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Taipei, July 2 (CNA) Five Taiwanese innovative startup companies are participating in a training program in Singapore in a bid to boost their visibility overseas and attract international venture capitalists, multinational consulting firm KPMG said Monday.

KPMG said that with its assistance, the five startups were selected under the Singaporean government's Action Community Entrepreneurship (ACE) initiative to take part in the one-month program that started last week.

The startups are artificial intelligence technology developer CouldMile; cashless payment services provider TapPay; fashion item platform Styleup; Lend & Borrow (LnB), a platform to accommodate lending and borrowing deals; and Addweup, which provides services to travelers to deal with unused foreign currencies at the end of their trips.

According to KMPG, all five companies specialize in developing booming technologies such as financial technology, Internet communications and mobile communications.

The ACE courses in marketing, fund raising and consulting services are being offered in collaboration with KPMG's Digital Village initiatives in Singapore and UNS Enterprise of the National University of Singapore, KPMG said.

During the one-month program, the Taiwanese startups will meet with representatives of more than 10 venture capitalists and large multinational enterprises, who are likely to help them raise funds in a foreign market, KPMG said.

With that exposure, KPMG said, the five Taiwanese firms can use the Singapore market as a springboard for entry into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc and the wider global market.

According to KPMG, Singapore is one of the major fundraising centers in the world with a venture capital market of US$1.2 billion in 2017.

The consulting firm said its efforts to help train startups are in line with a Taiwan government initiative to cultivate more innovative enterprises in the country.

(By Chiu Po-sheng and Frances Huang)
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