In recognition of the 21st century being seen as a “new economy” era, the TWSE established the “Taiwan Innovation Board” in 2021 and officially launched a new dual engine system of “General Board” and “Taiwan Innovation Board（TIB）” to drive the development of emerging industries. The TWSE pointed out that in order to enhance the international competitiveness and expand the scale of the Taiwan capital market, TIB plans to completely cancel the restrictions on qualified investors at the beginning of next year, expand the participation base of investors, and open up various instruments such as margin trading, securities lending, and intraday and after-hours) odd-lot trading to create a more friendly financing and trading environment. The official implementation time will be announced separately.
Startup Enterprises Urgently Need Capital Support, and the Taiwan Innovation Board Offers the Best Growth Solution
According to the “Taiwan Startup Ecosystem Survey” released by the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research in 2024, 45.8% of startups have been established in the past five years, and funding and capital requirements have become their biggest challenge (44.3%), higher than the demand for manpower and professional talents (17.2%), and brand awareness and market recognition (15.4%). This underscores the significance of the Taiwan Innovation Board’s role in supporting the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises and fostering innovative startup entrepreneurs.
In response to the TWSE’s plan to upgrade TIB, Katie Chen, CEO of Business Next, strongly agreed and stated that “this is a very innovative idea!” Based on years of experience in focusing on the development of startups, Business Next feels that most startups will consider the two major aspects of “market” and “capital” when choosing an IPO location. For entrepreneurs, Taiwan is the most familiar market to them with inherent advantages. As for indicators such as trading volume, liquidity, and listing costs in the capital market, they are areas of great concern for startups. By doing so, Taiwan’s capital market can receive more capital and technology injection, which not only enhances market vitality, but also helps attract more international investors’ attention to further strengthen Taiwan’s competitiveness in the global capital market.
According to statistics, TIB’s cancellation of restrictions on qualified investors can significantly increase the number of qualified investors from 300,000 to 13 million in the entire market. This will not only lower the entry threshold, but also help more investors participate in the development of emerging enterprises. Another key point of this upgrade is the “adoption of the general trading system for the TWSE listed companies” which no longer restricts the qualifications of investors. At the same time, investors are allowed to participate in trading modes such as “intraday odd-lot share trading,” and trading instruments such as “day trading” are gradually opened up.
In addition, the upgrade of the Taiwan Innovation Board will bring multiple benefits to its listed companies. Firstly, the board is expected to attract diverse investors’ attention. By relaxing investment restrictions, the investor base is expected to be expanded to bring more abundant capital injection to the enterprise. Secondly, the market visibility of companies on the board is expected to be enhanced, and their company images can be improved to attract more long-term investors through the strengthening of information disclosure and an increased number of presentations to corporate investors. Furthermore, the simplified procedure for transfer to the General Board provides more flexibility for the future development of enterprises, and enables them to respond more flexibly to market changes. In summary, these reform measures will help support the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises and provide a more friendly development environment for startup entrepreneurs with the potential for innovation.
The Taiwan Innovation Board is the Best First Stop to Encourage Innovative Enterprises to Look to the World from Taiwan
For the Taiwan Innovation Board, this policy provides important support for Taiwanese startups. Drawing on Katie Chen’s experience, this measure can not only attract more innovative enterprises to join, but also inject new energy into the entire industry chain, and encourage various industries to continue investing in research and development and innovation to achieve a virtuous cycle. It is expected that with this support, Taiwan’s capital market can make more significant achievements in the future, and become the engine of Asia’s innovative economy.
Taiwan’s capital market has multiple advantages, including complete industrial chains, reasonable listing fees, convenient and complete post-listing fundraising channels, good international visibility, and a market value and daily average transaction value that are among the top in the global stock market. These advantages have made Taiwan an ideal place for corporate fundraising, and have also boosted international investors’ confidence in the Taiwan market. The importance of this comprehensive transformation of the Taiwan Innovation Board in supporting startups therefore goes without saying. In the future, these reform measures will help retain Taiwan’s emerging industries in the local capital market, and allow all sectors to feel Taiwan’s strength of innovation. They will also attract high-quality international innovative enterprises to join the Taiwan market, and converge into a strong innovation industry cluster.