Over the past few months, we have been working closely with Tech in Asia to produce a documentary called “Crossing Borders,” which tells a story about the Greater Southeast Asia (ASEAN + Taiwan) startup ecosystem and some of the founders who make tech innovation happen here.
The story is complex. As varied as Southeast Asia is, its founders are even more varied.
This short video introduces you to three of these founders whose journeys have taken them to Taiwan.
Joel Leong (AW#13) -- co-founder of ShopBack, the region’s largest cash-back rewards platform, which is based in Singapore and has an R&D team in Taiwan
Jin-Ni Gan (AW#19) -- A Malaysian founder who lives in Singapore, Jin-Ni founded a micro-mobility startup called Telepod, which seeks to enable better transportation options, and a cleaner environment
Hai Ho (AW#18) -- A blockchain-focused founder based in Vietnam, Hai created Triip, which seeks to help residents of the region travel to places that are not normally on the typical tourist maps
The video is a good primer for showing some of the reasons why Southeast Asia founders launch here, or explore the market dynamics of this thriving country. Among them are:
* Mobile penetration rates that rank among the largest in Asia
*A digital economy and strong e-commerce legacy worth north of US$42 billion GMV per year
*Large pockets of SEA communities in cities like Taipei, which include a demographic that spans the Philippines, Vietnam, and Indonesia (in fact there are over 80,000 Vietnamese in Taiwan)
*A population of engineering graduates numbering over 25,000 per year which many startups turn to for their backend and front end engineering development
*And don’t forget the many global technology companies, like Google and Microsoft, that have staged R&D practices here
For many founders out there who do not think of Taiwan as a tech-forward, e-economy-driven country, which shares similarities to the SEA ecosystem, this video and these facts may be an eye-opening experience.
If you are a founder in Southeast Asia, or a founder working on AI / Blockchain and would like to belong to a community of founders who work together to solve critical problems, apply for our next cohort, AppWorks Accelerator #21.
Applications can be found here: https://bit.ly/3e4YHdo
The COVID19 pandemic has been a challenging experience for many founders, but it has not slowed many of them down. Stay tuned for a follow up video we produced showing how founders in Southeast Asia have dealt with COVID19 and regional lockdown.
You can find our interview with Lucas Ngoo, Co-founder of Carousell here: https://youtu.be/nRs_IZianfs
Doug Crets
English Communications Master, AppWorks Accelerator
#founders #COVID19 #GSEA #TaiwanCanHelp
