Taiwan's Hive Ventures closes debut fund at $13.5m
Taiwan’s Hive Ventures has closed its debut seed fund with $13.5 million in commitments. It will invest locally and globally with a focus on artificial intelligence (AI).
LPs include Taiwan's National Development Fund (NDF), the investment arms of Mitac-Synnex Group, Unitech Electronics, and GMI Technology, as well as family offices of semiconductor businesses and entrepreneurs from Taiwan, Southeast Asia, Europe, and the US.
Wufu Chen, a Silicon Valley investor and founding partner of Acorn Campus Ventures, and Hong Lu, founding chairman of Softbank China Venture Capital, are also investors.
Hive will utilise the fund to invest in about 20 early-stage AI and data start-ups and incubate them through partnerships with leading Taiwanese semiconductor, high-tech manufacturing groups, and enterprises.
These efforts are aimed at developing enterprise-focused AI innovations and applications across Asia, especially for sectors such as smart manufacturing and smart enterprises, which stand to benefit the most with AI adoption.
"The strong participation in our inaugural fund attests to our firm's and the LPs' commitment to build a world-class AI innovation ecosystem in Taiwan," Yan Lee, founding partner of Hive, said in a statement.
"Through it, we aim to help realise the innate potential of Taiwanese solutions, which will be crucial in ushering a new age of technological innovation in Taiwan – which will then be used as a platform to drive through more innovation in the region beyond."
Hive has previously invested alongside NDF's Business Angel Investment program in companies such as enterprise data virtualisation provider Canner, social data company PicSee, and technology, online coding and AI learning platform Alpha Camp.
Existing investments also include beverage automation solution provider Botrista, lifestyle-as-a-service company Roehl, digital design software provider Phase, enterprise networking platform Avesha, machine learning platform company InfuseAI, and ProfetAI, a start-up that offers an automated machine learning platform.
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