Taiwanese start

Taiwanese start-ups recognized at European event

NunoX Technology Co (聯覺科技) won the artificial intelligence (AI) category at a competition held during Europe’s largest start-up and technology trade fair, VivaTech, the Small and Medium Enterprise and Startup Administration (SMESA) said in a statement yesterday.

NunoX was one of 34 Taiwanese start-ups and supply-chain partners participating in the event in Paris under the theme “AI Taiwan,” as part of a delegation organized by SMESA, the National Science and Technology Council’s Taiwan Tech Arena (TTA) and the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Department of Industrial Technology, to expand the nation’s presence in the European market.

The company won the AI category of the Global Deep Tech Battle, an international start-up competition hosted by the Swiss national pavilion during VivaTech. Four Taiwanese start-ups advanced to the finals, SMESA said.

NunoX Technology Co chief executive officer Jac Hsieh, third right, and others pose for a photograph at an ceremony at the Viva Technology conference in Paris on Friday last week.

NunoX combines AI technology with a self-developed high-precision scanner to convert real-world fabrics and textures into digital materials with a realism rate of up to 98 percent, SMESA said.

The technology helps reduce waste generated by conventional textile sampling by shortening apparel development cycles from 14 days to 48 hours and lowering sample production and shipping costs, it said.

VivaTech this year marked its 10th anniversary and introduced the inaugural “Tech for Change Award” to recognize companies using technology to address environmental, social and healthcare challenges.

Seven Taiwanese start-ups received the award’s certification, including for medical AI, energy management, privacy protection, green technology and smart-city applications, SMESA said.

The delegation attended an AI summit in Lille, France, where five Taiwanese start-ups hosted presentations for local innovation clusters and start-up incubators in search of cross-border partnerships.

It then went to Belgium, building on a memorandum of understanding on start-up cooperation signed by Taiwan and Belgium last year. Ten Taiwanese start-ups focused on healthcare, AI applications and green technology participated in exchange activities there, including a Taiwan-Belgium start-up forum on Monday at Taiwan’s representative office to the EU, SMESA said.