Taiwanese woman starts LED company while attending NCKU master's program

台灣女子創辦LED公司的同時一邊攻讀成功大學碩士

Wang Yi-ping starts her own LED lighting company and earns over NT$10 million in first year


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Shortly after beginning a master’s program in electrical engineering at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) 12 years ago, Wang Yi-ping (王怡蘋) founded her own LED lighting company and earned over NT$10 million (US$357,500) within the first year, NCKU said in a press release.

Wang’s keen eye for business opportunities not only inspired her to get into the LED market, but also allowed her to switch gears in time, per the NCKU Industry-Academy Cooperation periodical. After focusing on manufacturing LED lights for general use, Wang took advantage of the medical equipment market, which has expanded along with the world’s aging population and growing economy.

According to NCKU, after starting out with manufacturing LED lighting equipment for general use and for horticulture, Wang eventually developed advanced LED and laser medical equipment, and built a good manufacturing practice (GMP) factory equipped with cleanrooms.

Wang’s company, Angent Optoelectronics Corporation (Angent), now has clients in almost 10 countries — including Germany, Spain, Japan, South Korea, and India — providing medical equipment for ophthalmology, dentistry, and dermatology.

At the beginning of her entrepreneurship, Wang had to personally tend to every aspect of her business, from research and development (R&D), writing up product specifications, creating catalogs, to attending overseas exhibitions. Meanwhile, she had to keep up with classes, experiments, and dissertations at school, often returning to her dormitory at 1-2 a.m. after a full day of work, per NCKU.

Aside from her own hard work, Wang also attributed her success to guidance from her professor Tsorng-Juu Liang (梁從主), NCKU’s technology transfer incubation center, as well as assistance from the Ministry of Education’s U-Start Program.

Wang was cited as saying the NCKU technology transfer incubation service helped transform her business from simply being a manufacturer to one that was capable of R&D. She said by adopting Liang’s and professor Su Yan-Kuin's (蘇炎坤) technology, Angent was able to excel despite all the competition in the LED industry.