Two Taiwanese start-ups won top prizes at the SelectUSA Tech competition in Maryland last week, while another local firm placed second in its category, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Saturday.
Fourteen start-ups from Taiwan competed in seven major categories against 100 finalists from around the world in the SelectUSA Tech, which is part of the SelectUSA Investment Summit held from June 26 to Wednesday last week, the ministry said in a statement.
Among the Taiwanese contenders, Astron MedTech Co (艾斯創生醫), established by Taiwan Accelerator Plus (TAcc+), won in the MedTech Software category, while Lydsec Digital Technology Co (來毅數位科技) took the top prize in the Cybersecurity category, the ministry said.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Economic Affairs
A third Taiwanese start-up, CancerFree Biotec Ltd (精拓生技), took second prize in the MedTech Software category, it said.
The other major categories were CleanTech, eCommerce & Retail Tech, FinTech and a general category called Other.
At the summit, Small and Medium Enterprise Administration Director-General Ho Chin-tsang (何晉滄) met with Maryland Department of Commerce Director Jessica Reynolds to discuss establishing a start-up exchange platform between Taiwan and the state, the ministry said.
Ho and Reynolds agreed that Taiwan’s Startup Terrace village in New Taipei City, the Asia New Bay Area 5G AIoT Innovation Park in Kaohsiung and TAcc+ should work with innovation accelerators in Maryland to help more start-ups, the ministry said.
After the SelectUSA Summit, Ho and representatives of 23 Taiwanese start-ups were invited by the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) to visit California’s Silicon Valley to seek potential investors, as part of an effort to boost the visibility of Taiwanese start-ups in the US market, it said.
The Taiwanese representatives also attended a NextGen Telecom roundtable hosted by the AIT, it added.
The SelectUSA Summit, an annual event sponsored by the US Department of Commerce, focuses on facilitating job-creating investments in the US.
This year, National Development Council Minister Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) led a 41-member delegation to the meeting, aiming to increase exchanges in the tech sector — in particular, semiconductors, artificial intelligence, telecoms and space exploration.
Start-ups from Hungary, the Netherlands, Israel and Portugal were among the winners this year.
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