Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology (STUST) and the well-known Singapore-based IoT-focused accelerator AIRmaker held an opening ceremony on July 17. General Manager Gui-Cheng Li hosted the opening ceremony for AIRmaker in Taiwan, beginning its cooperation with the STUST Incubator and the SME Incubator of Small and Medium Enterprise Administration, the Ministry of Economic Affair. The future will see an internationally based, all-round development of STUST, AIRmaker, and the Southern Taiwan Science Park, a three-in-one teamwork to promote regional exchanges and cooperation, which will also re-position the SME Incubator into a center for small and medium enterprises and the development of young entrepreneurs in creating small and medium enterprises.

AIRmaker is the first international accelerator to have entered the international SME Incubator of the Southern Taiwan Science Park. It is a multinational accelerator specialized in the field of Internet of Things. In the future, it will cooperate with the STUST Incubator and the SME Incubator of Small and Medium Enterprise Administration, the Ministry of Economic Affair. The accelerator program will be closely linked to the mechanism of the SME Incubator, in order to jointly select and cultivate teams with potential for becoming international entrepreneurs to develop in the market of Singapore and Southeast Asia. The SME Incubator will also develop into a center for the international youth entrepreneurship based on the South Taiwan Industrial Park, a springboard for international businesses and entrepreneurs in science and technology.

President Chien Tai of Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology (fourth from right), General Manager Kwai Seng Lee of AIRmaker (fourth from left), Dr. Alex Lin—Head of SGInnovate(third from right), and school executives in the ceremony.

AIRmaker is one of the leading international accelerators, an IoT-focused accelerator for Digital Health and Smart Nation-related startups. It leverages on the technology partnerships of Ascendas-Singbridge, Infocomm Investments, and Runyang Group to help the start-ups propel their business growth. The accelerator is aimed at driving start-up companies at all stages of development to help start-up business grow.

President Chien Tai of Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology (fourth from right), General Manager Kwai Seng Lee of AIRmaker (fourth from left), Dr. Alex Lin—Head of SGInnovate(third from right), and school executives in the ceremony.

Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology is very active in promoting international incubation. This year, the STUST Incubation Center has successfully bred a new team ClefTEK, which is now greatly supported by AIRmaker. The Singapore-based accelerator has a new bilateral joint development and capital investment in the Southeast Asian market. While closely connected with NUS and Temasek Polytechnic in Singapore, STUST is now working with the Temasek Polytechnic Venture Center in developing a base for Taiwan’s entrepreneurial teams, which shall be taken over by the SME Incubator in Taiwan.

Dr. Alex Lin, Head of SGInnovate , was giving a speech in the ceremony.

Kwai Seng Lee, General Manager of AIRmaker, said that he was greatly honored to be a partner with Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology. He found that STUST has great engineering and technical resources to support and develop new businesses. As both parties of their cooperation have identical backgrounds, he believes that they can be a very good partner for each other.

General Manager Kwai Seng Lee of AIRmaker was having a speech in the ceremony.

President Chien Tai of Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology said that the operation of the SME Incubator was taken over by the Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology in 2017. By the end of June, a total of 178 small and medium enterprises have been consulted, with nearly NT$ 5.3 billion induced to investment. Following the preceding 80 enterprises, two flagging enterprises are being allowed to enter the Southern Scientific Industrial Park. In the fourth quarter of 2017, a platform for the international accelerator will be established in the SME Incubator to create new teams in Taiwan. Through the international network, STUST will help emerging business teams to acquire fast and effective access to entrepreneurship resources. It is expected that through the promotion of international accelerators, more Taiwan start-up companies will be able to obtain foreign funds and promote their products to the international market.

President Chien Tai of Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology (left fifth in front), General Manager of Kwai Seng Lee of AIRmaker (right fifth in front), Dr. Alex Lin—Head of SGInnovate, and all the honorable guests and school executives in the ceremony.