【大紀元2014年05月21日訊】【大紀元記者李歐舊金山採訪報導】舊金山，初創業主與創投公司的天堂，可以說改變世界的眾多智慧都從這裡出發。臺灣為了保持與世界格局的創新能量接軌，由經濟部中小企業處指導的育成中心，兩年來和硅谷（矽谷）的加速器交流，為臺美初創人士提供茁壯的可能性。
5月14日，由臺灣財團法人資訊工業策進會（資策會）主辦，經濟部中小企業處（中企處）指導的「2014美國雙城商機訪問團」到達舊金山。15日晚間該團與舊金山當地4家加速器（Accelerator）簽署MOU合作備忘錄，以期未來臺美雙邊的育成中心與加速器資源共享，協助初創業主。
該團領軍的中企處副處長林美雪表示，2012年中企處參考國際加速器做法，成立適合臺灣國情環境的「育成加速器」，聯合工研院、資策會、中原大學、交通大學等單位，此行會到舊金山是因為硅谷的加速器發展蓬勃，希望兩邊有更多合作空間。
為了打進國際市場，目前臺灣的「育成加速器」希望創新公司也能打進國際，因此推動與硅谷眾多加速器的交流，此次簽訂的MOU就是讓這些臺灣創業公司能藉由硅谷龐大的世界網絡資源，順利與世界貿易。簽署的加速器有：500 Startups、NestGSV、Momentum、玉山創投等4家。
反之，如果硅谷的創業者想要搶攻臺灣市場，也可同樣借助臺灣的加速器來打進市場，形成臺美兩邊互相通氣。此外，會中就有6家以從臺灣出發，並由育成加速器推薦到硅谷發展的新企業。
Kono即是其中一家，以優化移動設備的閱讀為目的。其聯合創辦人簡旭霆（Stanley Chien）說，當初創業是因為在斯坦福大學唸書時，有幾位同窗都感受到手機閱讀的不易，因此有了優化閱讀的構想。現在Kono已成立兩年和港臺多家雜誌商合作，提供行動閱讀的最佳平台，在安卓上有超過1萬次的下載量。
在新創業領域不僅是男性的天下，其中有三家還都是女性創業，MacroData：該公司主要從事資料庫分析業務，提供顧客即時的研究成果，幫助快速掌握商業趨勢；VESCIR：元盛生醫電子現階段開發出發展出隨身光學膚質檢測儀，針對醫療美容、化妝品市場具有相當大的應用潛力；Lucent Sky：保障應用程式的安全及效能。專注在把應用程式安全變得簡單，易於管理。
15、16日該團還參訪硅谷創新單位包括Google Glass、NestGSV、Evernote等10家創新單位。◇
Taiwan – U.S. start-up Accelerator cooperation platform
helping start-ups to build up the capabilities needed to develop overseas markets
Witnessed by representatives of Taiwan’s Small and Medium Enterprise Administration, Ministry of Economic Affairs, and by incubator experts from San Francisco and the Silicon Valley area, on May 15th a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed in San Francisco between an alliance of four Taiwanese accelerator operators – the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), National Chiao Tung University (NCTU), Chung Yuan Christian University (CYCU), and the Institute for Information Industry (III) – and a group of U.S. accelerators, including Momentum, SWELL, NestGSV and Yushan Ventures. In the future, the signatories to this MoU will be working together to promote the growth of the APEC Accelerator Network and establish a joint incubation platform, thereby helping business start-ups to acquire the capabilities needed to develop overseas markets successfully.
With the aim of helping to strengthen Taiwan’s international outlook and learn about the latest global trends in incubation models, so as to help Taiwan’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to speed up their growth, Ms. Mei-Hsueh Lin, Deputy Director General of the Small and Medium Enterprise Administration, MOEA, is leading a delegation comprising representatives of Taiwan’s Start-up Taiwan Accelerator alliance, incubator experts and representatives of individual start-ups, to attend the National Business Incubation Association (NBIA) 28th International Conference on Business Incubation, which is being held in New Orleans on May 18 – 21, 2014. The theme of this year’s Conference is “Entrepreneurship energizing economies”; it is anticipated that over 600 incubator managers and business development specialists from around the world will be attending the Conference. In addition, in order to strengthen collaboration and links with Silicon Valley, prior to the Conference the Taiwan delegation hosted a Taiwan Business Day in Silicon Valley on May 15. Besides providing an opportunity to gain a better understanding of the latest innovation trends in Silicon Valley and learn about new paradigms of successful start-up growth, this event also saw the signing of an accelerator MoU that will help Taiwanese start-ups to build links with Silicon Valley’s human talent and to access its funding sources; the MoU will help give Taiwanese firms access to international resources and business matching opportunities. Over 200 industry professionals attended the signing ceremony.
Mario Tapia, the founder of the renowned Silicon Valley accelerator Momentum, noted that Taiwan possessed competitive advantage based on industry clusters and the ability to coordinate business operations flexibly that made it unique in the Asia Pacific region; he pointed out that Taiwan had, for many years now, been an important partner in Silicon Valley’s global supply chain. Mr. Tapia suggested that, building on this solid foundation, the signing of the MoU would help to stimulate continued collaboration and exchange between incubators and accelerators in Taiwan and the U.S., generating new opportunities and growth potential for Taiwanese and U.S. SMEs, and creating a “win-win” situation.
Ms. Mei-Hsueh Lin, Deputy Director General of SMEA, noted that SMEs were the backbone of Taiwan’s economy, and that their outstanding performance and vitality had won widespread recognition. She explained that, in order to speed up the forging of links between Taiwan and other countries, Taiwan was working to build an international emerging industry incubator network. Starting in 2013, and building on ideas borrowed from Silicon Valley, the Small and Medium Enterprise Administration has been actively implementing a “Start-up Taiwan Accelerator” program that involves the creation of an accelerator alliance comprising four Taiwanese accelerators: those of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), National Chiao Tung University (NCTU), Chung Yuan Christian University (CYCU), and the Institute for Information Industry (III). Three main mechanisms – expert mentoring and guidance, funding matching, and the development of an international incubator network – will be used to help Taiwan’s SMEs speed up their growth and develop overseas markets.
Last year, Taiwan submitted a proposal for an APEC Accelerator Network Initiative (AAN) to APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation). The proposal won wide acceptance among the economic leaders and ministers of APEC’s member economies, and was subsequently formally adopted. As part of the implementation of the AAN, on March 25, 2014 an APEC Accelerator Network Forum was held at the Splendor Hotel in Taichung. The Forum brought together representatives of leading accelerators from throughout the Asia-Pacific region to build consensus regarding resource linkage; Taiwan is continuing to promote accelerator collaboration with Europe, North America, the Asia Pacific region, and emerging markets in other parts of the world. In 2013 these efforts stimulated NT$1.57 billion in additional domestic investment, and NT$830 million in international investment and overseas orders.
The signing of this accelerator MoU between the Taiwanese accelerator alliance and four leading Silicon Valley-based accelerators represents a further step in the building of the APEC Accelerator Network. In the future, the Taiwanese and U.S. partners will be collaborating on the basis of equality and reciprocity; personnel from Taiwanese SMEs will be able to receive mentoring and support in the U.S. from U.S. accelerator specialists, while U.S. SMEs will have access to similar services in Taiwan. The provision of mentoring, funding and networking support by accelerators will help new start-ups develop the business models and capabilities needed to become globally competitive, and will thus help Taiwanese entrepreneurs to successfully develop overseas markets.
