AWS Joint Innovation Center Kaohsiung Showcases Startups Accelerating Enterprise Modernization and Smart City Innovation
The Startup Terrace Kaohsiung AWS Joint Innovation Center (JIC) hosted the "AWS JIC Demo Day" on November 18 at InterContinental Kaohsiung, bringing together technology leaders, startups, and enterprises across Southern Taiwan. The event focused on how AI-driven innovation can accelerate startup growth, advance enterprise digital transformation, and enhance Taiwan's global competitiveness.Robert Wang, Managing Director of AWS Taiwan & Hong Kong, emphasized that since the AWS Joint Innovation Center launched in Kaohsiung in 2022, it has continued to empower the city to seize emerging opportunities. Through startup incubation and cloud-driven support, the JIC has helped accelerate innovation among local industries and expand Taiwan's presence in international markets. Moving forward, AWS will work closely with Kaohsiung under the core strategy of "New Finance, New Economy," with the goal of making the city a key financial innovation sandbox and a major demonstration hub in Asia. This initiative aims to inject new economic energy into Kaohsiung while accelerating enterprise modernization across sectors.Lin Chin-Tien, Director of the Southern Region Service Office of the Small and Medium Enterprise and Startup Administration (SMESA), Ministry of Economic Affairs, noted that the event represents a major milestone for Kaohsiung's smart economy and startup ecosystem. "Our collaboration with AWS has enabled startups to strengthen their technical capabilities while securing business opportunities with enterprises. We will continue supporting outstanding teams as they expand onto the global stage," Lin said.Lin Liao-Chia-Hung, Deputy Director-General of the Kaohsiung City Government Economic Development Bureau, highlighted the unique advantages of Kaohsiung's diverse industrial environment - where emerging technologies and traditional industries coexist and complement each other. He expressed hope that startups will leverage AWS's cloud technologies and ecosystem resources to help accelerate economic development in Kaohsiung and further contribute to Taiwan's overall industrial transformation.New Economic Growth Driven by AIA spotlight session, the "Joint Innovation Forum - The Smart New Economy Driven by AI," showcased public-private joint innovation cases where established enterprises collaborate with startups to create new industry momentum.Jacky Pan, Vice President of the Technical R&D Group at iPASS Corporation, shared how AI-driven, user-centric services are beginning to generate tangible public impact. For instance, AI analytics derived from iPASS Senior Citizen Cards usage data enable proactive early-warning mechanisms, allowing local governments to deliver timely care and strengthen elderly support services - a clear demonstration of how AI enhances public welfare and unlocks new avenues of innovation.DOTDOT Global CEO Ting Hsieh discussed digital transformation challenges faced by SMEs, noting that despite the company's initial aim to serve street-side vendors, many business owners lack the time and technical familiarity to adopt complex IT systems. "From an AI implementation standpoint, the biggest beneficiaries aren't the shop owners - it's the consumers and franchise headquarters. AI-driven features such as weather-triggered advertising help maximize order conversion and operational efficiency," he explained.Frank Liao, Director of Partnership at AIFT, highlighted how the company integrates red-teaming and real-time protection modules to establish strong compliance and safety guardrails for enterprise generative AI adoption. This solution has enabled innovation in highly regulated industries such as finance while ensuring compliance with global standards.Startups and Enterprises Co-Creating New Economic MomentumTwelve startup teams from the 2025 Startup Terrace Kaohsiung AWS Joint Innovation Center showcased their AI solutions spanning manufacturing, retail, legal services, smart buildings, and sports technology. Startups included AIRA (facial recognition and tracking), Ret[AI]ling Data (smart retail and manufacturing AI), LegalSign.ai (generative AI legal workflow platform), eCloudEdge (AIoT edge orchestration platform), eNeural (edge AI self-learning), PowerArena (Data insights for manufacturing using AI computer vision), Linker Vision (Vision AI with data-centric insights and edge integration), SHIPENG Technology (digital twin and smart construction AI), StatsInsight (Data solution for baseball), and Seasalt.ai (Cloud communication AI technology solutions). These teams demonstrated how the AWS JIC ecosystem is accelerating innovation and enabling enterprises to modernize through cloud-powered AI.AIRA, for example, develops facial recognition, face tracking, human detection, and smart fencing technologies that have been deployed in retail stores, factories, smart buildings, and public safety applications to enhance site management and safety.Addressing the challenges of data diversity, cloud-edge collaboration, and cybersecurity compliance in manufacturing and energy sectors, eCloudEdge provides the NeoEdge Edge Orchestration Platform. By integrating physical AI and sensor fusion technologies, NeoEdge helps enterprises accelerate innovation across OT and IT environments.The event brought together more than a hundred representatives from enterprises, startups, investors, and government agencies. AWS Taiwan & Hong Kong Managing Director Robert Wang concluded the event by sharing his commitment to empowering promising startups with AWS cloud technologies and ecosystem resources, enabling them to achieve transformative growth and expand their reach from Taiwan to international markets.
