TMI Invests In 3 Taiwanese Startups: CitieSocial, Driving Curve, and Peeridea

TMI, a Taiwan-based early stage investment firm founded in 2012 by US venture firm WI Harper Group, Kaifu Lee, and ITRI, has just invested in three different startups.

• CitieSocial: It’s a hip social discovery site in Taiwan that mostly features designer items and gourmet food.
• Driving Curve: An iOS app that basically collects data on a user’s speed and fuel efficiency when driving, thus presumably improving their driving skills. Also, this startup is from Taiwan.
• PeerIdea: It’s currently not clear yet what this startup does.

I took a look at CitieSocial, and it’s pretty cool. I already found a pencil sharpener I really want to buy. The idea is pretty niche in that it’s all luxury and novelty products so it’ll entice users to come through and check out products that they wouldn’t find elsewhere in more obvious e-commerce sites that feature normal branded products. It currently has over 100,000 members, and more than 100 brand partners. It’s a bit like Fab.com and other so-called designer-to-consumer sites.

So far, Driving Curve has had humble beginnings with only 20,000+ downloads and is gaining popularity on the other side of the world in France. According to Lucas Wang, CEO of TMI:

TMI has had a keen interest in apps related to the auto sector. Driving Curve has an exceptional product and stylish UI design. Most importantly, the team is top-notch: focused, passionate and ambitious. We believe our cooperation has unlimited potential.”

Lastly, PeerIdea hasn’t revealed much about what the company does. We just know that it’s started by Weiting Liu, who was also behind SocialPicks, a social finance startup founded in 2009, and he also designed an app on the Facebook platform that got more than 10 million downloads. TMI’s clearly investing in the potential of the founder in this case.

We reached out to TMI for details on the numbers, but with seed capital for these nascent startups, you can be sure it’s under a million dollars, just enough for the companies to scale.

For more info on TMI, which was founded last year, check out our recent feature.