On 19 November 2019, Tiger Accelerator and Taiwan’s BioMed Commercialization Center (BMCC) hosted a matchmaking event at Medica 2019, the world’s largest international medical exhibition in Dusseldorf, Germany. The event named “Taiwan Meet Utrecht” was led by Deputy Director Camelia Chen, the Deputy Director General at the Department of Life Sciences, Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of Taiwan. In addition to the Taiwanese and Dutch organizations involved in the event, also in attendance were five Taiwanese start-ups and scale-ups. The five companies, facilitated by BMCC, were able to engage with representatives from Dutch professional services. All parties actively negotiated with the aim to support Taiwan’s new ventures to quickly obtain business cooperation opportunities in Europe.
Along with its advancements in digital health, the Netherlands is actively developing AI smart hospitals , which provides Taiwan’s medical innovations with opportunities to enter the European market. The “Taiwan Meet Utrecht” event was attended by representatives from about 12 organizations in the Netherlands. From the Taiwanese side, there were organizations such as the Department of Life Sciences, MOST, the BMCC, the Metal Industries Research & Development Centre (MIRDC), and start-ups and scale-ups. The event was held in the Utrecht Region booth in the Holland Pavilion. It was officially launched by Deputy Director Camelia Chen and Jelle van der Weijde, Director of Health Economics of the Economic Board Utrecht (EBU). Stroopwafels and Dutch drops (liquorice) were available for everyone to taste. Jelle also presented Deputy Director Chen with Miffy, Utrecht’s local symbol for innovation and creativity. Deputy Director Chen reciprocated with a gift of Taiwan’s high mountain tea as a symbol for long term cooperation in the future, to create links to international market resources for Taiwan’s medtech companies.
In the Netherlands, Utrecht is positioned as an innovation development hub connected with other regions and countries. Utrecht highly welcome medtech start-ups and scale-ups to conduct product validation and tests through the Utrecht Hub and try to launch products, services and solutions to their first European customers. For these companies, Utrecht presents an opportunity for landing in the Netherlands and springboarding to other European markets. Deputy Director Chen said that in the past, Taiwan’s development in the ICT & telecommunications industry was very successful. In the future, resources will continue to be devoted to the development of the smart medical care sector. Through the current links between MOST, BMCC and TGN, Tiger Accelerator, and the Utrecht Region, Taiwan’s start-ups and scale-ups now have the chance to cross a soft-landing bridge to reach European markets. These connections will also enable European venture capital, distribution channels, clinical hospitals, and international companies to better understand that Taiwan has many medical equipment start-ups with great potentials. Let’s talk business!
In this matchmaking event, the five Taiwanese companies included Heroic-Faith, Guzipbio, Brain Navi, Advanced Biomedical and iXensor. Before coming to Medica 2019, the five companies have discussed with Tiger Accelerator, BMCC and EBU through online conferences, to understand the matchmaking demands for the European stakeholders. On the day of the event, TGN, Tiger Accelerator, and EBU invited 12 professional organizations, including Utrecht Science Park, THINC Healthcare, Marketing & Branding Utrecht Region, Invest Utrecht, Business Angels Europe to conduct matching-making discussions with the five companies.
The Taiwan Meet Utrecht matchmaking event kicked off in the morning of 19 November 2019 and lasted for two days. During the event, Taiwanese and European investors and the Dutch service providers and distribution channels have expressed great interest in assisting Taiwan’s newcomers to use the Utrecht Hub for product verification testing, to find the first launching customer, and then using the Netherlands as a springboard to enter the European market. Therefore, Jelle sincerely invites everyone to participate in the Tiger Growth Forum – “Building Future Health Together” organized by Tiger Accelerator and EBU on 10 December 2019 in Taipei Tech Arena (TTA). Tiger Growth Forum will also invite the five Taiwanese companies that participated in Taiwan Meet Utrecht to showcase the event’s matchmaking results. Additionally, on 10 December 2019, Jelle will officially invite Taiwanese companies to Utrecht, to participate in 2020 RAPID-Health.eu. Jelle sincerely invites you to use the Utrecht Hub as a validation field: Come! Play! Grow!
For more information on Tiger Growth Forum, please visit:
https://www.tigeraccelerator.com/tiger-growth-forum-get-connected-in
For more information on Rapid-Health, please visit:
https://www.rapid-health.eu/