Taiwan's Impact Investing and Social Enterprise Ecosystem
From Flow, Inc. in 2007 to 63 certified B Corps today: how a consultant turned impact investor, a 43-shareholder investment club, and a decade of government programs wove Taiwan's social innovation landscape.
Ray Chen and B Current Impact Investment
Taiwan's first venture firm investing exclusively in social innovation businesses
In April 2014, 43 impact investors from Taiwan and Silicon Valley — entrepreneurs and professionals alike — pooled capital through a club-style crowdfunding model to found B Current Impact Investment (活水影響力投資), Taiwan's first venture fund management company investing 100% in social innovation, profit-with-purpose businesses. Cheng Chih-kai (鄭志凱), co-founder of Silicon Valley venture firm Acorn Pacific Ventures, serves as chairman and co-founder; Ray Chen (陳一強) is general manager and co-founder.
Beyond pooling capital, B Current's shareholders sit on investee boards or serve as supervisors, form professional advisory groups, and contribute time, expertise and networks to due diligence and post-investment accompaniment; the spirit of the B Corp movement is written into its investment agreements. Chen has called 2014 Taiwan's "Year One of social enterprise", and in a 2021 interview described the sector's path in three stages: building awareness (1.0), scaling up (2.0), and impact investing (3.0).
Today's social innovation is tomorrow's business as usual.Ray Chen, interview with Social Enterprise Insights, 2021
Early Roots: From Flow to Policy
Key milestones of Taiwan's social innovation movement, 2007–2023
Taiwan's ecosystem did not appear overnight. A pioneering venture in 2007, a media platform in 2012, and three successive government action plans built the scaffolding on which today's investors, certifiers and talent programs stand.
- 2007
Flow, Inc. founded
Trend Micro founder Steve Chang (張明正) and author Wang Wen-hua (王文華) jointly invest NT$10 million to create Taiwan's first social enterprise venture and incubation firm. From 2013 it pivots into a tech-driven social enterprise focused on employment for people with disabilities, building the world's first social-enterprise BIM team. Alumni include Ray Chen (2008–2011) and Social Enterprise Insights founder Sunny Lin (a former Flow research intern).
- 2012
Social Enterprise Insights launches
In February 2012, Sunny Lin (林以涵) and two co-founders launch Taiwan's first Chinese-language information platform dedicated to social enterprise.
- 2014
Social Enterprise Action Plan
The Executive Yuan's first dedicated program (2014–2016), executed by five ministries, aims to create a friendly environment, build networks and platforms, and strengthen social enterprises' operations. The same year, B Current Impact Investment is founded.
- 2016
B Lab Taiwan founded
Established in January 2016 by four co-founders, it becomes the first authorized B Lab partner in Asia.
- 2018
Social Innovation Action Plan
Approved in August 2018, the five-year plan commits about NT$8.8 billion, aligns with the UN SDGs, and is coordinated across ministries by Digital Minister Audrey Tang.
- 2020
Taiwan Impact Investing Association founded
Founded on December 9, 2020 by more than 70 initiators from industry, academia and research.
- 2021
School 28 launches
A talent school co-initiated by seven ecosystem leaders to cultivate management and business development talent for social innovation organizations; the first cohort draws 455 applicants for 28 places.
- 2023
Social Innovation Action Plan 2.0
The Executive Yuan approves the successor program covering 2023–2026, continuing the 2018 plan.
B Corps in Taiwan
A small island with an outsized share of Asia's certified B Corps
Since DOMI Earth became Taiwan's first certified B Corp in 2014, the movement has spread across wholesale, manufacturing, finance, education, technology and food service. Taiwan led Asia with 20 certified companies as early as 2017 and remained ahead with 51 in 2024.
Representative companies
Ecosystem Organizations
The associations, schools, media and spaces that hold the ecosystem together
A handful of organizations — several sharing the same founders — provide Taiwan's social innovation scene with certification, capital coordination, talent, storytelling and physical space. Their overlapping rosters are a feature, not a bug: the same names recur from B Lab Taiwan to TIIA to School 28.
Portfolio and Social Innovation Ventures
What impact capital actually funds: milk, soap and civic tech
B Current's 38-case portfolio spans a decade of Taiwanese social ventures — from Greenvines (2015) and Dialogue in the Dark Taipei (2017) to 9floor (2018), Backer-Founder (2020), Yashan (2021), Happ. (2022), Fongyu (2024) and Kuakuayuan (2025). Three cases show the range of the wider ecosystem.
Policy and Capital Markets
From a repurposed air force headquarters to stock exchange sustainability mandates