What has AppWorks achieved in its first 10 years?

2009 was the year when the groundwork was laid before the official beginning of AppWorks. In this year, Jamie Lin started blogging on MR. JAMIE and has since written more than 1,300 posts. His writings have provided inspiration to millions of founders in the startup community.  Jamie started Project AppWorks in late 2009 as a mission to give Taiwan and subsequently Greater Southeast Asia (Southeast Asia + TW) a big push so we stay on top of an increasingly digitalized, automated, and decentralized 21st-century world.

2010

・AppWorks was officially incorporated in May. 

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・One of the earliest startup accelerators in Asia, AppWorks Accelerator kicked off its inaugural batch, AW#1, in June with 11 startups. Since then, AppWorks has invited the most promising startups to join the Accelerator twice a year.

2011

・AppWorks led the seed round for EZTABLE (AW#1), marking our first investment into an AppWorks Accelerator alumni startup.

・AW#2 and AW#3 joined AppWorks Accelerator, bringing the total startup count to 32, and among them are CHOCO TV (AW#2) that was acquired by LINE in 2018 and became LINE TV.

2012

・AppWorks successfully raised AppWorks Fund I with US$11 million, one of the only 7 Taiwanese VC funds that was raised that year and the first internet-focused fund since the 2000 dotcom crash, thanks to the support of key investors including Cathay Life Insurance, Phison Electronics, UDN Group, and The CID Group.

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・AW#4 and AW#5 joined AppWorks Accelerator, total startup count grew to 57.

・Nice Cheng, ex-Co-founder of Webs-TV, the “Hulu before Hulu”, joined as Partner.

2013

・AppWorks took AppWorks founders out west in our inaugural Bay Area Trek and visited founders / executives at Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Square, and A16Z among other key Silicon Valley companies.

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・AW#6 and AW#7 joined AppWorks Accelerator, total startup count now at 107.

・Joseph Chan, 11 years VC veteran of CID Group and ex-tech lead of Nasdaq-listed Gigamedia, joined as Partner.

2014

2015

・AppWorks closed AppWorks Fund II with US$51 million, thanks to the support of key investors including Taiwan’s National Development Fund, Cathay Life Insurance, Far EasTone, UDN Group, The CID Group, Fubon Life Insurance, and CDIB & Partners Investment Holdings.

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・Now a go-to accelerator in Taiwan with 201 active startups in our network, AppWorks decided to extend its coverage to include founders in Southeast Asia in order to build a regional community and contribute to the rise and prosperity of Greater Southeast Asia.

・AW#10 and AW#11 joined AppWorks Accelerator.

2016

・To increase engineering talent supply and accelerate ecosystem growth while helping to bridge the digital divide in the talent pool, AppWorks started AppWorks School.

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・To connect Taiwan and SEA startup ecosystems, AppWorks hosted IMPACT 2016 in Taipei, featuring CEOs and executives from Sea, Lalamove, LAZADA, momo, PChome, Zalora, 17LIVE, Lion Travel, 91APP, KuoBrothers, and Soft-World.

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・NetPublishing and KuoBrothers went public on TPEX, marking the first 2 IPO exits for AppWorks Funds portfolio.

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・Jamie was elected as Chairman of Taiwan Internet and E-commerce Association (TiEA), Taiwan’s leading trade organization for the digital industry.

・AW#12 and AW#13 joined AppWorks Accelerator.

2017

・After 2 years of hard work flying around SEA countries communicating to entrepreneurs  how AppWorks can help them become better founders and scale their startups into regional companies , AppWorks Accelerator for the first time in its history admitted more international startups than local Taiwanese ones with AW#14, officially turning into a regional accelerator.

・Total valuation of all AppWorks Startups crossed the US$1 billion mark, 3 years after hitting the US$100 million mark.

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・AW#14 and AW#15 joined AppWorks Accelerator.

2018

・To remind founders the mobile internet ramp is coming to an end with new paradigm shifts underway, AppWorks Accelerator decided to only accept AI and Blockchain startups starting from AW#17.

・AW#16 and AW#17 joined AppWorks Accelerator.

2019

・Jessica Liu and Andy Tsai promoted to Partners, marking a milestone in grooming next generation leadership in-house.

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・AppWorks formed a strategic alliance with Taiwan Mobile, Taiwan’s 2nd largest telecom company with Jamie taking over as President of the group.

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・AppWorks Fund III was oversubscribed with US$114 million under management, thanks to the support of key investors including Taiwan’s National Development Fund, Taiwan Mobile, Fubon Life Insurance, Cathay Life Insurance, Wistron Corporation, and Hungtai Group.

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・AppWorks Associates TP Lin and Brandon Chiang tapped by Chunghwa Telecom and PChome to head Cornerstone Ventures, the newly formed joint corporate VC firm by the 2 heavyweights.

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・To connect founders and bring the startup community in Greater Southeast Asia closer together, AppWorks co-hosted SYNC 2019 with Tech in Asia in Singapore, featuring founders and CEOs from Sea, OYO Rooms, Lazada, and Asia Partners.

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・AW#18 and AW#19 joined AppWorks Accelerator.

In 2020, AppWorks continued to help founders from many different countries and verticals, contributing to revenue and job growth in the Taiwanese and regional economies. That is AppWorks’ original intention and has never changed in the past 10 years.