Green Technology Startup Competition

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The Green Technology Startup Competition (綠色科技新創競賽) is an event where businesses present green challenges and provide opportunities for startups to participate in solving them.
What are the main aims and objectives?

To promote startups to understand and assist in solving the unresolved green challenges of existing enterprises, in order to promote both existing enterprises and startups to innovate green solutions and green grow simultaneously. Taiwan aims to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. However, many businesses still face numerous challenges in their green transformation efforts. These challenges also present opportunities for academic and research institutions as well as startup teams to participate in solving them. 

How does the program work?

To facilitate the successful development of startups providing green-related services and products, the government first solicits input from businesses on the challenges they face during the green transformation process. Next, an expert group is assembled to consolidate and focus on these challenges, forming specific problems that startups can solve. Thirdly, the specific problems are publicly disclosed, inviting solutions from the community and encouraging academic institutions and startup ventures to collaborate in proposing solutions. The competition is divided into two stages. There is a wide solicitation of startup teams, followed by selection by a reviewing committee to enter the second stage, the semifinals. Teams that advance to the semifinals will receive a prize of TWD 200k (approx $6k). The selection in the semifinals involves participation from the sponsoring companies. Finally, startup teams favoured by the sponsoring companies will have the opportunity to receive funding and collaborate with the sponsoring companies in solving the challenges. The collaboration period for solving these challenges is set at four months. Each winner team is receiving a subsidy of TWD 800k (approx $25k) from the government. The most challenging aspect of this process lies in effectively translating the green transformation challenges faced by businesses. This translation must meet the needs of the enterprises while providing tangible solutions for startups that could potentially be commercialized and scaled up. Addressing this challenge often involves extensive communication and discussion with the sponsoring companies. Through this competition, not only are startups guided to assist in solving the green transformation challenges faced by enterprises, but it also strengthens the guidance for enterprises to participate in the scale-up development of startups.

What is the overall cost?

To organize this competition, the primary costs for the government lie in designing mechanisms to extensively solicit the green transformation challenges faced by businesses, assembling expert groups to focus on forming specific problems with potential for commercialization, and recruiting mentors to assist startup teams in developing solutions. Each final winner team is receiving a subsidy of TWD 800,000 approx. $25k) from the government. Additionally, there are resources invested by the businesses themselves to collaborate with the startup teams. Ultimately, in 2023, 24 startups stood out, receiving a combined TWD 19.2 million (approx. $600k) from the government.

How was it implemented?

The competition was held in 2022 and 2023, with a total of 45 renowned domestic and international companies participating, including TSMC, MediaTek, Panasonic, and American brand Dun & Bradstreet, among others. They presented green challenges, leading to the submission of over 260 proposals from startups over the two years. In 2023, the competition expanded to allow international companies to participate in proposing challenges. The number of sponsoring companies doubled compared to the first year, and there was a significant increase in the number of startup registrations. Ultimately, in 2023, 24 startups stood out, each receiving a subsidy of TWD 800,000 approx. $25k) from the government and the opportunity to obtain corporate validation and become partners in their ecosystem.

What impact has been measured?

The competition was held in 2022 and 2023, with a total of 45 renowned domestic and international companies participating, including TSMC, MediaTek, Panasonic, and American brand Dun & Bradstreet, among others. They presented green challenges, leading to the submission of over 260 proposals from startups over the two years. In 2022, 17 startups won the awards and the opportunities to collaborate with companies for 4 months, and it was 24 startups in 2023. 

Policy makers not only hope that enterprises' green challenges can be effectively resolved but also expect that each winning startup team can sustainably operate and scale up their developed solutions. This would assist Taiwanese businesses and even businesses from other countries in providing green-related products or services. However, since the Green Technology Startup Competition has only been held for two years, there has been no tracking of its impact yet.

What lessons can be learned?

Due to Taiwan's announcement of the net-zero policy in 2022, only a few large enterprises were aware of green challenges, resulting in a limited number of businesses participating in proposing green transformation challenges. Similarly, the number of startups able to propose green solutions that meet enterprise needs was also limited. To overcome this issue, it is necessary to rely on more concrete and institutionalized net-zero policy initiatives by the government. This will encourage more enterprises to propose green challenges and promote the participation of more startup ventures in solving them.

CURATED BY

Xin-Wu Lin

Vice President
Taiwan Institute of Economic Research
Taiwan