An innovative island in the Asia Pacific, Taiwan draws global startups to spread their roots locally

Date of release: April 22, 2022

In a post COVID-19 era, digital transformation into smart manufacturing and industry 4.0 is the top priority in manufacturing industry and PowerArena is the key to that transformation. Established by a team of former Google founding engineers, PowerArena utilizes AI technologies in intelligent manufacturing to help improve staff’s work efficiency day in and out and assure top quality output in production line. In 2018, PowerArena was selected as one of the finalists of the Startup Global Program, SGP, organized by Garage+ under Epoch Foundation, along with the National Development Council (NDC) and the Asia Silicon Valley Development Agency (ASVDA).

Drawn by Taiwan’s outstanding professionals, business opportunities, dynamic entrepreneurial environment, and one-on-one meetings with key global supply chain players, composed of Garage+’s sponsors, PowerArena decided to take a long-term seat at Garage+ and Taiwan. Now formally established in Taiwan, PowerArena continues on striving for talents and business opportunities. 

In the labor-intensive manufacturing sector, factories are usually haunted by underutilized production lines which can cause disappointing output volume and speed. The insights require to fix such causes are also difficult to access or even obtain. In Southeast Asian countries, where most labor-intensive factories are located.

Factory floor managers had continued to voice that It can be quite tedious, almost impossible, for them to monitor their production during the on-going pandemics which is causing factories to struggle even more. However, with PowerArena’s advanced AI image analysis software, production line monitoring and analysis are now made possible. Managers can now instantly, objectively, and comprehensively analyze production efficiency and worker’s behaviors at a glance.

Data can now be obtained in real-time and potential production efficacy issues can be pinpointed and fixed—with an over 10% increase on mature line production. Such a system now had unveiled production insights that were almost inaccessible without heavily invested time and labor. Now this can also be done even without on-site data scientists. PowerArena’s latest feature—“Build Your Own AI” makes building AI models for its production lines fast and easy. What used to require huge manpower and weeks of work to optimize factories production capacity and efficiency can now be done in just days.

“Every intelligent factory has a unique setting, and they all continue to level-up manufacturing facilities. PowerArena gives clients full control, and its flexible, easy-to-train BYOAI can be adjusted to fit different settings so as to improve work efficiency. The system can thus exert influence quickly,” Luo Chien-lin, PowerArena’s co-founder and CEO, noted. Luo stated “Build Your Own AI” can help factories accelerate into Industry 4.0 and digital transformation. Since Taiwanese companies have set up factories across the world and are aiming for digital transformation, they shall be the most ideal business partners as PowerArena expands itself. 

PowerArea now has offices established across the globe—Taiwan, USA, China and Hong Kong. Until 2022, 60% of the world’s top 5 EMS provider is now implemented with PowerArena’s advanced AI software solution.

Garage+ was jointly established by renowned companies in Taiwan under Epoch Foundation. It hosts the Startup Global Program (SGP) with the National Development Council (NDC) and the Asia Silicon Valley Development Agency (ASVDA) to provide the globe’s outstanding startups with the most thorough and effective entrepreneurial resources. The selected teams this year will join a two-week program to discuss with senior business executives individually. The participants shall discover technological collaboration, market expansion, and capital investment opportunities. They will also engage with the leading corporates in Taiwan to create business opportunities together, so as to spread their roots on this island of startups. 

About Epoch Foundation

With the mission of facilitating industrial development and economic prosperity in Taiwan, Epoch Foundation has been representing 20 Taiwan-based blue-chip companies, closely allying with the world’s renowned academic institutions such as MIT and UC Berkeley over the past 30 years. With strong international connections, Epoch also serves as the liaison office to bridge and consolidate industrial resources. In 2003, the Foundation initiated the educational program “Epoch School – Young Entrepreneurs of the Future” to incubate entrepreneurship and innovation among young talents. In 2008, it founded Garage+ with a mission to support an altruism-driven technology start-up to better the world. Up to 2022, more than 435 startups (including 216 international teams) have been participating in Garage+. A whopping 75% of startups have raised funding.

Press contact

Emily Wang, office manager

Tel: +886-2-2511-2678 ext.16

E-mail: emily@epoch.org.tw