From Taiwan to Qatar: How a globally recognized Taiwanese entrepreneur sees Taiwan’s moment on the world stage

Turing Space, a blockchain credential startup founded by Taiwanese serial entrepreneur and Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia founder Jeff Hu (胡耀傑), won the Best Fintech Award at the 7th Qatar FinTech Hub (QFTH) Demo Day in late 2025, an accelerator program organized by the Qatar Development Bank (QDB). In late January 2026, Jeff shared his journey with TCN.

Building trust as a business, not a slogan

Founded in 2020 by Jeff Hu, Turing Space has positioned itself at the intersection of blockchain innovation and global identity infrastructure.

The Taiwan-born startup, which now operates not only in Taiwan but also in, among others, Europe, Japan, and the US, seeks to overhaul how institutions and individuals verify credentials, qualifications, and identity in an increasingly digital and borderless world.

At its core is a suite of blockchain-enabled solutions that replace fragmented, paper-based processes with tamper-proof digital certificates, an effort to make "trust a system, not a document."

Where much of the tech world talks about digital identity as an abstract promise, Hu frames it as a tangible journey that spans an individual's entire life.

"Our mission isn't just to issue credentials," he told TCN, "rather, it is to build a digital identity that follows someone from birth to death, encompassing academic records, financial qualifications, professional skills, and personal milestones alike." 

For Hu, this vision serves two purposes: It becomes a lifetime memorial archive of achievement and experience, and it enables people to prove who they are without physical documents anywhere in the world.

He offered a concrete example: Someone who has obtained a professional license in Europe, once verified and recorded on Turing Space's blockchain platform, could walk into a boardroom, classroom or workplace in Japan and have that credential instantly recognized without manual checks or paperwork. This, he argues, is the missing bridge between disparate systems that currently make cross-border verification slow, insecure, and expensive.

Institutions like the World Health Organization (WHO), leading universities in the US and Taiwan, among many others that constitute a growing list of more than 150 organizations from everywhere in the world choose to collaborate with Turing Space because it streamlines workflows and removes the human factor from verification processes, Hu explained.

He stressed that their technology doesn't just make certificates digital; it makes them traceable, programmable, and automatable, drastically cutting down on manual effort and fraud risks.

Why Qatar and Forbes took notice

Despite being headquartered in Taiwan, Turing Space today is far from a Taiwan-only operation. Hu described a geographic footprint that already reflects the company's global ambitions: Roughly five-eighths of its business is concentrated in continental Europe and the Anglo-American world, spanning France, Spain, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Another quarter comes from Japan, while Taiwan accounts for about one-eighth of current activity.

"Every market operates under a different set of expectations, legal frameworks, and institutional cultures," he said. "You don't succeed by exporting your assumptions. You succeed by starting from the other side's needs and that's why our employees often speak multiple tongues."

That principle, he added, was central to the mindset he carried into Qatar, one that ultimately helped Turing Space secure the Best Fintech Award from Qatar Development Bank.

Hu was careful not to frame the achievement as a validation of technology alone. Instead, he described it as recognition of an approach that prioritizes local context over one-size-fits-all solutions. Even the language used to describe the region, he noted, matters.

While much of the world still refers to the area as the "Middle East," Hu deliberately adopts the term GCC countries, or Gulf Cooperation Council countries, reflecting local preference and a rejection of what he views as inherited Eurocentric framing. "How you name a place often shapes the way how you approach it," he observed.

When asked what he considers features that helped Turing Space stood out from others and won awards, Hu told TCN that a three-tiered moat, or defensible competitive advantage, is what he believes to have set the company apart in a crowded tech landscape.

The first layer is technical complexity: Few entrants can master the combination of cryptography, blockchain protocols, and biometric-grade identity verification required to build a truly global trust network.

The second is regulatory compliance: Turing Space has spent years ensuring that its solutions meet diverse legal standards across jurisdictions, a task many startups underestimate.

And the final layer, perhaps most crucial, is the network effect of institutions already onboarded; as more trusted entities adopt the platform, the value of being connected to that ecosystem increases exponentially, making it harder for competitors to dislodge.

Hu also noted that one of Taiwan's greatest constraints on the global stage, which Turing Space overcame in Qatar, is not technical capability but confidence. Taiwanese engineers, he argued, are more than competitive internationally, yet too often hesitate when it comes to articulating vision and value in fluent, assertive English.

"On the international stage like the competition in Qatar, you have to be able to speak clearly, explain why your work matters, and show stakeholders where your strengths lie," he said.

Hu also attributed his entrepreneur journey, including the Qatar award and his earlier selection to Forbes 30 Under 30, to a discipline he describes as rigorous self-awareness.

Success, in his view, begins with knowing precisely what one wants to achieve before entering any arena, whether it be a competition, an invited speech opportunity, or a networking event.

"You have to work backward from the outcome," he said. "What kind of relationships are you trying to build? What credibility are you trying to establish? What result do you want people to associate with you?" Without that clarity, he said, even high-profile platforms risk becoming empty exposure rather than meaningful progress.

What Taiwan brings to the global market

Turing Space's global orientation stands in contrast to the team's composition. The vast majority of Turing Space's members are Taiwanese or have deep personal ties to Taiwan, including Taiwan-Japanese dual backgrounds and foreign professionals who have lived on the island.

Hu told TCN that Taiwan can offer the world, beyond its well-known hardware supply chains, a pool of talents. He stated that one of Taiwan's most durable advantages lies in the depth and resilience of its talent pool.

It is a view increasingly shared by multinational firms particularly from the United States, many of which have expanded or established R&D centers on the island over the past years, he added.

Hu described Taiwanese talents as a rare combination of strong academic foundations, operational discipline, and an ability to perform and solve problems under sustained pressure.

Just as importantly for early-stage companies, he noted, these talents remain comparatively affordable by global standards. He said that once basic alignment on loyalty and integrity is established, questions about competence tend to resolve themselves.

Even with the significantly lower package compared with their counterparts based in Silicon Valley, "their ability is usually not something you need to worry about."

Hu also highlighted an often-overlooked feature of Taiwan's ecosystem: The presence of high-net-worth individuals willing to back early-stage ventures.

While institutional venture capital may be more limited than in larger markets, Taiwan-based founders who think globally can still find individual investors prepared to take a long-term view, he said.

Frictions along the way

For all the international recognition Turing Space has received, Hu was careful to temper any impression of overnight commercial success. Asked directly and explicitly whether the company is already profitable, he replied that it is not.

Hu said that for now it is a deliberate choice not to be profitable. His priority, he said, is expanding the company's global presence and establishing a clear leadership position in its niche. Revenue, when generated, is largely reinvested to support that goal.

Another challenge, Hu noted, lies in how some clients evaluate cost versus value. Even when organizations acknowledge the strategic importance of secure, automated verification, pricing discussions can still revert to short-term cost minimization.

"Some clients do recognize the value created," he said, "but they still want to push the price down due to the fact that they may tend to think about the solutions from a cost standpoint."

Navigating that tension, between delivering high-impact infrastructure and convincing customers to pay accordingly, remains an ongoing test for the company.