A Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) have been forged by various parties to strengthen collaboration and scale up the technology sector for global competitiveness amid robust growth among startups in the Philippines.
The MOA was signed by the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP), PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Foxmont Capital Partners, and IdeaSpace Foundation on April 27 aims at building collaborative programs to strengthen tech businesses, to be scalable enough to reach the global market.
The partnership among industry leaders aims to assist the Philippine startup ecosystem through a whole-of society approach.
In his speech, Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Fred Pascual has emphasized for Public and Private Partnerships (PPP) in encouraging investments toward building resilient and sustainable tech-startups amid robust growth in the Philippines.
“Over the last couple of years, the Philippine startup ecosystem has scaled fast,” Pascual noted.
In 2021, the startup ecosystem raised $1 billion in funding, a 179 percent growth from the previous year. Two local fintech startups are valued at over $1 billion. Mynt achieved “double unicorn” status in November 2021 after raising $300 million. In their latest funding rounds, Voyager Innovations raised $210 million; Kumu, $73.6 million; and GrowSari, $77.5 million.”
With this significant growth, the Philippine startup ecosystem climbed to over $2 billion, according to the Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2022, Pascual said.
In support of this, he said, the DTI designed the Startup Development Program under the umbrella of Science, Technology, and Innovation-Based Policy or STI Policy to help transition startups to become commercially viable. Last year, the DTI Startup Development Program assisted 58 Philippine startups.
The DTI also conducted overseas business matching trips and partnership meetings that sealed about 44 business deals. Alongside this, DTI also created game-changing programs such as the DTI Startup Acceleration and Incubation Program (Startup AID); Incubation, Development, and Entrepreneurial Assistance (IDEA); Accelerating Development, Valuation, and Corporate Entrepreneurship (ADVanCE) Program; Global Acceleration Program (GAP); and International and Local Exposure Assistance Program (iLEAP).
He added that the Innovative Startup Act allowed the creation of the Startup Venture Fund (SVF) wherein loans are made available to assist startups to expand, build, and market their products and services. Located at Makati City, just inside the DTI International building is the QBO Innovation Hub, the first private-public partnership innovation hub for Filipino startups.
Since its founding, QBO has supported over 600 new businesses and conducted 100 programs annually. Philippine industries are challenged to scale up due to the fast-changing and competitive business environment. With this, resiliency and scalability are critical for businesses to thrive and survive.
"A strong private-public partnership is needed to establish a more competent startup ecosystem. I hope that we’ll be able to work together and learn from each other. Let’s use each other’s strengths to make sure that our investees thrive, and succeed, and that the venture ends up in an operation that will scale the success of the startup ecosystem,” Pascual concluded.