Release date: March 9, 2022
Releasing unit: International and Cross-strait Sports Division
Contact person: Ms. Hung Chieh-Ya
Tel:(02)8771-1480
E-mail：jela@mail.sa.gov.tw
Media contact person: Section Chief Huang Hsiao-fen
Tel: (02)8771-1932
E-mail：zpip625@mail.sa.gov.tw
The Sports Administration (SA), Ministry of Education established the HYPE Global Virtual Accelerator Taiwan (HYPE GVA TW) to take Taiwan’s sports industry onto the international stage. On January 19th, 10 teams from five countries each gave a commercial pitch to try and win the support of the judges on Demo Day of the 7th cycle. In the end, Xpure from Taiwan and BIG WAVE_VR_Game from Switzerland won the first prize, the HYPE Sports Innovation (HYPE) Award. The event was held online and offline simultaneously, with over a hundred people taking part. The SA calls on other startup teams interested in the accelerator program to follow the information for the 8th cycle.
Despite the epidemic, HYPE GVA TW continued to conduct the 7th training program. Maggie Hsu, Director of the International and Cross-strait Sports Division, SA, encouraged all the teams to push themselves to the next level after receiving solid training. 10 teams from India, Switzerland, Hungary, France, and Taiwan went head to head in the commercial pitch competition, striving to win the awards provided by HYPE, SA, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University Center of Industry Accelerator and Patent Strategy (IAPS), and Taiwan Mobile’s mySports, including free exhibition in the area of sports in Taiwan and overseas, marketing cooperation activities, partnership introduction, and other opportunities.
The 7th cycle Demo Day held a hybrid physical and video conference commercial pitch competition. The event invited the media expert Mr. Sebastien Audoux, head of sports digital content, CANAL+ Group, from France to share the globalization of the sports startup industry. Various types of sports products were featured on Demo Day, included AI calculation, VR diving experience, and reusable sports face masks, spanning various sports. One of the teams, Xpure, from Taiwan, created a washable sports face mask that can maintain the filtering effect through a patented breathing system and unique filtering materials. Decathlon Taiwan is currently drawing up a commercial non-disclosure agreement and discussing the cooperation on new products with Xpure.
After a fiercely contested commercial pitch competition, Xpure and BIG WAVE_VR_Game came out on top and won the HYPE Award. They won a free booth at the HYPE international investment exhibition and publication report opportunity. CREST from Taiwan and Xpure won the SA Award and won a free booth at InnoVEX this May in Taiwan. As for the IAPS Award, the winners Swipecool Inc. and BIG WAVE_VR_Game won IAPS matchmaking resources and free space at Taiwan Tech Arena for one year. Also, the extra mySports Award went to Swipecool Inc. They will have the title rights of a mySports challenge event and joint marketing exposure opportunity.
Since 2018, SA has cooperated with IAPS and HYPE to cultivate more than 70 sports innovation startups worldwide. It has raised more than NT$360 million in funds through attending different global events. HYPE GVA TW aims to integrate industry, government and academia resources and gradually build a Taiwan and international sports technology ecosystem. At the same time, HYPE GVA TW will help teams interested in taking part in sports innovation startups integrate with Taiwan's technology, manufacturing, and service industry advantages and strengths to advance on to the international stage.
Taiwan's outstanding performance at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics has indirectly driven sports development. SA will strive towards creating a global network connecting different industries in the sports startup ecosystem so that Taiwan becomes Asia's sports technology startup hub in the future. The next cycle of the HYPE GVA TW training program will be launched in April this year (2022). Teams interested in sports technology, are invited to pay close attention to the registration information.