The seed accelerator has been backed by the government and academia and is aiming to support between 30 and 60 startups per year.
Taiwan government-backed Taiwan Accelerator (TA) launched yesterday with a stated goal of supporting 30 to 60 seed-stage startups in the country per year.
Participating startups will receive Tb1m ($28,000) in seed capital. The accelerator aims to host three chohorts for an eight-week program per year.
The program is backed by the SME Administration of the Ministry of Economic Affairs as well as Feng Chia University, Chaoyang University of Technology, National Chiao Tung University’s accelerator and accelerator InnoSquare.
TA hopes to connect with the Chinese Business Incubation Association, Taiwan Business Incubators Alliance, European BIC Network and Taiwan Globalization Network as well as other domestic and foreign incubators to provide access to a global network.
The accelerator is the result of statistics released by the country’s Ministry of Economic Affairs that showed that, while the country produces 90,000 new SMEs each year, as many as 90% go bankrupt within a year.
Out of the remaining 10%, another nine out of 10 companies close within the first five years, leaving a mere 1% out of the 90,000 startups that survive long-term. The bankruptcy is primarily caused by a lack of available funding and poor financial management.
– This article first appeared on our sister site Global Government Venturing.
