Taiwan incubator AppWorks raises $50m start-up fund

The vehicle, AppWorks Fund II, has received commitments from a number of Taiwanese corporations and financial institutions. They include Taiwan's National Development Fund (NDF), Cathay Life Insurance, Fubon Insurance, Phison Electronics, Far Eastern Telecommunication, United Daily News Corp, CID Group, China Trust Venture Capital and CDIB Capital.

NDF announced in January that it plans to commit $13 million to the fund.

The vehicle will participate in seed, Series A and Series B rounds of funding for internet start-ups, Jamie Lin, founder of AppWorks, said in a statement. It will focus on mobile commerce as well as hardware and software that falls under the internet of things (IoT) umbrella.

There have already been three investments: 91App, which helps e-commerce companies set up mobile app; Uitox, an e-commerce branding system, and Fandora, a modern art e-commerce start-up.

"With a 600 million population, Southeast Asia is on the rise," Lin said. "Compared to other ASEAN countries, Taiwan, as the largest e-commerce market, offers outstanding engineers, a mature VC industry and the best IPO destination for internet start-ups. Taiwan has the potential to become the Silicon Valley of Southeast Asia."

Founded in 2010, AppWorks raised its first $11 million fund in 2012, which focused on angel and seed stage investments. The fund backed 20 start-ups that participated in AppWorks Accelerator program. More than 190 start-ups have graduated from the program and have raised a total of NT$4.5 billion between them from follow-on investments, at a combined valuation of NT11.8 billion.

Portfolio companies that have received backing include Eztable, an online restaurant booking platform, and AirSig, a mobile authentication start-up.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Venture
• Technology
• Early-stage
• Fundraising
• Taiwan (China)
• seed
• Technology
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• Venture