TransMedx Accelerator was established by Southern Taiwan Science Park Bureau, MOST in response to the construction and improvement of STSP Smart Biotech Medical Cluster’s innovation ecosystem. To guide Taiwan's medtech startups from the early stage to the growth stage, and help them raise funds and settle in Southern Taiwan Science Park, TransMedx Accelerator partnered with TransPacific Venture Partners and MIRDC to build the STSP Smart Biotech Medical Cluster’s innovation ecosystem.
TransMedx Accelerator held its first seminar at Zenda Suites in Tainan on August 30, 2019. The theme of the seminar was, The Positioning of Taiwan's Medical Innovations From a Global Strategic Perspective. During the seminar, Dr. Peter Fitzgerald, Stanford University Honorary Professor, brought the latest news on global medtech trends. Dr. Chao-Chin Chen, who served as the Vice President of R&D of Cordis, a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary, shared how to translate medical innovation into actual businesses. Domestic leaders of various fields were also invited to the seminar, including the Vice President of Taiwan Venture Capital Association, PwC Taiwan, and the Vice President of Strategic Development of Hermes Epitek, to jointly develop and discuss, helping medtech startups understand the key elements of successful enterprises.
STSP has long cooperated with the industry, academic, research, and medical sectors, and has formed a complete smart biotech medical cluster. Now through TransMedx Accelerator, STSP provides one-on-one consultations between startups and their global mentors and customized coaching. During the training, STSP will teach startups how to strengthen and increase their advantages in various aspects (such as intellectual property, international regulatory certifications, product design and application, and business models) and enhance their potential business value to attract investors and reduce the chance of inadequate funding in the process. However, there are still some gaps in this ecosystem, such as practical experience in product and market development, and how to select internationally competitive medtech startups and help them to grow and connect with domestic ICT companies. To this end, STSP chose to cooperate with TransPacific Venture Partners to promote TransMedx Accelerator.
Dr. Chiu-Feng Lin, President of MIRDC, said that with the rapid progress of information, the digitization and informatization of medical devices is an important global development direction; all countries are proactively investing in ICT to find effective solutions. The latest report from the global market research organization TrendForce indicates that the global medical device market is expected to reach US$444.2 billion in 2018 and its output value will grow to US$577.6 billion by 2023. The implementation of the 2019 Innovation Acceleration of the Southern Taiwan Medical Device Industry and Globalization Service Platform not only helped manage startups together with TransPacific Venture Partners, but also focused on integrating ICT, AIoT, and medical devices in hope of improving the quality of medical services to achieve emerging technologies such as personalized healthcare. In the future, STSP will continue to strengthen the expertise and experience required for startup growth and help startups to cross the chasm to obtain more resources.