The innovation hub of Asia, InnoVEX returns from May 29 to 31 in TWTC Hall 1. As was previous, InnoVEX 2019 will be held concurrently with COMPUTEX as a way to further enhance cooperation between industries and startups. As the co-organizer of InnoVEX, Taipei Computer Association (TCA) stated that as businesses are faced with constant changes; the core of InnoVEX 2019 will be 「New Thinking‧New Engineering‧New Future」. Featuring 467 startups from 25 countries & regions; InnoVEX has seen a 20% growth from last year and this will be the largest InnoVEX so far. TCA estimated that over 20,000 visitors will visit InnoVEX, making it the event to be for ICT startups around the world.
2019’s Startup Trend: AI, IoT, Health & Biotech
TCA stated that after analyzing the trends of the participating startups, the five major categories of the exhibitors are: AI, IoT, Health & Biotech, AR/VR/XR, and Consumer Tech. These categories account for 60% of the exhibitors and can be taken as a representation of the trends in startups for the recent years.
The demand for health & biotech startups also existed in international VCs and the industry has become a hot new target of US VCs. According to statistics from Crunchbase, the amount of VC investments in Femtech (technology to improve women’s health) has reached USD 250 Million by the end of March 2019. According to Pitchbook’s statistical forecast, the investment value is expected to increase to USD 1 Billion by the end of 2019. This is a major increase compared to 2018’s total investment of USD 650 Million and even larger than 2016’s investment value of USD 231 Million.
This year’s individual exhibitors will include Arcare, ASUS Glamorfy, Canvasee, COBINHOOD, Dsuome Digimax, Everduit, iNumbers, Lionrock, Maktar, NextDrive, PigRent, Sen Science, SimplyBook.me, Soteria Biotech, Ubiik, and more; all of which will showcase all areas of technology innovations.
InnoVEX Forum Debut: Sportstech and Blockchain for Smart Cities
The 2019 InnoVEX Forum will take place from May 29 – 31. This year, the forum covers a wide range of topics: Startup Ecosystem, Sportstech, IoT, Smart Machinery, Biotech, AI, Blockchain for Smart Cities; all of them in alignment with COMPUTEX 2019 topics.
One of the more novel forum topics is Sportstech. Sportsech has become a growing trend and more resources are invested in it. The InnoVEX Forum will have the CEO and Founder of Hype Accelerator from Israel, Ilan Hadar who will share his insights on the landscape of Sportstech development, successful business model, technology incorporated sports business, sports brand, and future outlook of gaming.
Another focus is Blockchain for Smart Cities, prestigious speakers including Mayor of Eindhoven, Founder of IOTA Foundation, Co-Founder of NEM Foundation, and VP of Pundi X are invited to share their insight on development of smart cities, and applications such as smart contract, smart medical, fintech and cyber security to establish of future smart cities.