AppWorks Demo Day #30 Debuts
AppWorks Demo Day #30 and Wistron Demo Day #8 took place on June 17, featuring 24 startup teams from Indonesia, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea, presenting topics including space technology, Web3, and the emerging field of AI.
Coinciding with the 15th anniversary of the AppWorks Accelerator, AppWorks Chairman and Partner Lin Chih-Chen reflected on the background of establishing AppWorks, noting that at the time, both Taiwan and the global entrepreneurial environment were at a low point, having experienced the 9/11 attacks, SARS, and the 2007-2008 financial crisis, leading to a sluggish venture capital and startup atmosphere. He decided to move back to Taiwan from the United States to promote innovation and entrepreneurship, invigorating Taiwan’s economy and providing more upward mobility opportunities for young people.
In the winter of despair, he founded AppWorks, recruiting 11 startup teams in its first cohort and hosting the inaugural Demo Day in 2010, which attracted over 200 venture capitalists and industry professionals, allowing the teams to feel external validation and hope for the first time.
Reflecting on the past 15 years, AppWorks has supported over 620 active startups and more than 2,000 entrepreneurs. He described the startup ecosystem as akin to a rainforest, gradually flourishing from the desolation after the financial crisis and now moving towards a more mature phase.
Among the teams featured in AppWorks #30 today, 33% are serial entrepreneurs, and 18% of the startups have already achieved the milestone of annual revenue exceeding one million dollars, showcasing the strength and commercial viability of this cohort of entrepreneurs.
AppWorks Chairman and Partner Lin Chih-Chen.
Which WEB3 Teams Are Worth Watching?
Deep Tech Innovation Funding Platform: Merito
Merito is an innovative funding platform focused on deep tech projects. Founder Brandon Possin stated that many significant technologies capable of transforming lives, such as cancer therapies, semiconductors, and nuclear fusion, often begin in university laboratories or small startups, but 92% ultimately fail to reach the market, primarily due to excessive screening in traditional funding systems.
To address the funding bottleneck, Merito has developed “Project Tokens” as a new fundraising mechanism. This tokenization method bypasses the traditional venture capital screening process, allowing investors to openly participate in funding early-stage R&D projects. Merito converts standard research contracts into tokens, and holding these tokens equates to funding the R&D of these scientific projects while receiving a share of the licensing revenue in return.
Due to geopolitical factors, some venture capitalists are reluctant to invest in Taiwan, but Project Tokens breaks geographical barriers and provides a new channel for capital to enter Taiwan’s deep tech sector. Merito disclosed that a Taiwanese biotech startup project is currently being promoted on the platform.
Last year, the total fundraising amount for IT projects on the platform reached $360,000, and this year it has reached $2.3 million. Brandon Possin noted that Merito is continually receiving project applications from top universities in Japan.
Emotional Memory Preservation Platform: Sentiment
Sentimint focuses on emotional memory preservation, combining blockchain and AI technology to help users permanently save and re-experience precious memories. Founder Yuri Choi used the emotional memory of receiving earrings from his mother as an example, pointing out that our memories are often drowned in thousands of phone photos or cloud storage and tend to fade over time. Sentimint’s mission is to combat this memory loss, ensuring emotions are meaningfully preserved and re-experienced.
Sentimint’s products consist of two core components: a blockchain memory platform and memory wearables. The memory storage platform transforms emotional memories into digital assets, such as videos or photos, and permanently preserves them. These memories are not merely “files”; the system uses AI to tag the emotional content, such as “touching, love, longing,” etc.
Additionally, this data is encrypted via blockchain, and only you or those you authorize can view it. Sentimint’s memory wearables, such as bracelets and necklaces, are equipped with a private key, which is the only means to unlock your memories stored on the platform. When a phone or sensing device scans the wearable, it instantly evokes memory fragments.
In just 30 days, Sentimint has attracted over 12,000 users and stored more than 50,000 memories. Yuri Choi indicated that Sentimint will start from South Korea and aims to enter industries such as weddings, pets, jewelry, and souvenirs, delving into the emotional business market.
Sentimint photoshoot day gmpic.twitter.com/iqObEu6veU— yuri (@yurincontrol) April 1, 2025
AI Agent Operating Protocol: Omo Protocol
Omo Protocol creates an AI entry tool to help average users seamlessly access the decentralized finance ecosystem. The main product currently being developed is Neko, a consumer-facing AI agent interface tool that makes it easier for regular users to funnel funds into the decentralized trading platform Hyperliquid and participate in trading and yield products.
Previously, users might have been interested in entering Hyperliquid but were deterred by high entry barriers and complex operations. Omo’s mission is to solve this entry challenge. Neko utilizes a multi-agent system similar to Gemini or Anthropic to assist users in completing complex processes.
This design significantly enhances investment efficiency; according to the team’s tests, user returns can increase by 2 to 2.5 times. Although the product has not yet been fully launched, Omo Protocol founder Ali Hassan revealed that over 1,000 users are already on the waiting list for reservations.
Cross-Chain Financial Infrastructure Platform: Yei Finance
Yei Finance, based in Taiwan, is a blockchain financial infrastructure platform. Founder Austin Chien pointed out that a core dilemma has emerged as blockchain development has progressed: the more chains there are, the more dispersed the capital becomes. New public chains must continually offer subsidies and rewards to attract capital inflow, creating a vicious cycle of “relying on subsidies to sustain liquidity.”
Yei Finance allows newly launched blockchains to avoid starting from scratch in building financial infrastructure. By integrating with Yei Finance, a new chain can quickly access mainstream capital flows and obtain comprehensive functionalities, including bridging, trading, and lending, all within just seven days, enabling users to immediately conduct asset operations and trading on that chain.
Austin stated that their solution can increase deployment speed tenfold and user returns fivefold. Although the platform has not been established for a year, it has already accumulated user deposits totaling $500 million and generated $4.8 million in revenue.