that mental health issues are especially prominent among founders and people who play major roles in entrepreneurial endeavors. After addressing my own mental health and witnessing many of my close founder friends sink into depression, I have taken steps to ensure my company sustains a healthy work environment in order for everyone to thrive.

Let go of negative influences

I founded Humm.ly six months ago with several others. I trusted one particular team member wholeheartedly, overlooking some questionable behaviours because I thought his skills and talent would be valuable to the team. They delivered impeccable work whenever needed. I let him lead an entire project because I trusted his high standard of work. However, trying to get a startup going can be perilous. They were highly critical of other employees in circumstances that called for patience. Gradually, this person’s temper discouraged almost everyone in the company. I was afraid to start frank conversations with him because of unreasonable criticisms and arguments. It was a difficult realisation for me. I had to convince myself that having him as a leader in the company would significantly slow down work performance and impact others’ job satisfaction. After a lot of consideration and consultation with more experienced startup founders, I made the difficult decision to let them go. Even though I had sympathy for him, his departure ultimately prevented negativity from spreading to other team members.

Encourage physical wellness

Years of research shows that physical activity can reduce anxiety and depression for healthy adults. Yet, exercising regularly can be difficult, especially when starting a new company and experiencing high levels of stress. During the beginning of my startup life, I experienced tremendous weight gain, living on spicy ramen and late-night delivery options. One of my founding members ate Big Macs for a month straight! This was not the image we wanted to present, especially with a mission to promote healthy lifestyles for our users. I encouraged the team to sign up for boxing and yoga classes with me. I reminded them to eat healthfully and sleep well every day.

Also Read: Malaysian healthtech startup Naluri raises US$250K seed funding from 500 Startups, BioMark

We have been able to maintain medium- to high-intensity exercise routines ever since then. If you are worried about how to keep your team motivated to accomplish fitness goals, lead by example. You can initiate a great sense of well-being within your company by creating opportunities for regular exercise and fitness partnerships within your team. I’ve seen that with a proper routine, memory recall and creativity can increase and team members can feel more relaxed and positive about themselves and their lives, potentially increasing their performance and attitude at work.

Develop meaningful one-to-one communication

The most challenging thing in my startup experience so far has been managing the emotional highs and lows over the past several months. Although the ups and downs are a natural part of building a new company, it’s crucial to keep track of all team members’ well being, especially during the initial development of the business. I have found that regular one-to-one meetings are valuable for building rapport between you and the individuals you work with every day. Get coffee, go for lunch, hike and even take spontaneous trips with the team member you want to check in with. One-to-one communication can develop trust, increase productivity, and support the team’s alignment and development of a shared mental model.

Foster a supportive and positive culture

Creating a supportive and positive culture became the most important priority for my company after stress and burnout caused internal discord and issues with team members. Although startups are always pushing to meet crucial deadlines, it is ultimately more important to reinforce your team and support them in going the extra mile. You want to help your team feel welcome, secure in their position and valued within the company. Lead by example and set a positive tone through supportive behaviours. As you build relationships with team members and grow your company’s culture, over time you will create a supportive and positive place that people love working at.

Competition in the startup world can be brutal. If founding team members are constantly overwhelmed and not receiving support for mental or physical wellness, the company could crumble. Every founder should consider working on their own skills, including mindfulness, listening, clear communication and empathy. The team and the company will benefit from their founder leading by example, resulting in longevity, prosperity and happiness for all involved.

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Joanna Yu
Founder and CEO of Humm.ly

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organisation comprising the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched BusinessCollective, a free virtual mentorship programme that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

Photo by You X Ventures on Unsplash

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