The Small and Medium Enterprise Administration of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, and the Asia Silicon Valley Development Agency worked together to plan and assist startups within Taiwan to take part in the Startup Thailand 2018 exhibition. And great news came out of the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center on the 17th of May.

Bethesda Scientific Corp., designated as a pioneer enterprise last year (2017), defeated 19 other startups from 11 countries with their innovative sustained-release pesticide technology to win the first prize at this international startup competition, taking home a prize of ฿50,000. Another startup from Taiwan, Umbo Computer Vision, had an equally impressive performance, collecting a winner's prize at the competition.
Bethesda Scientific Corp., which won this year's competition, was founded in 2015. Founder Dr. Teng Yu-li PhD has long paid close attention to global food supply issues and reflected on how to solve agricultural problems with biotechnology. Embracing a core philosophy of altruism, Dr. Teng innovated a sustained-release platform technology and applied it to crop disaster prevention and growth. Bethesda discovered a non-toxic method of ridding crops of pests and helping crops grow, becoming a startup with potential within the bioagricultural field. Bethesda Scientific Corp. took part in the International Ecosystem Accelerator Project to Nurture Startups established by the SMEA in 2017 and was provided with strategy consultation and opportunities for international exposure. Now Bethesda has developed a safe and natural sustained-release pesticide to solve production problems resulting from the golden apple snail eating young rice sprouts. This brought an effective solution to Thailand, historically an agricultural nation. This increased rice production by 20% and overall village productivity by large amount; as a result, Bethesda won the judges’ approval. The other winning participant, Umbo Computer Vision, founded in 2014, is an all-in-one AI security control firm providing storage platforms, firmware, software intelligent analysis services and camera products. The AI security control live image recognition technology speeds up the learning ability of system imagery, so the security control camera can provide precision detection and alerts against intrusions. This shows AI's capability AI to change daily life. Umbo possesses multiple American and Taiwanese patents.

The SMEA has helped Taiwan startups expand into the developing SE Asian market. Thailand, the heart of ASEAN, is targeted as a stepping stone for the rest of the region. This co-operation with the Asia Silicon Valley Development Agency integrated domestic resources at all levels for display planning, scheduling, selecting appropriate startups, and pretrip activities. The collaboration aggressively promotes elite startups with what it takes to develop in the SE Asian market as they foray into Thailand. Startup Thailand 2018 is the Thailand's biggest annual startup exhibition, taking place for 4 days, from May 17th to the 20th. It is estimated that over 10000 people were present, to find suitable investment targets and cooperative partners.