Recognizing the need to promote innovation and boost competition in the financial services industry, Taiwan’s financial regulators have introduced a number of regulatory changes to foster fintech development.
In 2019, the island’s Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) issued its first virtual banking licenses to three consortia led by Taiwan and Japanese investors in a move aimed at encouraging financial innovation and deepening financial inclusion. At around the same time, the regulator implemented the first phase of its open banking strategy, opening up public information, including mortgage interest rates, fixed deposit interest rates, currency exchange rates, and credit card products.
These developments were followed in 2020 by the release of the Fintech Development Roadmap of Taiwan, outlining a strategy centered around four main objectives: inclusion, innovation, resilience and sustainability.
But despite the efforts, Taiwan’s fintech startup ecosystem remains small with just a little over 40 startups operating across insurtech, lending, payment, and robo-advisory. Nevertheless, among these, several ventures have gained prominence, recording substantial growth and garnering investor attention.
In this overview, we spotlight some of Taiwan’s most successful and fastest-growing fintech startups in 2024, highlighting their value propositions and recent achievements.
Next Bank
Next Bank is a digital-only bank based in Taipei, Taiwan, that offers a range of financial services through a mobile app. Launched in January 2022, it is one of three banks in recent years to obtain a digital banking license in Taiwan.
The bank provides services such as savings accounts, loans, mortgages, and insurance. It also offers features such as quick account opening, accelerated savings, credit card rewards, and easy loan applications.
Next Bank now plans to expand its offerings with corporate management, wealth management, and foreign exchange services, including remittance for migrant workers.
Next Bank is a joint venture established by six major Taiwanese enterprises including Chunghwa Telecom, Mega Bank, Shin Kong Group, Quanlian Industrial, KGI Bank, and Guangmao Network. It is the second biggest digital bank in Taiwan, boasting around 346,000 customers.
Line Bank
Line Bank is another digital-only bank in Taiwan, offering a range of online banking services through its mobile app. Officially launched in April 2021, it provides services such as deposits, transfers, debit cards, and personal credit loans.
Customers can open accounts and manage their finances entirely through the Line Bank app, with features like gamified fixed deposits and easy loan applications. The app integrates with instant messaging and social networking platform Line, allowing users to receive transaction notifications and utilize Line’s friend transfer feature. Line Bank also offers a Visa debit card featuring Line Friends characters and provides instant rewards through Line Points.
Last year, Line Bank expanded its services to include securities settlement accounts, wealth management products, and collaborations with services like the Aftee buy now, pay later (BNPL) service and Line Taxi.
Line Bank is backed by major shareholders including Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank, China Trust Commercial Bank, Taiwan Mobile, Standard Chartered International Commercial Bank, Far EasTone Telecommunications, and Federal Commercial Bank.
As of July 2023, Line Bank had the highest user base among digital banks in Taiwan, with 1.57 million users.
iChef
Founded in 2012, iChef is a smart dining technology company that specializes in providing innovative point-of-sale (POS) systems, along with comprehensive restaurant data analytics and consultancy services tailored for the food and beverage industry. The company’s platform is designed to streamline restaurant operations, enhancing efficiency through features such as sales analysis, membership loyalty programs, cost control, electronic invoicing, and online ordering.
iChef’s flagship product, the iPad POS system, is specifically designed by restaurateurs for restaurateurs, with the goal of making restaurant management both simple and powerful. The system integrates all essential restaurant functions into a user-friendly app. When an order is placed, it is automatically routed to the appropriate kitchen workstations, and the app generates detailed reports on restaurant performance, promotional effectiveness, and ordering trends, with all data securely backed up to the cloud.
This design has received multiple awards, including the German iF Gold Award, the German Red Dot Design Award, and the Japanese Good Design Award, and the systems are used by over 8,000 restaurants across Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia.
iChef has raised about US$12 million in disclosed funding, according to CB Insights, PitchBook and reports. The startup secured its last round in 2020, raising US$5 million to expand its research and development team and create more strategic partnerships with international platforms.
CoolBitX
Founded in 2014, CoolBitX is a global blockchain security company building the next-generation infrastructure. The company offers two primary product lines: CoolWallet and Sygna.
The CoolWallet series, launched in 2016, includes credit card-sized hardware wallets that connect via Bluetooth to users’ mobile phones, enabling secure storage and management of various digital assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, XRP, and ERC20 tokens. Beyond storage, CoolWallet also allows users to engage with an integrated in-app marketplace, offering access to decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols and services like staking, borrowing, and lending.
Sygna, the company’s other major product line, consists of regulatory compliance solutions tailored for virtual asset service providers (VASPs). Sygna helps VASPs meet global crypto regulations through user-friendly, secure technology that upholds the highest standards of information security management systems and ensures total user data privacy.
CoolBitX has raised about US$30.4 million in disclosed funding, according to Dealroom and CB Insights. Its last round was a US$16.75 million Series B secured in 2020 to expand Sygna beyond Asia-Pacific (APAC).
Featured image credit: edited from Unsplash