NEW TAIPEI CITY, Taiwan, Jan. 23, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- After nearly two months of applications, selection and panel interviews, Taiwan’s first seed accelerator – Taiwan Accelerator, has finally selected 8 out of 153 startups to provide with seed money and follow-up mentorship. In a country that does not place importance in seed investments, this is an unprecedented number of startups being invested in a single batch. A diverse selection of startups were chosen, including those from e-commerce, big data, agricultural technology, and even a team from India. They will now go through an 8-week bootcamp that includes a Due Day, Demo Day and roadshow in the U.S., which will help these startups find the most suitable investors to realize their creativity and dreams.

Last year there were only a handful of seed investments, but this Spring, Taiwan Accelerator brought extremely good news to the startup ecosystem in Taiwan. Applications began in mid-October of last year and, after nearly two months of a three-stage selection process, 8 out of 153 startups were eventually selected to receive seed money and follow-up mentorship. The 153 startups that applied came from Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Singapore, India and Israel. The largest age group was 25-34 years old accounting for 41%, followed by 35-44 years old with 30%. In terms of industry, the five largest were: creative & culture (14%), sharing economy (12%), e-Commerce, social platform (7%), consumer goods, agricultural technology, and green energy (6%). In addition, teams that already had existing product prototypes accounted for 21%, while those who have officially released their product or service accounted for 22%. From these figures we can see that the ratio of those whose products or services were already connected to the market is not low at all.

Read the full story at finance.yahoo.com.