Taiwanese Innovators: ASPN Sports Tech Accelerator

Group photo from the 2024 ASPN Accelerator Demo Day.

The ASPN Sports Tech Accelerator is a dynamic program designed to nurture and propel sports technology startups to new heights. As a collaborative initiative supported by the Sports Administration, Ministry of Education, Taiwan, and executed by IAPS (Center of Industry Accelerator and Patent Strategy, NYCU), it aims to foster a thriving sports tech ecosystem across the Asia-Pacific region. With that, why don't you join me in learning more about ASPN with its Managing Director, Dr. Hank Huang?  

Could you give a brief background about yourself and what initially drew you to the IAPS/ASPN Sports Tech Accelerator program? 

I'm still a professor at a university. However, I set up a company in New York before returning to Taiwan. I also worked for Bell Labs for their Cell Research in the US. When I returned to Taiwan, IAPS was in charge of the technology licensing office and incubators. Starting in 2013, we began to run the accelerator program for governments. We have been active for more than ten years already. Through that, we learned more about the ecosystem, governance, resources, corporate relations, and funding.

Given the program's emphasis on "turbocharged entrepreneurship," can you describe the acceleration methodologies and resources offered to participating startups?

First, we need to do a body check to understand the state of each company since each company comes from different stages, especially international ones. There's a need to treat each company differently. We set different milestones for each company during a full body check. Second, we have webinars, even though some webinar courses are similar. Third, we have individual mentors that are associated with each team. We also have a colleague staff who follows through with the details of each team. The whole purpose is to create value for the program itself. We engage with businesses the best we can during the demo day. Hopefully, we make some investments. We need to fix their business structures and evaluate them. Through this, we can learn all the necessary information for them to restructure their company. The key here is to bring value to Asia.

The ASPN Accelerator Program just started this year, even though we have been running this program for more than five years. It's to create value together. We also identify regional partners through the commissioner service program, focusing on the sports ecosystem. Our program makes the business valuable but also creates value for the region.

Dr. Hank Huang, Managing Director of IAPS, took a group photo with the graduating teams from Taiwan on the 2024 ASPN Accelerator Demo Day.

Building a strong ecosystem is crucial. How does the program foster collaboration between startups, investors, and other stakeholders in the sports technology industry?

The good news is that we are very vertical: we only focus on sports. However, in the past, sports wasn't generally the focus since the focus was on sports tech only. Apart from this, there were many involvements from people who were initially not quite interested but suddenly became curious. For example, we had the international sports brand Decathlon, channel and sports companies, and telecom operators (Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan Mobile) to support the system.

We also have an ecosystem associated with that. It turns out good since it is more focused. Also, in the end, we see a lot of volunteers since sports have a lot of fans. So they stick to what we are doing, share our vision, and would like to contribute. This was exceptionally good for the sports ecosystem.

The ASPN Sports Tech program boasts of being Asia's pioneering accelerator. Can you elaborate on some of the key innovations or success stories that have emerged from the program?

I can give two examples. One is my company called Gomore. We have been doing the IPO process recently because we received a lot of funding from Japan. The success of this company had to do something with medical measurements, but we changed their direction to sport and got excellent traction. Because of the involvement of the overseas ecosystem, they can see our platform's value. As such, they gave us significant funding. The fund we got last year was around 8 million USD. They are moving for the IPO process as of today so that they can go IPO next year.

The second one would be Uniigym, a mobile app designed for exercise. Since the quality is excellent, Chunghwa Telecom launched the program with them for the potential of becoming high-performance 5G. Not only this, but Chunghwa Telecom also engaged with them and engaged with overseas telcos. This had a great result since Taiwan was able to garner international engagement. One of our programs helped since we have a different accelerator program called the Telecom Accelerator program. They were able to get this exposure to the telecom operators.

Uniigym, an AI Interactive Fitness Service Platform.

Looking ahead, what are your ambitions for expanding the program's reach and impact within the Asia-Pacific sports technology landscape?

Over the past five years, we have supported 100 sports technology startup ecosystem companies. They have been divided into eight different categories. We want to grow each category so that they can be seen and function from the get-go. Once they get more comprehensive, we will have more sponsors and corporate involvement since they can see different things about other countries.

We try to create some critical mass and have all the information on what might be the most promising thing from the startups from the Asian perspective because we see a lot of good examples in the West. We identified 20 to 30 companies among the previously selected companies, which might be very good. We have been able to participate in these kinds of involvement as well. We create a more influential community, and then they share feedback about what they're doing and what they have done. This is a success for everybody because the community gets more robust and comprehensive. So that's what we're going to do.

Dr. Hank Huang is the Managing Director of the Center of Industry Accelerator and Patent Strategy at National Yang-Ming Chiao Tung University (IAPS). He is responsible for developing and executing the overall vision and strategy, designing and implementing accelerator programs, and building relationships with investors, among other things. His presence is paramount for the program to achieve its goals and overarching mission. As he sees it, Dr. Hank wants Taiwan to become a leading figure in sports tech startups on the international stage.
 

Visit www.techshake.asia if you would like to know and connect more with ASPN Sports Tech Accelerator.