Foxconn to set up investment fund for wearable equipment

December 11, according to a Bloomberg report, two unnamed people familiar with the matter said Foxconn will set up an investment fund to fund start-ups to develop new wearable computers.

Foxconn's Syntrend Creative Park Co (hereinafter referred to as "Syntrend") will be responsible for the management of the Fund, which is NT $200 million, and will select the target in the first quarter of next year, the person said.

With sales slowing and competition intensifying, Foxconn's boss, Terry Gou, is facing growing challenges in its 15% per cent annual revenue increase, and Foxconn is trying to develop new areas outside of equipment generation. In June, Mr Gou showed a smart watch being developed by Foxconn, and in October Foxconn received a 4G licence from the Taiwan Region of China.

Syntrend will start running the Taipei Information Park by the end of next year, the person said. Foxconn signed an agreement with Taiwan government in 2010 to build the Taipei Information Park.

The source said that Syntrend will choose 20 start-up companies to invest, each with about NT $1 million investment. Despite the focus on hardware new product development, Syntrend may also invest in software start-ups, such as mobile application development companies.

As PC and smartphone sales slowed, Foxconn began investing in software, cloud computing services and telecoms services to boost revenue growth.