X-PITCH 2021 Global Winners Announced

TAIPEI, Taiwan–(BUSINESS WIRE)–At the Grand Finale of X-PITCH 2021 held on November 11, TOP150 Semi-finalists — who are selected from 3,680 startups in 42 countries — pitched their business online (for international teams) and in a 60-second autonomous car ride at Hutoushan Innovation Hub of Taoyuan City (for local teams), followed by a 3-minute online pitch in the TOP15 Finals hosted at TutorABC’s T-Space. The TECH FOR GOOD theme of X-PITCH 2021 highlights the challenges in the post-pandemic world, participating teams focus on applications and services that enable digital transformation around five major categories of the New Normal.

Over a thousand people attended the event, which was broadcast live via online platforms including e27, Meet Startup, Startup Island and PitchFlix. The event was also graced by distinguished guests including Ms. Hsu Chia-Ching, Deputy Minister of Overseas Community Affairs Council of ROC (Taiwan); Mr. Cheng Wen-Tsan, Mayor of Taoyuan City; and Mr. Eason Kuo, Director-General of Department of Economic Development of Taoyuan City.

10 startups emerged as winners at the Grand Finale, and the top three startups will receive US$1 million investment in total. The winner list (www.xpitch.io/winners) is as follows:

Startup of the Year – Gold Award: IronYun (United States)

Startup of the Year – Silver Award: Dayta AI (Hong Kong)

Startup of the Year – Bronze Award: Biomdcare (Taiwan)

Best Public Service / Healthcare Startup: Asilla (Japan)

Best Industrial / Supply Chain Startup: Steer (Philippines)

Best Consumer Lifestyle Startup: Business Canvas (Korea)

Best Mobility / Transportation Startup: WeWALK (United Kingdom)

Best Banking / Commerce Startup: MHUB (Malaysia)

Number Pitch – Champion: Pulxion (Taiwan)

Number Pitch – People’s Choice: Ai Aerial Dynamics (India)

TOP15 Startups with Outstanding Performance include Arcare Innova (Taiwan), InfinitiesSoft (Taiwan), KERB (Australia), RE (Taiwan), Riipay (Malaysia), WeavAir (Singapore), Wordcab (Vietnam).

“With the number of participating countries and startups, X-PITCH has become one of the world’s largest startup competitions in its first year and is probably the most challenging one in the contest format, wherein participants went through the 15-second, 60-second and 3-minute pitch to win awards and investments. This X Games for Startups enables founders to revisit their business and tell their story in a more precise way. X-PITCH is also a platform for global startups, investors, corporates, and ecosystem builders to connect with each other. A lot of value-added activities and resources are provided to the participants, some of these include investor & corporate matchmaking program, country access webinars, valuation & fundraising workshops, online exhibitions, and media exposure,” said Kevin Yu, Founding Partner of Taiwan Accelerator (TA), the organizer of X-PITCH 2021.

Special thanks to the event Supervisors National Development Council and Overseas Community Affairs Council; Co-organizers Taoyuan City Government, Block71 Singapore, Born2Global, BSSC, DOST-PCIEERD, Innovation Factory, JETRO, MDEC and VITTBI; Corporate Partners ASUS, Avalue, O-Bank, Pro Long Capital and Yulon Motor; Media Partners e27 and Meet Startup; Venue Partners Hutoushan Innovation Hub and TutorABC’s T-Space; Exhibition Partners InnoVEX and Meet Taipei; Valuation Partner Equidam; PR Partner Amazing Creativity; Design Partner Investec Design; 18 Investment Partners; 130+ Supporting Partners; and Judges Cami Lu (Operating Partner at Sunsino Venture Group), Elisa Chiu (Founder & CEO at Anchor Taiwan), Lewis Chen (Deputy General Director of CIS at ITRI), and Peter Cheng (President of Acom Networks).

At the event, Kevin Yu and managing partners James Ku, Brent Hu and Jason Liu announced the official launch of a new VC accelerator firm – XCEL NEXT (www.xcelnext.vc). With operations in Taipei, Singapore and Silicon Valley, XCEL NEXT’s goal is to invest and accelerate 100 startups in Asia and the world over the next 3 years. TA itself has become a startup system ecosystem connector and event company.

Video replay of the event can be found on X-PITCH website: www.xpitch.io