Listen to this articleBelow is our recent interview with Kevin Yu from Taiwan Accelerator (TA):
Q: Could you provide our readers with a brief introduction to your company?
A: Founded in October 2016, Taiwan Accelerator (TA) is the first seed accelerator in Taiwan and an active early-stage investment firm. TA has incubated 300+ startups and invested in 14 of them, aggregate valuation of its portfolio has grown 8 times, while TVPI of its seed fund has achieved a TVPI of 3X. TA is also the organizer of the X-PITCH Global Contest.
Q: Any highlights on your recent announcement?
A: X-PITCH 2021 is the “X Games for startups” wherein participants will be going through three levels of pitching (15 seconds, 60 seconds, and 3 minutes) for a chance to win up to US$1 million investment prizes. The Contest highlights the New Normal in the post-pandemic world; participating teams should focus on applications and services that enable digital transformation around five major categories of the New Normal including Public Services, Industrial Supply Chain, Remote Lifestyle, Mobility, and Banking. Nine awards will be presented on the Grand Finale Day on November 11, 2021.
Startup founders from 33 countries in Asia, Americas, Europe and Africa have signed up for the Contest. The application deadline is August 31, early-stage startup founders from Asia and worldwide are welcome to sign up at www.xpitch.io.
Q: Can you give us more insights into your offering?
A: The continual shift to later stage investments and decline in early-stage deals in the global landscape may have a negative impact on the entire startup ecosystem in the long run, someone needs to fill this gap On the other hand, we believe that startups could play an important role in driving digital transformation under the pandemic. That is why we organize the X-PITCH Global Contest with the theme: Tackling the New Normal, aiming to provide early-stage startups with a platform for fundraising, partnership, and exposure.
Q: What can we expect from your company in the next 6 months? What are your plans?
A: The TA partners are going to launch a new global venture fund under a new brand in 2021 Q4, which will invest in early-stage startups that provide the new normal solutions.
Q: What is the best thing about your company that people might not know about?
A: With the new fund as above mentioned, we are ready to make bigger commitments by increasing both the number and the size of early-stage deals, especially for the pre-seed startups. Details will be announced later this year.
